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Dealing with COVID Bills: How to Maintain Your Financial Security – Maybe
As if the return of COVID-with-a-vengeance – and still millions more still getting sick – wasn’t bad enough, now we find the advance of COVID BILLS-with-a-vengeance making it even worse. Here’s the good news: If you aren’t already vaccinated, you can still get vaccinated for free. There is no cost to being vaccinated, and you’ll be doing yourself, your loved ones, your friends and co-workers, your neighbors, and the economy a huge favor. Here’s a way to find the nearest and most efficient vaccination locations near you. If you are vaccinated, you either won’t get sick, or you’ll get a mild enough case that you won’t have medical bills like you would if you weren’t vaccinated. If you think you have developed a COVID infection (even if you are confused as to whether it could be a cold or flu instead), then in most cases, you can be tested for free, or your insurance, or Medicare or Medicaid, will pay for a test. Here’s where to find a testing site near you. Here’s a last piece of good news: Because most of the ACA is still in force, and especially if you have had a change in your living situation (such as – you have lost your job, or you have separated or divorced from your partner, or maybe you even got married!) – you may be able to find some better pricing on your health insurance. Also, Open Enrollment is coming up in another month or so (Fall) – so it will be a good time to look into updating your health insurance to be sure you have the best coverage you can afford. (Need help finding the best policy for you or your family? Ask a health advocate.) Here’s the bad news: If you have been sick with COVID, and have been treated, whether that was in an ER, at the doctor’s office, in a walk-in clinic – or anywhere you have received treatment from a clinical provider – then yes, you are expected to pay for it. No matter how careful or careless you have been, if you have needed treatment, and you get sick in the United States of America, then it’s your cost to bear. If you are not vaccinated, then you can probably count on all your financial security – your savings, your home, your retirement – flying out the window. Now – there…