After her husband of 44 years died two years ago from Covid-19-related respiratory complications, Susan thought she could begin to grieve the loss of her best friend.
The cost of the medical care her husband incurred before he died, she was told, was not something she had to think about.
“Medicaid paid everything off. Everything was good,” the resident of Springfield, Ohio, who asked not to be fully identified due to her outstanding legal matters, says.
Then her attorney called her to say the Medicaid bill needed to be paid.
“I said: ‘What Medicaid bill? The hospital bill has been paid.’ The attorney said: ‘No, you have to pay it back to the state.’”
The hospital had previously shown her a printout of the bill having been paid in full.
“I’ve been in limbo for two years. It has been a burden. I lose sleep over it,” she says. “Every time I try to do something it’s like running into a brick wall.”


