Yesterday, we attended a music benefit for someone who had surgery, an employed person who did not have health insurance, and needed help paying for the bills. There are lots of Benefits like that in this town, I don't have any data on it but it seems like the majority of benefit concerts are held for the purpose of helping out a fellow musician or musician-friend who has no health insurance and can't pay the necessary medical bills. Those are the lucky folks - the lucky uninsured, that is. Most uninsured people who run up medical bills don't get benefit concerts thrown for them, and can end up losing everything over an illness or injury.
This is one of the things that reaffirms my belief that health insurance should not be connected to employment. As long as the two are dependent on each other, our health care system will be broken. What about people (or their spouses) who have lost their jobs, or people who are employed without health insurance because their employer can't afford to provide it?
There is a LOT more of that going around these days than there was before this financial crisis, and it's hard enough to afford health care even with insurance.
3 comments:
my partner just spent 5 days in ICU, another 2 on med/surg. she'll require 7 new medications/month. we'll get MD bills, separate from hospital bills from 6 - 7 doctors. from radiologists. the hospital bill will likely include charges such as $7.50 for Ibuprofen. we have health insurance. yet we are already preparing to be declared indigent bcs we'll never be able to afford the co-pays. the co-pays for her drugs alone (and i'm not kidding) will be $525 - WITH INSURANCE. i try to keep my eyes on the prize: she is alive. and i wonder if she would be if we didn't have any insurance.
it's great having health insurance, but it doesn't mean you can afford to stay healthy. It still costs [... almost wrote "an arm and a leg"...] enough to break the bank if you have to use it.
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