Steve, If you don't mind. What form of health insurance covers you and your family? Who pays for it? Any family members in the medical profession? Regards, Jake
Jake I am one of the dirty unwashed..... being uninsured. I was between COBRA and obtaining a private policy .... I was asked to wait until after the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years holidays. Well, low and behold, before my appointment, I had a heart attack. Not just any heart attack, but a 99% blockage of what they referred to as "the widowmaker". I died, literally, on the gurney between the ER and the CCU and had to be jump started. (What happened during that time is another story best left for a more private venue)
They had a chopper coming for me and ended up in a mobile intensive care unit that took me to the regional trauma center. Was in CICU for a few days, until I stabilized enough to have emergency multiple by-pass surgery. I was in either the CICU,ER and Recovery Room for a total of 16 days, plus two in a regular room
Afterwards there were some fairly serious complications that had to be dealt with along with all the follow-ups, re-hab, etc over a period of months following "the event"
I was 44.
I won't divulge the actual amounts, but let's just say that it was well over a crap load of money between the surgeons, cardiologists, ER, Labs, ER again (complications remember?),Radiology, respiratory therapy, Pharmacy, Private nursing, emergency transportation, on and on and on and on and on. One injection, JUST one, was $5,700 (not a typo, Five thousand, seven hundred US Dollars) for the drug alone, not even including the syringe!!!!
My wife and I negotiated, and negotiated some more. Then, started writing checks. Took out a mortgageg on our previously paid for house and maxed out a Credit card ot three. The neighborhood where I live took a collection, people brought food and more good whishes and prayers than I deserve. I am still paying and still not able to purchase a private plan unless I want to pay over $3000 per month. Did I moan and groan or bitch? HELL NO!
We did it. Do I bitch and complain because the COUNTRY let me down? Hell No. It WAS MY FAULT that I did not have Insurance, no one else's. I fully accept the responsibility for my actions, in this case, inactions.
I am, by the Grace of God, alive and Damned Proud to be an American. No one in my family is in the med business, but I am a free market capitalist..... period. Our country was founded on these principles where people pulled themselves up by their boot straps when there was adversity and did not look to the government to bail them out. Call me a throw back..... But I also remember when I was a boy hearing JFK say, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Hard work, not sitting on my ass eating cheetos with my hand out is paying my bills as well as paying for my sanity, nothing else. I never inherited a dime from my parents, matter of fact had to pitch in and pay for their funerals. Grew up as a tentant on a dairy farm, worked my ass off since I was 11. Joined the US Army out of High School, ended up as a Ranger in some precarious situations where we never existed, walked the border between the East German and Czech borders for nearly 4 years, all in one stint by the way. had an armored vehicle blown out from under me because of piss poor parts in a heater .... No money for heaters, but enough to pay for the three guys that died in that explosion.
Nope, I am just a poor, old, uneducated country boy that worked for every single penny I have and will continue to do so until the day I die.
