HOW TO DEAL WITH COVID-19 MEDICAL COSTS

Dealing with covid-19 is not something that you ever want to have to deal with. Hopefully, you are never hospitalized for it if you do get it. The medical bills associated with a hospital stay can range between $51,000 and $78,00, according to Health Care Finance. This is a substantial amount that you may need to deal with after you get out of the hospital. These charges should not be something that weighs heavily on your mind, though. Being in the hospital with covid is stressful enough, you should not have to worry about having an outrageous bill that you cannot possibly pay.

There are a few ways that you can deal with this expense. Plan ahead. Even if you do not get covid-19, or any of its variants, having a plan in place is a good idea. Start with finding a public hospital that is close to you. These hospitals get government funds to help cover the costs. Do some research on the one that you pick, though. Some of them are dealing with severe funding issues, so you may want to avoid those. That is not to say that all public hospitals are struggling with the expense of the pandemic. All the medical providers are dealing with excessive costs, substantial amounts of patients, and the lack of room to properly isolate and care for the patients that are positive.

The Medicare system that is in place applies to any public hospital. Public health care that is provided to you will be billed to the government, which is called bulk billing. Therefore, some public hospitals are struggling with funding. They bill the government, and then must wait for payments to cover their expenses. Every Australian citizen is required to pay 1.5% of your taxable income. If you make over $90,000 annually as a single person, or $180,000 if you have a family, the government will charge an extra 1% to 1.5%, depending on your income and living conditions. This extra charge is only applied if you do not have any private health insurance.

Private health insurance can be purchased through any agent in your area, or you can find a good deal through an online portal that compares different companies for you. Either way, when you get a policy, make sure that it includes hospital stay coverage. It must also not have any types of exclusions for covid-19 issues. Do not get fooled into getting medical insurance that does not cover what you may need. There is absolutely no point in paying for something that does not benefit you during this unexpected pandemic.

Read through your policy thoroughly, if you have one, and see if a private room during a hospital stay is fully covered. If not, make sure that you get a shared room if you end up hospitalized. The less charges that you rack up, the less that you will have to pay out of your own pocket.

The length of your stay may also come into play if you must be hospitalized for a lengthy period of time. Many policies will pay up to a month, or a little more. After that you will be considered as an extended stay patient, or a nursing home patient. This means that your normal medical coverage ends. It is important to understand this, and make sure that you have extended stay riders added to your policy.

Dealing with the huge medical bills associated with covid-19 could potentially cause you to lose everything that you own. Being proactive is the best way to deal with the bills. If you wait until you are hospitalized to try and deal with the bills, you will find that insurance policies have a waiting period to be active, as well as exclusions for any pre-existing issues. Be prepared before it is too late.