medical expenses

[IamOld]

I hope I'm posting to the right place (could be on Ch 7 thread too I guess)...

We have a good (and expensive!!) lawyer who said add up ALL med expenses...so I got about 90% of it from ins co's website (copays, deductibles, etc.) add our ton of contacts (spouse kids me all are visually "disabled" - we're all nearsighted :-) THEN added spouses dental stuff, my dental stuff, AND spouse's meds/mo (spouse has ONE possibly two chronic conditions)...we're now like $600/mo above the IRS. So is it "good" that she HAS to see dr on a regular basis, take meds, etc? (I know this sounds horrible.)

Is that going to raise flags? Should canlawyer put info with filing? I mean it was a shock when you put what you spend and put it on a monthly basis...Like right now this week, she'll spend...$120 on this months meds alone - plus $50/60 on docs, for example. And that's just her, just for one of the chronic conditions.

OR could the Trustee just ask in 341 like -what do you spend your "med money" on?

Everything is backed up with explanations of benefits, receipts, etc., (except maybe a 200-300 of the ANNUAL total - so maybe 50/month that I just don't have receipts for any more)....

What does everyone think?

[woeisme]

we had much higher than IRS standards for medical expenses too, part of filing was result of medical issues, between bills for things plus husband having to go on disability from medical problems, so I don't think trustees are shocked that people with higher than normal medical costs end up in BK, as long as you can document things, shouldn't be a problem, at least it wasn't for us. good luck!

[momofthree]

Will it raise a red flag? Yes. But as long as you can provide documentation, it will be allowed.

[RunningMan]

I am beginning to realize I underestimated our medical expenses. I never go to the doctor and didn't think much of it. I didn't realize how much my wife goes to the doctor and all the prescriptions she has, not to mention the dentist. We have very good insurance, but the deductables are killing me. I wish I had done what you are doing.

[SweetGeorgia]

Definitely keep adding it all up (and keep your receipts and so on in a notebook or shoebox). The IRS standard is crazy low anyway, and I would imagine that practically everyone has higher actual expenses! I doubt that it gets questioned very often. Besides, it's good information to know for your own planning and budgeting purposes.

[Pandora]

I am beginning to realize I underestimated our medical expenses. I never go to the doctor and didn't think much of it. I didn't realize how much my wife goes to the doctor and all the prescriptions she has, not to mention the dentist. We have very good insurance, but the deductables are killing me. I wish I had done what you are doing.

Have you discussed with your lawyer about amending your plan to include the increase? I'm amending mine due to the fact that we actually met and exceeded the 7.5% IRS requirement for medical last year! I about threw up when I added it all up - out of pocket costs were over $12K between premiums, copays, medications, etc and we only claimed $250 a month for our expense. Last year was an unusual year to be certain, but...the $250 was based on the previous years medical expenses (2009) and averaged - I'll be increasing it by at least 50% of what we org. filed.

I'm still in shock over it all....had to triple check everything to be sure I was reading the print-outs provided by insurance correctly!

[IamOld]

THANKS A million!!!!

[IamOld]

Great :-) I have printouts from ins co, and cost of meds per mo that spouse will need

[IamOld]

THanks! Well, it's funny but it doesn't seem so bad, BUT the thing is it's not PER MONTH as such but a bit here and a bit there really adds up when you annualized it and divided it to get a monthly cost. good grief it's a lot.