At Clf we have seen a large increase of traffic with patients (visitors) typing, “I need a loan to pay off medical bills”. This is obviously one of the saddest stories of abuse in American discourse, and highlighted boldly during the Congress and Senate bill creation procedure going on in Washington.

For those patients that owe money for medical bills, and can’t afford to pay off the debt(s), they will scramble to find a personal loan for this purpose. We have stories written in to us at Clf that are heart breaking – to say the least.

Real life nightmare stories where individuals and families have to deal with the agony of a serious illness, and at the same time watch their financial health deteriorate.

Because of the personal stories and emails we have been sent at Clf regarding medical bill debts, we have started this special feature category for posts dealing with the entire issue.

We will touch on the politics as well with the lawmakers in D.C., and we PROMISE to handle that subject in a NON-bias fashion. We don’t want to push a political agenda here at Clf – we want to discuss the facts, and what is actually happening (and happened) in America.

The number of emails we receive each day from borrowers (more like patients and suffers who want to borrow but can’t) is alarming. Below we have the story of Bill Clarkman, which we have posted to give you a taste of the kinds of real life stories regarding medical bill nightmares.

Bill and Angie’s Medical Bill Nightmare Story

Bill Clarkman was a 35 year old construction worker (self-employed) who lives in El Paso, Texas, with his wife Angie and their 3 children – Carla (3), Daniel (5), and Michelle (7).

Bill was the sole bread winner until late 2007, and Angie was a stay at home mum, looking after the kids, and of course everything else under the sun. This all changed when in November 15th, 2007, Bill had severe chest pains while on the job.

He collapsed while in the middle of doing an estimate for a possibler customer, and was rushed to the Southwestern General Hospital. He had a heart attack and needed surgery to save his life – that is exactly what happened. His life was saved, and he had a stent inserted in his heart using a coronary artery angioplasty procedure (watch this video to see the procedure animation).

The cost of the artery angioplasty was over $110,000 after all bills in. A happy ending (they thought) because he was alive.

Less than one year later in August 2008, he felt some chest pain and went to emergency. He needed another operation. This time he needed bypass surgery and another stent implanted in his heart. It turns out that Bill’s body produces more plaque in his veins and arteries than most people.

He had not even paid off his original medical bills for $110,000 when the second coronary happened.

Neither Bill, nor Angie, have medical insurance because of preexisting conditions. Their children do have coverage, but even if Bill and Angie didn’t have preexisting conditions they couldn’t afford it anyway. Their construction company is very small, and medical insurance would not be affordable.

The cost of the new surgery(s) was over $182,000, bringing the total debts to $292,000. Bill and Angie only have $80,000 dollars in equity on their house, and no money saved. Everything they ever made went back in to keeping their business going, paying their monthly living expenses, and making their mortgage/loan payments. They were in serious financial all of a sudden.

Bill was offered a credit card from the health care provider for the “low, fixed rate of 8%”. This seemed reasonable at the time of his first operation, and he went for it. By the time of his second heart procedure, Bill and Angie had missed a couple of payments, and their interest rate on the health care credit card was now 19.5%. Their debts were now building much faster than they could manage to pay them down.

They managed to get $30,000 in a home equity loan to curb the medical debts a little bit, but it hardly touched their total debt. The banks, and other reputable lenders would not lend them the money to pay off this high interest medical debt, and bankruptcy was the only option left.

Bill declared personal bankruptcy, and his business was closed in May 2009. He moved his wife and his kids in to his Father’s basement, where they live today at the time of this writing.

Because Bill is so young he is not eligible for medicare, he was never in the military, he was self employed, and his wife was a stay at home mom – they never had a chance. They both had preexisting conditions (as mentioned above) – and they were financially ruined as a result.

They did everything right that they could. They worked very hard, and followed the rules. They tried to cover their whole family with medical insurance, but they were denied. They were talented, young, and upstanding citizens of the El Paso community.

Where They Are Now – The Aftermath of a Medical Bill Induced Bankruptcy

Angie has a part time job at a nearby Starbucks, and Bill has a part time job working construction for one of his old competitors. Bill can’t do any heavy lifting, or any strenuous work because of his heart (doctor’s orders), so his hours are limited. He has a good relationship with his part time employer which has made the transition a little bit better.

Bill and Angie are hoping to one day save up for down payment, and get their family into a house again. That is a long way down the road though.

Bill suffers from depression and anxiety now. He has severe panic attacks, and he takes medication for his anxiety condition,  which makes it even more difficult to save money towards the dream of being home owners again.

Their credit ratings are completely destroyed for 7 years because of the bankruptcy, and Angie has all but lost hope in ever living the life they had built over the past 10 years. They can’t afford medical insurance for their children now, so their entire family is now at risk.

Thank God Bill has a father who is in the position to give them cheap rent until someday having enough money to move out on their own again. Thank God for family.

As promised, we at Clf are not going to point fingers, and create an enemies list when it comes to how some unfortunate Americans are being treated, but it is safe to say, “There is a serious problem in our United States when this can happen to families.”

We can only hope that the Bills passed in House and the Senate will stop people like Bill and Angie suffering with such a devastating financial disaster in the future.

If it was against the law for insurance companies to discriminate against people who have preexisting conditions, that would make a HUGE difference.

If the new laws made it affordable for people like Bill and Angie to pay for health insurance, that would be a HUGE step in the right direction.

A single payer system is completely out of the question from what I’ve been seeing on television – I guess Bill and Angie could have moved to Canada.

Canada ought to have a statue at their border somewhere that says something like, “We take your tired, your hungry, and preexisting conditions”. Of course Canada has a single payer health care system, where this nightmare story could not happen.

Next installments on medical bill loans will be more focused on the money and loan aspect of medical bill consolidation loans.