First Doctor Visit in Five Years: Why Repubs Want Us Broke or Dead

[hfojvt]

12. I was uninsured for 22 years

from the age of 22 until I was 44. Had one "modest medical incident" that took me to the emergency room. It cost me $800 which the hospital allowed me to pay $50 a month, and with a credit card. It would have cost a mere $300 if not for the unnecessary X-rays. I usually call procedures like that a "walletectomy".

Even my four day hospital stay (for the same problem as the e-room visit) wouldn't have meant bankruptcy (although by that time I had insurance, and fortunately they said nothing about my 'pre-existing condition' although I have had swallowing issues since college.) I was kinda devastated when I got a bill for $13,900, but not because I would go broke. Only because it would wipe out most of my life-savings.

I did some insurance shopping last week. The lowest price was about $314 a month, about 60% of what my employer pays. But twice the deductible and twice the co-pays. A $40 co-pay for an office visit. $2,000 seemed like a huge deductible too.

Oh, and I also had some really modest medical issues that got solved by a pharmacist and a free "ask a nurse" line.