Medical Expenses

We have been generally very lucky when it comes to medical expenses.  All of our adopted kids are double insured and our foster children have state insurance so we never pay anything out of pocket for their medical expenses.  I think my total medical expenses over the past 3 years haven’t exceeded $150.00 and those are usually office copays and prescription costs.

Well our luck has run out.  Poor DW slipped in the shower a couple of weeks ago and landed really hard on her side.  She was sore for several days but seemed to recover. About 3 days ago she started having really bad back pain.  She could barely move and would wake up several times in the night in tears because she was in so much pain.  I finally told her to go to the walk-in clinic this morning.  We literally have no money, but I told her to write a check for the co-pay (hoping it won’t clear until Wednesday) and I was able to scrounge up just enough money for a prescription copay. 

She is at the doctors now and is texting me updates.  They are taking X-rays because they think she has a compound fracture on her spine and the pain she is feeling is the nerve damage which can sometimes take several weeks after the incident to become an issue.  Poor wifey.

I checked our insurance benefits and her deductible is $500.00 and a $2500.00 out of pocket.  So I expect some hefty bills to come out of this.  Here is my dilemma.  When I get the bills do I pay them in full with the money I have set aside for debt or do I make monthly payments.  My gut reaction is I don’t want to accumulate more debt but if you make payment plans with the Doctor’s office they usually don’t charge interest while I have high interest rates on my credit cards. 

I guess I will have to see how much the bills are. If it is under $300.00 (wishful thinking) I will pay it off but if it is over I will have to rethink it.  UGH!

UPDATE:  It looks like it was just a really bad pulled muscle and they discovered she has arthritis on her spine.  We only had enough for 1 prescription so she chose the muscle relaxers and will get the steroids and pain pills Wednesday.  When she checked in they forgot to take her copay. We will get billed for it but at least I don’t have to worry about over draft fees if it clears before payday.