A serious personal injury can impact your finances for years to come. In fact, unexpected medical emergencies are one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy in this country. It’s no wonder. A serious, permanent spinal cord injury or brain injury can cost millions of dollars. A fracture can cost tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs and lost wages. For most Florida residents, this is enough to cause severe financial distress.
If you’ve been injured, though, there are things you can do to help you protect your finances.
How Does a Serious Injury Impact Your Finances?
Suffering a serious or long-term injury can impact your ability to earn a living and can increase your spending. Here’s how it can impact your financial future:
- It impacts your ability to earn a wage. if you’re injured, you may not be able to attend work, which means you’re not earning money. With most Americans living paycheck to paycheck, very quickly bills such as mortgages, rent, car payments, and other expenses become difficult.
- It can impact future earnings. A serious injury can impact your ability to pursue your career and get ahead. If you’re away from work for awhile because you’re injured, you may miss out on opportunities for professional development or promotions that could increase your earning power. It can take a long time to make up even a few weeks of lost work. If you can’t return to your job, you may have an employment gap as you retrain or you may not be able to return to work at all if your injuries are serious.
- It can increase your medical expenses for a long time. There are immediate medical expenses to consider after a car accident, truck accident, or any serious injury. You may need surgery, a hospital stay, and other expenses. However, long term or permanent injury increase medical expenses for years or even the rest of your life. You may now have a permanent pre-existing medical condition related to your injury that will increase future insurance costs. For the rest of your life, you may need to replace prosthetics, dental crowns, or other medical devices.
- Inflation can increase your injury costs. Let’s say you need long term rehabilitation, or you have a permanent injury that requires a prosthetic or other medical device. Over time, inflation will make these expenses higher and higher.
- Incidental costs can add up. There are many small expenses that you may not even think of after an injury. For example, you may not be able to drive for awhile, meaning you need to rely on another form of transportation and pay for that. You may not be able to lift heavy objects so you may need to get help at home for renovations or other tasks. You may even need to change your home or car. You may need to install a ramp or make your car accessible to manage your injury. All of these costs can quickly add up to thousands of dollars or more.
How Can You Manage Your Finances After Serious Injury?
You will want to take a look at your finances and consider how much savings you have to put towards your injury immediately. You may need to work with medical facilities or hospitals to develop a payment plan if you cannot pay your medical bills right away.
Long-term, you may need to adjust your spending to make sure that you have enough. One of the most important things you can do is to make sure you’re not leaving any insurance money or compensation on the table. You may be covered by insurance or if your injury was caused by someone’s willful action or by negligence, under Florida law you may have a legal claim to seek compensation.
To find out whether you may have a claim and to find out whether there are other options for you to get money for your injury, work with a personal injury attorney who can help you understand your options. When you speak with Flaxman Law Group, your first consultation is always free and comes with no obligation, so you risk nothing by getting the facts.
Call Flaxman Law Group at 866-352-9626 to speak to a live person or contact us online to schedule your free accident consultation.