ladykatza

i made a comment in a previous post about the crumbling medical system in this country.
its becoming that only the very rich, or the corporate employed can afford the insurance. and even then, the hospitals are running a racket.

for example, my first child, i had an emergency c-section. i was in the hospital for 3 days. i got an itemized bill sent to me before it was sent to my insurance company. the total bill? $26, 350 HOLY SHIT!!! (yes, my exact words) out of pocket expenses were suppose to be 10 percent with the plan i had through my company. i’m frantically trying to figure out how i’m going to come up with over 2 grand. couple weeks later, i get the insurance “explanation of benefits” and it turns out, they negotiated with the hospital that the actual bill was about 3 grand total. would someone please tell me what the fuck just happened? if i hadn’t had insurance, and i hadn’t signed the piece of paper with the hospital that said “you will only have to pay this much for a pregnancy with no complications” i’d be paying 26 grand for having a baby!! what’s wrong with this picture! no thanks, i’ll stay at home and have it in the bathtub (which in my case means i would have died).

and it turns out, after discussing this with some professionals in the business, this is common. that the raw expense is 60% more or higher than the insurance negotiated rate. ok, that’s a racket if ever i heard of one.

now, on top of that, i was reading an article today here about the rising cost of the self-insured individual. six hundred dollars a month?! no way, how can they expect anyone to afford that? of course, here i am complaining, but i can’t give you any solutions. i don’t know all the ins and outs, i can just see from my end that its broken and crumbling and soon its going to crash and burn.

for now, i’m just glad i work for a company that has good insurance benefits. its one of the reasons i grin and bear it.