Spinal cord injuries can impact your ability to care for yourself. They can also affect other areas of your life, including your finances. For some people, having to come up with a financial plan can be challenging.
One of the most important things that you have to do is to get your finances organized. This includes gathering information about where you can draw money and benefits from. Certain insurance policies through your employer might help in some situations, such as disability coverage.
Other things to think about include investments and bank accounts. The goal here is to get a comprehensive picture of where your finances stand so that you can determine what you need to do to make ends meet.
You might have to find a way to keep your insurance coverage going if your employer isn’t going to keep the benefits for you in force. Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) payments are usually more expensive, but this coverage can help you get medical coverage and reduce the chance that you will be denied group coverage in the future.
Depending on your circumstances, you might need to try to establish a special needs trust or an income cap trust. These place assets in a trust so that you might be able to preserve your ability to have Medicaid coverage to help take care of your medical bills.
You might also consider filing a claim for compensation if an accident caused the spinal cord injury. This might help to improve your financial situation some so that you can get the assistance you need due to the injury you suffered.
Source: Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, “How to map out your finances,” accessed Oct. 12, 2017