So. Today’s post was supposed to be about the Ren Fest and my costume(s) and sewing and saving on sewing and so forth. With pictures and everything. However, I just spent the last 4 hours in the Emergency Room at Regions Hospital in St. Paul (no, I’m fine, but thank you for your concern/morbid curiosity), and that exercise in patience and futility has rendered me:
A. Hugely behind schedule
B. Without much time to post, let alone THINK STRAIGHT
C. Terrified that I will get seriously injured or develop an illness/syndrome/what-have-you that requires oodles of surgery, doctor visits, trips to the ER and spendy medication.
Because in case you haven’t been paying attention, medical care is totally expensive. No, seriously, it is. The thriftiest thing you can do is never get sick or hurt. Or, short of that, have really REALLY good health insurance. Which I do not possess, thus my fixation with cautious street-crossings.
Mine is merely mediocre insurance, and if I was going through what my friend (the one requiring the ER) is going through – she is a medical enigma, but at least they figured out the excruciating pain she suffers from isn’t caused by her gall bladder, since they took out 1 ½ years ago – I would be bankrupt. Destitute. Out on the streets, living in a box, stealing food from garbage cans, THAT’S HOW BROKE I’D BE.
So the next time someone with excellent health care coverage complains to me about frivolity of universal health care, I’m going to kick them in the shins. Don’t cry for them, their co-pay to fix that bruise will only run them $10.
P.S. My friend will be okay, her situation is not life-threatening, just life-sucking. And she thanks Buddha every day that her husband works for MnDOT – and therefore, has kick-ass health benefits.
On A Positive, Frugal And Fabulous Note: If you need to save money, either for a life-saving surgery or new shoes, Cub Foods is doing you a solid this week. Their Lean Cuisines are just $1.99 each – yes, every single kind – so you can save big while watching your weight.
5 Comments
I am totally there for you with a FAB post filled with sewing and fabric thrifty goodness. Really.
Glad our mutual friend with the excellent health insurance is doing better. I will leave it to my spouse to make the obligatory, "Well, if you weren't single and instead married a rich guy you could have EXCELLENT health insurance…"
Heh
Oh yea. Having recently (last December) spent time in an ambulance, an emergency room, waiting room of orthopaedic surgery, nights sleeping on a hospital chair, locating a hospital bed in the living room, etc. etc., the whole insurance thing has me thanking my lucky stars. And, even with insurance? Let's talk about that $3000 / year family deductible and how "medical transport for your son who is in a reclining wheelchair with a 75-degree hip flexion limit and his legs sticking straight out in front of him" is a convenience and not a necessity.
I'd be willing to talk about universal healthcare if the big insurance companies and doctors organizations would stop scaring people with the "extreme" facts.
We have mediocre insurance and my knee surgery this year (ACL replacement and menisciotomy) cost us approximately $3500 out of pocket because we have a deductible, a coinsurance amount, and they only cover a specific amount of physical therapy visists.
If we didn't have health insurance at all, we'd be screwed.
Benefits aren't free.
Your employer pays for them and when they do, its just less of your comp they stick in your pocket.
Heathcare cost much more than it needs to. Program administration costs, barriers to market entry of alternative treatments, un-neccessary tests brought on by defensive medicine practices, malpractice premiums.
The solution to healthcare costs isn't to create more demand, which is all universal care would do. Government is the problem.
The solution is deregulation and competition.
Don't even get me started. There are 55 MILLION Americans without insurance. This infuriates me to NO living end. No END.
As long as their is PROFIT to be made off of OUR health CARE (care??? oxymoron???) – we are screwed.
Aw, jeeeesh – someone get me a valium! /rant.