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My father went from having a comfortable nest egg to living on social security alone because he was unable to get insurance before the ACA. All it took was a tr
by rhombocombus 8y ago
My father went from having a comfortable nest egg to living on social security alone because he was unable to get insurance before the ACA. All it took was a trip to the emergency room and a heart catheterization, followed by another procedure a couple days later and he was penniless.
- 1996 8y agoI wonder: did he go to court at any moment? Or did he just caved in and accepted to cough up the money? Based on my experience, in the US, people rarely fight their debts. I have had debt go to collection before, I disagreed with it so I sent the collector a friendly letter saying the debt came from a breach of contract by the other party, so I will not pay it, and will be happy to go to court if they want. It is very rarely worth the time for collectors. The debt will just eventually be resold, penny on the dollar. In the very unlikely case it ends up in court, based on some friends experience, it can take a long long time for the problem to be resolved - if ever, because our lifetimes are finite.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- staticautomatic 8y agoUnfortunately, most Americans don't know that bankruptcy courts will almost always protect retirement savings. If you're staring down a giant health care bill and have only retirement funds to pay for it, you should just file for bankruptcy. You'll almost certainly come out of it with your retirement savings intact.
- ThrustVectoring 8y agoIt's state dependent and retirement account dependent, too. 401(k) and other employer sponsored plans have better protection than IRAs. Texas, for one, has unlimited protection for IRAs, as well as protection on accounts funded by withdrawing from your IRAs.