Healthcare Hacks That Could Save You Thousands on the Journey to FIRE

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wealth and health are closely intertwined, especially here in the US, where the high cost of healthcare can put significant financial pressure on families. But is there a remedy to these exorbitant expenses that Americans are missing? Stay tuned and we’ll show you how to negotiate your medical bills—even if you’ve reached FIRE! Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Money podcast! Unpredictable healthcare costs keep many would-be retirees tethered to their nine-to-five jobs, but today’s guest has a solution. Jared Walker founded Dollar For, a nonprofit organization that has helped erase over $83 million in medical costs for everyday Americans. How? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires many healthcare providers to offer a program that discounts costs for patients, so Jared and his team simply use it to negotiate people’s medical bills on their behalf. High healthcare costs affect everyone, whether you’re facing hardship, trying to reach financial independence, or already retired. In this episode, Jared will share tips anyone can use to minimize their healthcare costs and negotiate their own medical bills! In This Episode We Cover How to negotiate and lower your medical bills (even if you’re retired) Saving thousands on healthcare with this Affordable Care Act (ACA) program How to use cash payments as leverage when negotiating medical debt The healthcare “hack” that helps you spot erroneous or exorbitant charges The two best ways to proactively minimize healthcare costs And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-633 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What is one of the biggest concerns for anyone on the path to financial independence, health
0:04.7	insurance and medical expenses?
0:06.6	It is the elephant in the room that can dramatically alter your FI journey or create anxiety
0:11.9	after you've already reached early retirement.
0:14.7	While we crunch numbers for investment returns and living expenses, the unpredictable nature
0:19.3	of health care costs keeps many would-be retirees
0:22.4	tethered to traditional employment longer than they'd like. But what if there were strategies to
0:27.6	navigate this complex system more effectively?
0:35.6	Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.
0:38.9	My name is Mindy Jensen.
0:40.0	And while Scott is out on paternity leave, Amberly Grant is stepping into his seat and guest hosting with me.
0:45.8	Amberly, it's so good to see you today.
0:47.3	Oh, it's very nice to see you as well, Mindy.
0:49.2	Thank you for joining me.
0:50.7	Oh, I'll thank you for having me today.
0:52.8	Bigger Pockets has a goal of creating one million millionaires.
0:55.0	You're in the right place if you want to get your financial house in order, because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you are starting.
1:03.0	Today, we're joined by Jared Walker, who specializes in something most people don't even realize as possible, negotiating medical bills.
1:10.0	He is the founder of
1:11.8	dollar4.org, and we are so excited to learn from him today. Super excited since I just had a baby
1:18.0	last year, and I need to know this stuff. Before we bring on Jared, I have a quick question. How
1:23.0	many hours did you spend last month chasing down rent payments, sorting through piles of receipts,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 6 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BiggerPockets, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BiggerPockets and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.