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Medical bills have piled up over the past 3 years, what should I do?

I even have insurance, HAD insurance through Aetna, yet they have denied or either ignored claims that should have been covered under my plan. I am only 21 years old and I don't even know how to approach this. A few years ago, I WAS working with a debt collection service and I stopped payments, but I guess they didn't sue because they knew I was a college student and didn't pay. This went on my credit report as a bad debt. I don't have Aetna anymore and I have a huge stack of bills from various medical services and I don't even know where to start. I have ignored them for over two years. I don't know where to start. The insurance company? I don't think they can do anything because I've been turned over to collection agencies and I can't backtrack from that. I've been told that I can only deal with the collection agencies and the creditors who haven't called the collection agencies on me yet. WHERE DO I START TO SORT THIS OUT? Can anyone give me some steps to follow? PLEASE? I even have insurance, HAD insurance through Aetna, yet they have denied or either ignored claims that should have been covered under my plan. I am only 21 years old and I don't even know how to approach this. A few years ago, I WAS working with a debt collection service and I stopped payments, but I guess they didn't sue because they knew I was a college student and didn't pay. This went on my credit report as a bad debt. I don't have Aetna anymore and I have a huge stack of bills from various medical services and I don't even know where to start. I have ignored them for over two years. I don't know where to start. The insurance company? I don't think they can do anything because I've been turned over to collection agencies and I can't backtrack from that. I've been told that I can only deal with the collection agencies and the creditors who haven't called the collection agencies on me yet. WHERE DO I START TO SORT THIS OUT? Like what kind of steps? I think it totals to about 5 or 6k. Gave my father all my bills who told me he'd contact Aetna and HR dept. at his company from which I get coverage, but he hasnt done anything and Ive gotten no feedback. My mom told me to contact Aetna but I have no experience in dealing with these situations and I'm SCARED to hear someone tell me, "Uh, hey, you are SCREWED." This is PART of the reason I've been putting it off. The creditors and collection agencies are telling me to send payments, my mom is telling me to force my dad to help or call Aetna myself. But if these 5-6 thousand in bills have been handed over to collection agencies, there's nothing Aetna can do, right? In one instance one hospital said I didn't have coverage because my student enrollment wasn't verified, BUT IT WAS. They sent me a letter saying bc I haven't responded, they assume the "debt is valid" and they are holding ME responsible, not my Aetna. So that's an HR problem bc I DID verify my enrollment with them. It's very complex....

Public Comments

1. How much medical debt do you have? This is an important fact I need to know to know If you can be helped.