u/No-Memory2446

I have a medical bill from April of 2024 floating around, and it reared its ugly head today.

This whole debacle started when I was getting some autism testing back in March 2024. Everything was covered under insurance. Then April hit and I was laid off. I had an appointment the following week with the same doctor, with the understanding that my medical benefits would continue through the end of the month. They didn’t. The company cut them off that day, so I ended up unknowingly meeting with neurologists without insurance. That bill came out to around $5000.

Fast forward to today, I received another invoice after avoiding it for two years. It’s been periodically lowered, it seems, and it now sits at $2,490, which is more manageable but still… problematic.

Now, the big issue is we’re closing on a house in three weeks. We don’t have the $2500 to dish out, but we also don’t want this going to collections as we finish off this house deal. And considering this bill is… over two years old, it can be tossed to the wolves any day now.

My question is how can I negotiate this lower, knowing they’ve already knocked it by 50%?

So these last couple of years have been really rough for my husband (33M) and me (30F). I (breadwinner) was laid off from my job in April 2024, got a job with the state, and then lost that one in May 2025 due to budget cuts. During that time, I accumulated around $19,000 in credit card debt, which now sits at around $7,000 on interest-free credit cards. I pay these based on the number of interest-free months, not on minimum payments. The monthly cost is $383 for the next 19 months, after which we will have no other debt.

Since May 2025, I have been employed again for over a year (landed a job in less than a week, thankfully) and earning $86,600 plus a $14,000 bonus, while my husband earns $55,000-ish. Because of the secure nature of our jobs (utilities and banking fraud), we're in a comfortable spot and have decided to buy a house.

How are we affording said house after this whole mess? Our aunt gifted us $200,000, of which we are using $156,000 toward closing costs and down payment, and saving the remainder for an emergency fund/misc costs/furnishing the house a little. In total, our mortgage will be $332,500 at 6.125% interest, with payments of around $2,900 per month, split according to our take-home pay. And since we already pay $2,000 in rent, it's really not that large of a jump for us.

This brings me to my point. I'm so paranoid/scared after the past few years spent chasing my tail that I need to hear that we're in a good place to make this purchase.

Here's the full breakdown of our finances:

	Me	My Husband
Monthly Take Home	4532	3200
Mortgage, ins, taxes	-1750	-1150
Savings	-680 (15%)	-320 (10%)
Interest-free Credit card	-383
Utilities (electric, internet, phone)	-300	-217
Activities/Dates (inc. bowling league)	-250	-250
Food	-300	-300
Mandatory Misc. (dog ins., car ins.)	-140	-100
Misc. Subscriptions	-69	-36
Personal Savings	-250
Net Pay	410	828

Fwiw, we both contribute 6% to our respective retirement funds, and I also invest $20 into company stock per paycheck.

Appraisal came back 30k higher than our accepted offer. We’re still working on concessions.