Update [2009-8-18 9:24:47 by Marcus Lewis]: I changed title to include "My Healthcare Horror Story".
A college student pulling an all nighter to finish off a term paper heard his dog bark. He put the dog on the leash, took him outside to do his business. While outside, he was accosted by a man looking for money. He was lead into the house at the force of a shotgun and forced to show the man that he had no cash on him. After the man saw it for his own eyes, it was clear he was disappointed. The man (who clearly was an addict) lead the student back to the common area of the home. For no obvious reason, the man started to pull the trigger--the student ducked, and the shot grazed the head of the student leaving a laceration of about 2 inches.
That is the story of how I first got involved in the insurance business. Believe me, it was not pretty.
Being a full time student, I was covered by my father's medical insurance. It was a very good plan that I enjoyed, because I never had to count on it. The extent to which I used it may have been the occasional visit to the doctor for a check up--which was very rarely. So I would pay my 15 dollar co-pay and be on my way.
If you asked me before I was rushed to the ER by ambulance how I enjoyed my health insurance, I would have told you I loved it. But once I found myself out of the hospital, I find that the ride in the ambulance for a 5 mile drive cost me $1300.00 and that the time spent in the ER cost another $5000.00.
So the worse part about leaving the hospital after a traumatic incident of that sort should be the coping and anxiety of just getting back into public. Having to deal with being jumpy or scared of the sudden movement, or a textbook that drops to the class floor and makes a loud noise. That is what one should worry about, yet my worries were "how do I pay for the bills I am receiving?"
The hospital had my insurance information, so I would have assumed that the insurance company and the hospital would figure it out. However, they didn't. The hospital sent all the bills to me (and the EMT sent to me as well). So, I then forwarded all this to the insurance company, who then sent back a check for $500.00 and that was for part of the ambulance ride.
So I guess what it boils down to is that most of us love having an insurance plan to fall back on. Most of us don't regularly have to fall back on the plans for serious issues, but we have them there just in case. We assume that when we need it, it will be there for us and that makes us happy with our plans. Unfortunately, they aren't.
Well I guess the good news is that I don't have to worry about the rising costs of health insurance. After I witnessed the premiums that my father paid for all those years, and the amount of good it did for me--I am uninsured. The bad news is that there are 200 million people with health insurance similar to the plan I had and 50 million people who have no insurance that are equally screwed if something life threatening ever happens to them.
I was lucky, the doctors just had to patch me up and I was good to go. I did not need numerous expensive tests. The doctor didn't have to send me to see anyone other than a radiologist for the cat-scan. Those who are facing life and death in the hospital, are forced to deal with much higher bills than those that I racked up. The last thing the family should be thinking about is their insurance plan.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Obviously the unalienable right to life only exists if you can afford health insurance. Besides, if we allow all people to have great healthcare coverage, that would be socialism--so screw the unalienable Rights that was the framework of our country.