THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!
What if you don’t have health insurance but need medical care to save your life? If you’re drowning in bills from the hospital, what can you do?
To find out, we spoke to Venus Lockett, a financial services professional who lives near Atlanta. After an ambulance ride, one night in the hospital and multiple tests, she faced over $30,000 in medical bills while she was in-between jobs, uninsured and living in Georgia, one of 12 states that still has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Find out what Venus did to get out from under those crushing bills and save her credit rating. Learn how to protect yourself with the Consumer Guide for Medical Bills and Debt, published by the nonprofit consumer protection organization Georgia Watch.
SHOW NOTES
WE DISCUSS
Can you talk about how it affected you to owe over $30,000 after suffering a medical emergency?
“Just having that cloud, that cloud of debt hanging over you.
“…we know how important credit is when you’re going for jobs or renting an apartment and all that. And at the time I didn’t know if medical debt would affect any of those things. So the big worry was having that hit my credit report…now I’m looking, you know, like I’m not credit worthy…” – Venus Lockett
What happened then?
“… in the space that I was volunteering in, in the financial services space, I had a lot of connections and relationships. So I went to a meeting with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Georgia Watch has been a longtime partner and they were sitting there talking about the different advocacy areas they were talking about.
“And they brought up this guide … [the] Georgia Consumer Guide for Medical Bills and Debt.” – Venus Lockett
So what did you do?
“I got home and I read through [the guide] and I followed the steps on one of the pages for if you owed a bill.
“I called and I didn’t know anything about charity care at all. And I called and they put me on hold and came back and told me that that bill had been forgiven based on the information that I followed in that book.” – Venus Lockett
Helpful Links
Hospital Charity Care: How It Works and Why It Matters, Kaiser Family Foundation
Medicaid expansion & what it means for you, Healthcare.gov
Georgia Consumer Guide for Medical Bills and Debt, Georgia Watch
Berneta Haynes, National Consumer Law Center
A perfect storm: racism, chronic Illness & medical debt, Code WACK!
Punished for being poor? Battling medical debt in America, Code WACK!
How Medical Debt Affects Health, The Sycamore Institute
Hospitals must continue to offer charity care, Health Consumer Alliance
Episode Transcript
Read the full episode transcript.
Biography: Venus R. Lockett
Venus R. Lockett is a pathfinder, connector, and convener in the Greater Atlanta area, throughout the State of Georgia, and beyond. She is passionate about providing knowledge and asset building strategies for residents in low-to-moderate-income communities to achieve economic success.
Venus firmly believes when we share our own stories and personal challenges, we have opportunities to help break down some of the barriers that hinder us from empowering the people we are purposed to serve.
She promotes and supports a culture of transparency and cross-sector collaboration to help achieve the shared goal that all Georgia residents become financially capable and secure, enabling them to participate in opportunities for economic prosperity that help build assets for future generations.
Venus wears a few hats in the Financial Services arena. She is currently housed in the City of Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Performance on the Special Projects Team as the Program Manager for the Bank On Atlanta program. Bank On is a national program managed by the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund), focused on ensuring everyone has access to safe and affordable financial products and services.
Venus is also the Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of Urban Asset Builders; the organization is a Prosperity Now Community Champion in Georgia and a member of the FDIC’s Money Smart for Small Business Training Alliance. Venus also serves as the State Chair for Money Smart Week® Georgia, a formal campaign she initiated in 2012 for the state in partnership with Money Smart Week® National. Money Smart Week is a national public education program coordinated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago that empowers people with the knowledge and skills to make better-informed personal financial decisions.
Venus is a mother of three, “Nahni” to two grandchildren, and resides in Fairburn, Georgia.
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