Managing Medical Bills: Strategies for Navigating the Health Care System — Three New Booklets Released
Three new consumer guides offer important information for people seeking to get and keep health insurance or trying to cope without it. MANAGING MEDICAL BILLS: Strategies for Navigating the Health Care System is a series of three booklets sponsored by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) and authored by researchers at Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. These consumer guides help people understand the insurance coverage they have, explore avenues for obtaining new private or public coverage when the need arises, and identify options that may help with medical bills when both private and public coverage options fail.
“Navigating insurance transitions and problems can be confusing, even treacherous, especially for people with serious health care needs,” observed project director Karen Pollitz.”Gaps occur when coverage is not available or adequate or affordable, or when it’s just too hard to find and use. The medical and financial consequences can be devastating. Policymakers need to make it as easy to get health insurance coverage as it is to lose it. They need to find ways to make insurance more affordable without sacrificing coverage adequacy.”
The first booklet, “Understanding Private Health Insurance,” offers tips for evaluating the adequacy of private insurance options and summarizes laws that protect consumers with health problems when they transition from one plan to another.
The second booklet, “Medicare and Medicaid: A Health Care Safety Net for People with Serious Disabilities and Chronic Conditions” outlines coverage assistance offered by these government programs, including eligibility requirements, covered benefits, and federal and state agencies to contact for more information.
The third booklet, “Options for Avoiding and Managing Medical Debt,” discusses possible sources of free and reduced cost care and their limits, and provides an overview of recent changes in the bankruptcy system that may restrict this option for people with mounting medical debts.
These publications are available free of charge and can be obtained online at www.healthinsuranceinfo.net/managing-medical-bills, and on the National Endowment for Financial Education consumer website, www.smartaboutmoney.org.