The Other Shoe Drops

I got the first part of my bill from the ER visit that happened in January. My insurance covered most of it, though I could still be billed some of secondary insurance doesn't cover it. My roommate reminded me that while my bill covered the ER stuff, it didn't cover the ER physician, who will probably be sending his own bills of fuckery. Which just . . . yay. Hopefully the insurance will cover him as well. This showed up at a bad time because I'm currently in the process of running up even more medical expenses. It didn't set well with me because I know that ER visit is just the first in a series of things I'm going to potentially have to pay for. I really loath being in debt, but I don't really have a choice this time.

People talk a lot about how much debt our country is in and quite often, when it comes to personal debt, we blame the debtor. I know that sometimes that is the case, but certainly not always. A great deal of people in this country are trying to pay off their medical expenses. A lot of people in this country never get treated because they know there is no way they can pay off their medical expenses. They just let their problems get worse and worse and hope for the best.

I can understand both sides of that. Sometimes the emotional and psychological burden of being in debt is more than people can handle. They will do anything to avoid it, even if it means they may die in the process. For other people, they hope to find a way to put the prospect of the debt out of their minds. They hope for ways to work with the medical community and maybe try to just pay things off a little at a time. They get their health, hopefully, but at the cost of knowing this burden is now hanging over them.

I think this is one of the reasons why health care is such s huge topic in our country. Many people don't want to pay extra cost of covering everyone who lacks the funds to cover themselves. Other people hate the idea of someone having to choose between life and debt. The people who are having to make these choices often do their best to ignore the debate completely, because they grow tired of being cast as the villains in the matter. Besides, they quite often have other things to worry about.