Medical Bills Are Fun

Remember back when I was talking about our hospital visit that we never got billed for? Well, the nice folks over there must have figured out they never billed us and sent us one -- for the expected amount of around $2,500.

I definitely don't have enough in the emergency fund to cover this (or to really begin to cover it), so I'm left with two choices. Get a personal loan to cover it, or use a line of credit I already have available to cover it. In dealing with hospitals in the past, they will usually allow for 3-4 months of payments to be made without interest, but if you need more time than that they insist you go with an outside credit agency of some sort. Since I can't afford an extra $600 a month (blasted current debts), I'm forced to go the route of financing this expense.

I suppose the route I go all depends on the interest rate and terms of the loan I might be able to get. My line of credit is set for 9 years at 9.9% interest. Technically, this is the last thing on my debt snowball, so this $2,500 will be lingering for a while. On the flip side, a separate loan I would get would most likely be on the 3-5 year term and add about as much to my monthly payments as the increase on the line of credit. The only downside to that plan is that this new debt would be at the bottom of my snowball, and would take president over my lowest item now. This in theory should make it go away faster, but then again, it will push off the current loan I am working on eliminating for another couple years. come to think of it, that loan will probably be gone in two years if I keep paying the minimums.

I'm still not sure what to do, but I am leaning toward getting a separate loan. sure, It is a bit psychologically defeating to know I'll be "taking a step back", but then again, I should be getting a raise soon and that will help knock this stuff out.

So yes, Medical Bills are fun. Fun indeed....