A couple of years back, I had a really serious health emergency and wound up in the hospital for over a week. My bill (before insurance) included ER treatment, CT scans, surgery, medications, blahblahblah, and came out to well over $100,000, of which I paid something like $300.
I couldn't help but think that, had I been without insurance, I would have promptly committed suicide after my release from the hospital. How do we ask people to pay those costs for necessary medical care? Without insurance, even with a very genrous payment plan, I'd have been in debt for the rest of my life.
Clearly, we as Americans receive some of the best healthcare available in the world, but we also pay dearly for it, ESPECIALLY when we're not insured.
I don't know who can look at that system and say it's not broken, except maybe someone to whom $100,000 is a portion of an annual salary and not a large chunk of a lifetime of earning.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-08-29 06:11 pm (UTC)I couldn't help but think that, had I been without insurance, I would have promptly committed suicide after my release from the hospital. How do we ask people to pay those costs for necessary medical care? Without insurance, even with a very genrous payment plan, I'd have been in debt for the rest of my life.
Clearly, we as Americans receive some of the best healthcare available in the world, but we also pay dearly for it, ESPECIALLY when we're not insured.
I don't know who can look at that system and say it's not broken, except maybe someone to whom $100,000 is a portion of an annual salary and not a large chunk of a lifetime of earning.