Harvard: Medical bills trigger half of bankruptcies. Most filers had insurance

[WCGreen]

2. Yep...

I had a stay in the hospital back in 2004 that ended up with a billing of over $ 400,000. We had great coverage and medicare as a secondary so that we only had to shell out about $11,000 out of pocket, most of that was from the emergency room and the "exotic" drugs they had to employ on me.

It took us two years and we paid it down but it was tough.

Last year, with no time in the hospital, we paid out of pocket $5,241, mostly on co pays for scripts.

I live on SSI which I get about $7,000 per year, Mrs WCGreen nets out about $2,000 per month after retirement and benifits are deducted. I make about $300 per month on average for doing tax returns and we do get some help from friends and relatives when we need it.

Medical eats up about 10% of our net income. The only other expenses that hit that high are Mortgage and food.