Originally Posted by Bangle

Our health care system is so complicated. I am fortunate to have Medicare and a supplemental plan from my employer (large school district) that I was able to carry into retirement. It has done a good job of covering my needs and medications.

However, both my husband, myself and my mother have been hospitalized in the past few years for surgeries or illness, and the paperwork can drown and confuse anyone. All of these doctors you have never heard of begin billing you directly and immediately, before Medicare and your supplemental insurance have had time to submit their payments. The average person might pay those bills rather than hold them for the months that it might take for all the insurance payments to pay out. Fortunately, my husband is used to working with this kind of thing, and he handled, arranged and organized all the billing statements and responded to the requests. My elderly mother would never had been able to maneuver or understand the billing (nor would I) and know that she should NOT pay until the insurance company had either paid or refused to pay an item. It was quite a job just to keep up with the multitude of bills and understand what is finally due.

I worry for people who are uneducated, elderly or disabled in some way that have no one to do this for them. My mother is 95 with some dementia. Thank goodness she has us to pay her bills, do her taxes and manage her medical care. What about those who have no one?