My name is Anthony Calafiura, and I am a current freshman at Hunter College. In the month of October during 2021, I was committed into the psych ward following a failed suicide attempt. I was there for 14 days and being there did genuinely help me feel better until I was hit with the bill after. Thankfully, I was under my estranged father’s insurance but even then I am still currently over 3000 dollars in debt. My mother has refused to help me pay so I’ve essentially had to deal with this all on my own. I was 17 at the time when I was committed so when I tried reaching out to the hospital, there was not much I could’ve done myself. Talking to the hospital people regarding the debt has felt like going around in a circle that ultimately ended in a dead end without genuine help. By the time I was 18, it had already been more than 6 months so my debt was then transferred to a debt collection agency.

For a while, I was scared to reach out because of how long it had been since my hospitalization and even if I wanted to back then, I did not know where to start or what to do. I had many questions that the majority of the people around me simply did not know the answer to. This whole situation has caused me so much stress and in fact was and still is making my mental health worse which is the antithesis of the reason why I’m even in debt. Every time I open my mailbox, every time I receive an 866 call because I’ve come to know that is the debt collection agency’s number, every time I receive a reminder text, a shock of anxiety goes through me. Due to all of this, there has formed a lingering resistance, and even slight fear, of going to the doctor because of the bill that will come after.

It’s important for stories of medical debt to be talked about because for the most part it has felt like I’ve been going through this alone when over 23 million people, around 1 in 10 Americans, have significant medical debt. There needs to be a push in schools for the complex system of health insurance and debt management to be taught because these are very real and necessary skills that I could’ve really used and would still use today. The healthcare system in America needs drastic changes. People should not be forced into debt with little knowledge on what to do after in order to get genuine mental or physical help that they deserve.