I’m reposting this for an artist I know, Amelia Royce Leonards, whose fiance was diagnosed with a brain mass. Her art is gorgeous; I bought a piece years ago and have just ordered some more. If you want to support a good cause and have beautiful work in your home, consider supporting her (or her artist fiance, Max).
Hey everybody-
I’ve been told I’m at my best when I’m “hysterically blunt”, so I’m just going to go for it. My wonderful fiancé, @maxmartelliart, is in the hospital with a brain tumor/cystic mass/unidentified object. Sadly, they refuse to let us take it home and put it in a jar. Yes, of course we asked.
Things aren’t going great, but we’re hopeful it can be removed successfully and that he’ll be just fine. And that he can soon be rescued from hospital food. (Ask me anything about the signature bran muffin- personally I think it’s weird to tout a bran muffin as the signature dish of any dining establishment, but hey.)
This is going to be a multiple week ordeal, so my posting may be a bit spotty for a bit as we figure things out. If you’ve been staring at a blank space on your wall and thinking “wow this needs a Bast print or a Frankenstein monster,” then please take this opportunity to wander over to www.Etsy.com/shop/maxmartelliartorwww.Etsy.com/shop/ameluria to fulfill that need. (Max muttered “hospital bills” to me this morning and suggested we remind people that we sell art.) Usually I’m more subtle with my salesmanship, but this is kind of a desperate situation, and I’m less subtle when others are involved and I’m worried.
I hear there’s some kind of Etsy strike happening soon- unfortunately it’s my only income stream and we’re dealing with major brain surgery and hospital bills in America, so while I support those taking part, I cannot. Now, if you’d like to buy something from us directly and avoid Etsy on principle, that’s totally fine, just let us know.
Thank you everybody for being here and supporting what I do- following and liking and commenting may seem like small actions, but they’re not. If you all hadn’t shown interest in my work, I’d have never tried to do this professionally and gotten to sample the odd and joyful life of a full time artist. Max would also like to do the same one day, so we need him to get better so he too can follow his dreams. Also get married. We’d like to get married this summer as planned, with a lot of chocolate chips.
I’m reposting this for an artist I know, Amelia Royce Leonards, whose fiance was diagnosed with a brain mass. Her art is gorgeous; I bought a piece years ago and have just ordered some more. If you want to support a good cause and have beautiful work in your home, consider supporting her (or her artist fiance, Max).
Hey everybody-
I’ve been told I’m at my best when I’m “hysterically blunt”, so I’m just going to go for it. My wonderful fiancé, @maxmartelliart, is in the hospital with a brain tumor/cystic mass/unidentified object. Sadly, they refuse to let us take it home and put it in a jar. Yes, of course we asked.
Things aren’t going great, but we’re hopeful it can be removed successfully and that he’ll be just fine. And that he can soon be rescued from hospital food. (Ask me anything about the signature bran muffin- personally I think it’s weird to tout a bran muffin as the signature dish of any dining establishment, but hey.)
This is going to be a multiple week ordeal, so my posting may be a bit spotty for a bit as we figure things out. If you’ve been staring at a blank space on your wall and thinking “wow this needs a Bast print or a Frankenstein monster,” then please take this opportunity to wander over to www.Etsy.com/shop/maxmartelliartorwww.Etsy.com/shop/ameluria to fulfill that need. (Max muttered “hospital bills” to me this morning and suggested we remind people that we sell art.) Usually I’m more subtle with my salesmanship, but this is kind of a desperate situation, and I’m less subtle when others are involved and I’m worried.
I hear there’s some kind of Etsy strike happening soon- unfortunately it’s my only income stream and we’re dealing with major brain surgery and hospital bills in America, so while I support those taking part, I cannot. Now, if you’d like to buy something from us directly and avoid Etsy on principle, that’s totally fine, just let us know.
Thank you everybody for being here and supporting what I do- following and liking and commenting may seem like small actions, but they’re not. If you all hadn’t shown interest in my work, I’d have never tried to do this professionally and gotten to sample the odd and joyful life of a full time artist. Max would also like to do the same one day, so we need him to get better so he too can follow his dreams. Also get married. We’d like to get married this summer as planned, with a lot of chocolate chips.
This is fucking sick. Fuck capitalism and fuck private healthcare. This system is so disgusting. Vote for Bernie Sanders we need Medicare for All.
[Video transcript start: “Alright, y’all like the desk shit, and I’ve got plenty of it. So here’s another scenario: you go to the emergency room, you get a bill for a thousand dollars. The very first thing you do, other than calling and asking for a ‘review of the level of care,’ that’s the first thing you do. While on the phone, while they’re doing that, you also say, ‘I want an itemized bill with every single charge.’
“Now what they’re going to do on the back end of that–because they don’t want you to know that they’ve charged you thirty-seven dollars for a fucking band-aid–they’re going to take that thirty-seven dollar charge right off of there. Before they send you the itemized statement, any of those stupid charges? They’re gonna take them right off. Generally, my bills go from a thousand dollars to seven-hundred and fifty, they take about two-hundred dollars off just for stupid shit. All you have to do is ask for an itemized bill with every charge, and they’re gonna take those charges off, ‘cause they don’t want you to know that they’re charging you thirty-seven dollars for a fucking band-aid, and guess what? That’s how much they charge for a fucking band-aid. So, when you actually can say, ‘You charged me thirty-seven dollars for a band-aid?’ They don’t like that. So they remove-” Audio cuts off mid-sentence and ends.]
Wish I would have known this when I had to go to the hospital a couple years ago. Over 500 dollar bill for a band aid & antibiotic cream that I put on myself
Dont let them screw you.
You can also write a Letter of Hardship if you’re in financial distress and they’ll reduce the bill drastically. I had a $2.5K ER bill, wrote to the billing department saying I’m unmarried, unemployed, and uninsured, and they knocked it down to $125.
That’s not a typo. $125.
I just went from $975 to $225 thanks to this post.
Alright, let me add a couple of things to this for y'all. Bare with me, it’ll be worth it.
So, I have a chronic autoimmune disease and I constantly am shelling out money to doctors, hospitals, and on meds. Part of my paycheck every 2 weeks is going to some type of health related thing.
Now 2 years ago I had a flare up that was so bad it caused me to have a massive panic attack at work and my body bbasically shut down on me. Like after the involuntary screaming stopped, my body went limp, my eyes shut, and I could talk. I didn’t pass out, I was very aware of what was being said around me, I just couldn’t respond. Now, my manager at the time called 911 and the squad arrived. By this point I was able to open my eyes again and they sat me in the chair lift thing and asked me questions. I tried my best to respond but my words were incredibly slurred. They wanted to take me to the hospital. I did not want to go. Because my first thought was,
“I can’t afford that bill”.
But they insisted I go because I “passed out” and my manager was saying shit like I stopped breathing and whatnot even though I hadn’t. I tried to argue with them through the state I was in that I did not want to go. But I lost, and therefore was transported to the hospital via ambulance.
When I got there I had to deal with all the questions and stuff and run through my medical history and all medications I’m on and what lead me to being in the hospital that day. This included hooking me up to an IV and taking blood and stuff. At the end of it all do you know what they diagnosed me with?
Exhaustion.
They told me I overworked myself and that I needed to sleep more and take better care of myself. They told me I was EXHAUSTED. SOMETHING I ALREADY FUCKING KNEW I WAS. But here’s the thing, I work at least 4p hrs a week as a supervisor in a customer service driven place. I do not get paid time off, I do not vacation days, sick pay, overtime, or holiday pay. So I can’t afford to take a day off to take care of myself, because this vicious cycle is killing me.
You wanna know how much my bill from the hospital was? $750. SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS TO TELL ME SOMETHING I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT MYSELF.
I did not pay $750 to the hospital but I’ll get to that down below.
Now I say all this to make a few points here.
You can say no to the ambulance. No one can force you to go. If you are not actively dying, you can refuse it. Now, this does not mean you shouldn’t still go. But you have options, if you are safe enough and in a place where you can, drive yourself. Park in the ER section and walk your ass in and check in. Call a friend, call a reliable friend that can come and take you. Call an Uber or Lyft, you’ll still have to pay the driver but it’ll be cheaper than the ambulance.
Know your body. If you have a condition or if you know what you feel like when your sick with a cold or have an attack or some kind, then speak up and be steadfast in your decision. No one will know your body better than you. If you feel like you don’t need to go to the hospital and that you can manage things on your own then don’t let people push you into financially draining situations when you’re only going to be told what you already know. On the flip side of that, if you know that things are different, worse, or not getting better then do go seek medical attention. But do it on your own terms. Listen to your body.
You can get make payment plans. A lot of offices will let you make payments. My specialty doctors all allow me to pay in small increments every month or so until my bill is paid off. It shows that you’re trying and not skipping out but also isn’t going to break you. Most will even let you choose how much you want to pay. Eye doctor, dentist, orthodontist, Rheumatologist, all of these specialists let me make payments.
This one is the big one to take away. That $750 bill, I put off paying that for 2 years. Now, I got several calls that I never answered from debt collectors but I digress, I didn’t pay it until this month when I got a letter that basically stated if I didn’t pay it in 30 days my credit score was going to take a serious hit. So, here’s what I did, I called them and told them I need to pay. They told me how much and I explained that I just couldn’t afford to pay that much, I was living paycheck to paycheck and that was just too steep for me. They said they would look and see what they could do (yeah keep looking honey, like the lady said take the gold plated bandaid off that list) and they came back with well what if you pay 500. I said I still can’t pay that, they said they’d look again. Came back with, how about $300. I said sold! I went from owing $750 to paying $300. That’s a difference of $450. Now I could’ve probably got them to go down to $200 but I didn’t want to push my luck.
Here’s the thing, they just want their money. And frankly they don’t really care how much they get from you so long as they get something. So fucking haggle your hospital bills kids. If they’re willing to drop $450 off of my bill then clearly they don’t need that much for the service they have just provided me with.
I’m out of money and only have 5 pills left. My insurance doesn’t kick in until October and I need to pay for my medications out of pocket this month, and as I mentioned before, they’re very expensive (~$2000/month uninsured) and I can’t afford them. If I go off them I lose my ability to function enough to work freelance and pay my bills. On top of that, I need to be able to pay for Oakley’s service training so he can start helping me as well and cannot currently afford it.
I really didn’t want to ask for help, but, life sucks sometimes and I’ve reached the point I do need to ask for help.
Sorry to be another one of thousands of posts on this site, but I’m going to need some help. Sparta, my precious pup who’s kept me okay and sane the last year and few months of my life, broke her leg last night. I got a quote, and it could cost up to $4,500 USD to fix. Her appointment (and hopefully surgery) tomorrow is at 10AM, 2/26/2020. I’m currently writing this post at about 4PM, 2/25/2020.
I’m offering writing commissions, an easy $6 dollars (two ko-fis) for literally any fic or writing piece you want. I’ll do what I can, I just need to get Sparta’s vet expenses paid.
If you guys don’t want a fic, a donation is ALSO a very very appreciated notion. Or even just sharing. I want to be able to get her fixed up and pay for it. At most, my biggest concern is getting her healed. Anything you all can do to help me, I’d appreciate it.
Ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/hackedtig Message me on Discord, Hacked Tig#8409 , if you’d like a fic commission. Donation first, commission second. Also, keep in mind I still need to work my normal job as well But rest assured, your commission will be done.
I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.
dude.
$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.
Video Transcript:
Person 1: “What’s a piece of information that you learned that feels illegal to know?” Person 2: “Most hospitals in America are non-profits. That means they must have a Charity Care Policy. This is going to sound weird, but what that means is if you make under a certain amount of money the hospital legally has to forgive your medical bills. Let me show you how this works. Type in the hospital name with financial assistance after it. It should be the top link, lets check. What you want to look for is financial assistance applications policy. Lets check the policy. From here, what you’re looking for is a scale, that is right here. 0%-300% of the federal poverty guidelines, they will forgive 100% of your medical bills. So you can see here, that 300% of the federal poverty guidelines is $37,470, so if you make under that amount [annually] the hospital will legally forgive your medical bills. And if you’re a larger household, you can check it out from here. If you want to test it out, I run a nonprofit that does this. So, dm me, and I will actually do it for you. Lets see if we can crash those medical bills.”
I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.
dude.
$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.
Looks promising! Have a look at your hospital’s programs and see if this will help you out.
This is an IRL friend of mine, who had to be emergently medically transported via lifeflight to a better hospital after contracting Covid and becoming critically ill. His family has to pay the entire cost of the medical transport out of pocket, which is a whopping 50k dollars. That does not include copays, deductibles, or other costs related to his continued hospital stay. If you can help at all, please do. He just graduated college and is now starting off with this incredible debt. If you can’t help please signal boost the post - let’s try and get him the financial help he needs.
Hello Tumblr! This is a little embarrassing for me, but I recently ended up in the hospital. I have to wait 30 days for the bill but I already have a feeling it is going to be a lot because I have really awful insurance. I’m not asking for money, but if you can see this post please take a moment to check out my redbubble or please reblog/signal boost. Anything helps and I am incredibly appreciative.
Hello Tumblr! This is a little embarrassing for me, but I recently ended up in the hospital. I have to wait 30 days for the bill but I already have a feeling it is going to be a lot because I have really awful insurance. I’m not asking for money, but if you can see this post please take a moment to check out my redbubble or please reblog/signal boost. Anything helps and I am incredibly appreciative.
Hello Tumblr! This is a little embarrassing for me, but I recently ended up in the hospital. I have to wait 30 days for the bill but I already have a feeling it is going to be a lot because I have really awful insurance. I’m not asking for money, but if you can see this post please take a moment to check out my redbubble or please reblog/signal boost. Anything helps and I am incredibly appreciative.
Kismet is my 18 year old heart horse. Last month, her health began to take a turn. We began treating what we thought was an abscess in her hoof but with no improvement. We have had a farrier out multiple times to try to alleviate the pain and adjust the angle of her hoof. Unfortunately, this past week she seems to have taken a turn for the worse. She is wobbly in her legs, stiff, does not want to move, and attempting to keep weight off her foot.
I have had the nearest equine veterinarian out multiple times now to try to assess the situation and help her. We can not seem to pinpoint what IS the issue.
I am attempting this because I need help paying for her medical bills. The first vet visit was $130 and they returned a week later to take x-rays, which was a $420 visit. They visited again (4/30/2021) to check on the new symptoms of her wobbly legs and still at a standstill on a diagnosis. We are going to try doing blood work and a chiropractor. She is scheduled to be seen by a different vet that specializes in equine (5/5/2021) for their possible prognosis. I need the funds as quickly as I can get them so I do not get too far behind in her medical bills. I am currently unpaid for the $420 bill and have not received the others in the mail.
I rescued Kismet at a equine auction in 2015 and we quickly became attached. Kismet is my heart horse and she means so much to me. I would really appreciate any help that I can get. I have many more rescues that I care for daily at my own expense, and this came upon us so suddenly. I am terrified to lose her and seeing her in pain breaks my heart. I will add photos of vet bills as proof.
Thank you so much if you choose to help and donate – I will be sure to pay the kindness forward in the future.
Hi all this is not my normal kind of post but I know you guys will help out if you can.
My work is doing a fundraising day for a little girl called Leilani who has a very rare heart and lung condition. The treatment can only be done in Boston and being from the UK it means a very big bill.
I know most of my tumble pals aren’t from the UK however, I thought posting her Go Fund Me page here might help too.
If anyone can give anything to help this poor little girl that would be amazing or even just reblogging this and getting the message out about little Leilani would be brilliant.
This may seem like a meme, but it is real. It’s formatted like this to get people’s attention and be memorable, in the hopes that maybe it saves some lives.
