How A Short Term Loan Can Help With Medical Expenses

When medical expenses start piling up, it can make paying bills particularly difficult. A short term loans for medical expenses in Australia can be the answer. If you have expenses coming from your doctor or the hospital, and know there’s more on the way because you need repeat appointments, the amount of money owed can feel overwhelming.

Even if you aren’t chronically sick, it’s easy for one major procedure to make things hard on an already tight budget. Or if your surgery is considered cosmetic by your health insurance company, then you know you’ll have to cough up the money for it.

Then there’s just the amount of money it can take to have a baby. From the sonograms, to the actual birth, it can add quickly, and insurance only covers so much — obviously this depends on whether you go with a public or private health system and if you have insurance.

How Does The Government Help?

Medical expenses in Australia rarely require a loan. For the most part the public system will cover expenses. However, dental expenses are not covered. Also, The Australian Taxation Office has previously announced that the net medical expenses tax offset is being phased out. For the years 2015-16 to 2018-19, the only way you can make this deduction is if the expenses are for disability aids, attendant care or aged care.

So there’s another way that makes it hard to swallow a large medical bill.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy out solution, but there are ways to make it more manageable.

Try working with the hospital

Before you do anything, you should attempt to negotiate with the hospital. It’s possible you will be able to set up a payment plan you can live with, and one that is interest free.

First, you’ll need to make sure you have organised all your bills and know exactly how much you owe.

Once you gather all the bills, make sure to carefully review the bills. One of the biggest errors people often find on hospital bills is duplicate charges. Be sure you don’t have that issue before you talk with the hospital.

Also, double check you are looking at the post-insurance amount, not the pre-insurance, which can be significantly different. Don’t bother calling to negotiate until the insurance has gone through on the bill.

If you don’t have insurance, then hopefully you spoke with the doctor’s office up front and let them know. Sometimes they will discount the service or give you a different price if you are without insurance. But if you didn’t, pick up the phone and call now to see if you can get a better rate.

Once you know the final tally, you’ll want to look at your finances and figure out what you can realistically afford to pay each month.

I Have My Bill, What Next?

The next step is picking up the phone and talking to the billing department. If you can reach an agreement with the hospital that is satisfactory for you and your budget, then go ahead and sign up. Make sure you request either a paper or email bill that details the plan.

Of course, there’s always a BUT. One of the biggest issues people run into when trying to work with the hospital is the size of the payments and timeframe to pay off the amount.

Many hospitals only allow you to spread out payments for six months, and if your bill total is somewhat significant, you can already see how that might be too much of a hardship on your monthly finances.

That leads us to how a short term loan could be the answer to your problems.

Take out a loan and set up a payment plan

After the shell shock wears off of how much you would have been paying a month for the hospital plan, then you need to start looking into short term personal loans. Medical expenses loans in Australia often fall under the umbrella of personal loans. You’ll find yourself breathing easier when you see the lower payments and longer term to pay it back.

It’s not a good idea to use your credit to make the payments because of high interest charges, so it’s a good idea to at least do some research so you know you’re getting a plan that works for you. Keep in mind your salary, credit level and how much you can truly afford per payment before you decide which loan to apply for since you don’t want to apply more than once.

For example, when you are looking at loans, take down these notes:

• Credit score  — is there a minimum score?
• Report — how clean does it need to be? Completely free of delinquencies, collections?
• Documents — what do you need to apply? Income verification?

Here to help

In your research, be sure to check out Swoosh Finance. You’ll find a simple, easy and quick way to pay off your medical expenses. With Swoosh you can make the payments over time to take care of the debt.

There are a few requirements for a medical expense loan in Australia:

• A permanent resident of Australia
• Be at least 18 years old
• Been employed for at least three months
• Own a car registered in your name free and clear (no loans or other encumbrances)

If you tick all the boxes for the Swoosh personal loan, then go ahead and fill out the online application. Typically you’ll hear about approval within the hour, so you’ll know when you’ll be able to take care of those medical bills.

Keep in mind

One thing you should bear in mind as you look at taking out a loan for the medical expenses is whether you have some other small debts floating out there. Do you have $750 on one credit card that you can’t quite pay off? What about that other card that has $996?

You might consider paying off all of it and then you’ll be making one payment on all the debt. The best thing about this consolidation loan is the timeline. You’ll know exactly when you’ll pay off that medical bill AND the other debt if you decide to wrap it all up together.

Check out Swoosh Financial for more details on getting a medical expense loan (and perhaps a bit more to pay off all the debt). And you’ll be resting easy knowing it’s going to be taken care of soon!