Is there a way to keep your home if you cant pay a huge medical bill?

Question

In Oregon... say you had 200,00.00 in unforseen major medical, can they take your home?

Answer 1

The ONLY way they could POSSIBLY take you home would be to sue you and obtain a judgment against you. Then they could request a lien on your house to satisfy the judgment. This only allows them to claim the proceeds IF you sell. To force a sale, they would have to go though the same foreclosure process as the bank that holds you mortgage. Even then, they would have to pay off the mortgage in full before they got anything. Unless you have significant equity, they won't even try.

Answer 2

I am not sure, but I want to strongly encourage you to contact your local bar association and see if they have a referral program and talk to a bankruptcy lawyer. Most likely for about $50 you can get a half-hour consultation if they have such a program.

It seems to me that you MAY qualify for Medicaid--that's a HUGE chunk of money. Even Donald Trump would notice $200K if it were taken from him!

Most likely there can be a reduction in the bill--perhaps through charity program at the hospital.

If those options do not apply, then the bankruptcy attorney can discuss your situation. You COULD end up having to declare bankruptcy. It appears to me that Oregon law allows you to retain a $125K interest in your PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE if you have owned the property 3.3 years or more BEFORE you incurred the debt (http://www.bankruptcyaction.com/orexemptions.htm)

There are always ins and outs on these huge medical bills and frankly, to get REAL advice, there is no substitute for taking ALL of your documentation, indexed so you can quickly answer questions, to an appropriate attorney and finding out what the law REALLY says in YOUR case. By real documentation I mean:

ALL medical bills

whatever the hospital sent to you
is there a lien? a judgement? what--get ALL their correspondence together

whatever health insurance policy you might have (you most certainly can be insured and have a bill of that size dropped on you--happens to lots of Americans EVERY year)

your tax returns for the last couple of years

any medical documentation about the problem(s) that resulted in those massive bills

notes/correspondence on anything you've already done to try to deal with this mess

your mortgage

your bank account info

any other sources of income (rental property, stocks, etc)

info on any additional property you own

utility bills

medication expenses

I think if you gather all of that together (and you can see half an hour won't suffice to "fix" the problem) you will be able to respond to whatever the attorney needs to know in a timely fashion and hopefully get the advice you need quickly and with minimal fuss and muss.

There may be a way to avoid bankruptcy AND with the 2005 changes, there is a requirement for credit counseling for 6 months, etc. so this is going to take some time if that is what you HAVE to do. I can't know--too little data to even make a guess--but if you're an average American you can't pay that bill.

Good luck.