Health Insurance

by: Lia

My husband and I went out for Mexican food last night, and boy was it good. After everyone had cleared out of the restaurant we ended up talking to our waiter for quite awhile. He was really nice. He said that in 1993, about a year into his marriage, his wife had horrible problems with her gallbladder and appendix. He tried to get insurance through the state, but he was denied. They said he made too much money.

After his wife had emergency surgery the hospital was nice enough to deduct a substantial amount of the bill, since him and his wife couldn’t afford to pay it. That left them with a bill of $10,000. Only recently were they able to finally pay the last of it.

In 1998 I came back from another country and literally almost died. The doctors in the ICU unit said if I hadn’t had an appointment with the infectious disease doctor down the hall from the ICU at the very moment I did, I would have never made it. It was just my mom and I, and she couldn’t afford health insurance for either of us. My mother was paying the hospital bill for years and years and years.

Health insurance is so important, but most people can’t afford it. When they have some sort of unexpected emergency they are screwed. So many people die of curable diseases because they cant afford the treatment. Something is wrong with that picture.

I must admit that I don’t know nearly enough about the new health care bill as I’d like, but I know that something has to change from the current state healthcare is at.