Recent surveys show that more families use short-term loans for medical expenses than other financial obligations, such as car repairs, unexpected emergencies and other financial responsibilities. So what is it about medical costs that makes them so difficult to pay?
To begin, it’s important to understand that families that are under frequent financial stress often find medical coverage to be a financial burden and as such, a privilege. A good way to look at it is like this: without food and shelter, you can’t survive, especially if your family includes a spouse or children. Barring a medical emergency, however, you can certainly live without medical coverage, assuming you have no medical worries to speak of.
For that reason, many families either cannot afford health insurance or do not qualify for coverage with their employer. For whatever reason, medical costs then become independent of medical insurance, and when that happens, the expensiveness of medical services and products falls squarely on the shoulders of the patient and his or her family. So it’s not wonder that more families are taking out short-term loans to cover medical costs.
Accepting the Realities of Medical Expenses
Fortunately, new insurance regulations provide, in theory, greater coverage to more Americans. Though there will always be millions of uninsured citizens in the country, the ability to minimize this number is perhaps the key to long-term, sustainable economic growth and success. In any case, using a loan for medical expenses should not be seen as a negative concept, it should just be viewed as it is: often the only solution to a dire financial problem.
If you need to take out a short-term loan to pay for medical expenses, the best thing you can do is evaluate your costs and take out a loan that matches your needs. Taking out too much or too little money may increase your financial difficulties in the long run, so it’s best to stick to whatever your medical needs call for.