is it true......

do hospital bills affect your credit?

When I had LO, I was still on my dad's health insurance. I have over $3,000 in outstanding HOSPITAL bills alone, not including blood work bills, and a $700 bill to pay a doctor that just came into the room to tell me my son looked healthy after giving him a little check up. Seriously!? $700 for you to go in and just look at my son and tell me "congratulations!" ?!?!

anywho. my dad is freaking the hell out on me because the bills recently went into debt collection and he's yelling that they are going to affect his credit horribly.

I was told by FIL that they don't, because when he bought his house, and got a good mortgage rate, he had many outstanding hospital bills. And SO has a higher credit score than my dad and he was an $8,000 hospital bill he has yet to pay.

I just recently starting paying $50 a month on these bills ebcause that is literally all we can pay out of the money we have left after bills every month.

My dad's getting mad saying we should be paying $200-$500 a month and not $50 when we don't even really have that $50 to pay at all and it could go to something for LO.

I'm just not sure who's right, who's wrong. And what to tell my dad to make him relax. The hospital bills will get paid - we just have NO money and insurance left a nice lump sum of $$ we have to payback that we thought would have been covered.

I know for a fact they go on your credit. My Parents have an insane amount of medical bills on their credit. My Mom pays a few hundred a month on them. But, when credit companies review your credit report, they don't tend to put too much value on Medical bills, because they're generally super high and it's not like you intentionally got sick or hurt to incur them.

Quoting ♥ logan's mommy:" do hospital bills affect your credit? When I had LO, I was still on my dad's health insurance. I have ... [snip!] ... - we just have NO money and insurance left a nice lump sum of $$ we have to payback that we thought would have been covered."

Yes it does affect your credit. It will be on there for 7 years I think after it's paid off. But if it's paid off it will state that too, instead of owing.

Quoting wigglewaddle:" Yes it does affect your credit. It will be on there for 7 years I think after it's paid off. But if it's paid off it will state that too, instead of owing."

oooh okay! thanks ladies! we're slowly but surely paying these bills off! It's just such a pain in the ass it sucks!

Yes, if they were sent to collections it will affect his credit.

And that is why i am glad canada has free health care no way am i paying that much to have a dam kid!!!!

Quoting Andi+Andy=Marley+1:" Yes, if they were sent to collections it will affect his credit."

I'm just shocked that with even all of his 8grand of hospital bills, SO has a higher crdit score than my dad. and his bills are more $$ than my bills after having LO.

Any outstanding debt you have will affect your credit, yes. But if the bills are in your name, I don't think they should affect HIS credit. I could be wrong...but I'm on my parents' health insurance and all my doctor's bills are still in my name, not my dad's.

Quoting stalkerbitch:" And that is why i am glad canada has free health care no way am i paying that much to have a dam kid!!!!"

it was $27,000 for me to have him and be in the hospital for 5 days (but we only had to pay $40). and $700 for one doctor to look at him, $300 for another doctor, I saw a high risk Dr. 2wice the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy and that cost $1200 and I had a lot of NST's done and blood work towards the end that is was cost a lot too.

it sucks! I wish I could move to Canada! it's insane what the charge! just the other day I got a bill from when LO fell from a car. $978 for him to be in the ER for 45 minutes, to be told he was perfectly fine and we can go home. o_O

Quoting Lizplustwo:" Any outstanding debt you have will affect your credit, yes. But if the bills are in your name, I don't ... [snip!] ... I could be wrong...but I'm on my parents' health insurance and all my doctor's bills are still in my name, not my dad's. "

Yeah I thought that was weird too, but if OP is a minor then I get it. Otherwise they should be in her name.

Quoting Lizplustwo:" Any outstanding debt you have will affect your credit, yes. But if the bills are in your name, I don't ... [snip!] ... I could be wrong...but I'm on my parents' health insurance and all my doctor's bills are still in my name, not my dad's. "

some are in mine and some are in my dad's (but I have to double check that). They are mailed in his name, but some of them have my name on it.

Quoting wigglewaddle:" Yeah I thought that was weird too, but if OP is a minor then I get it. Otherwise they should be in her name."

I'm not a minor though, me and SO weren't married at the time and if I wasn't on my fathers, I would have no health insurance and my OB couldn't accept me. So I had to stay on my dad's because up until you have a child - you can stay on a parent's plan until you are 25 (that's Aetna at least)

They absolutely do affect your credit and they affect your debt to income ratio as well. Some lenders will "forgive" medical debt, meaning they will not require you to pay it off to lend to you, granted that the debt hasn't dropped the credit score to where they no longer qualify.

I thought they didn't consider you a minor once you have a child, though? Like I said I could be wrong, but I believe you're considered financially/legally independant once you have a child. I'm 24 and still on my dad's insurance, though...I have a couple outstanding ER bills and to my knowledge, they've never contacted him about the debt.

Quoting ♥ logan's mommy:" I'm not a minor though, me and SO weren't married at the time and if I wasn't on my fathers, I would ... [snip!] ... stay on my dad's because up until you have a child - you can stay on a parent's plan until you are 25 (that's Aetna at least) "

Under the Affordable Care Act, you can stay on your parents' insurance until 26, regardless of if you're married, have a child, etc.