Thursday, October 29, 2009

Health care

Normally I try to keep the politics out of the baby blog. But you have to forgive me here. It's just SHOCKING to me that we're still debating whether or not we need health insurance reform, when the costs are so outrageous, and coverage seems so arbitrary. Someone without health insurance for themselves or for their kids - what would you do if you or your kids got sick?? Why should insurance depend upon your employer??

This post, by the way, is prompted by our receipt today of the preliminary statement of what Ella's hospital stay is going to cost.

Yes, that is just over fifteen THOUSAND dollars.

Now, we're fortunate enough that Ella has good insurance. But right now - Aaron is uninsured, because we figured he'd get a job after he finished school, so we didn't add him to my insurance. If it was him with this infection instead of Ella? We would be SO underwater. I don't know what we'd do.


If I didn't have the good job that I do and Ella didn't have insurance, what would we do now, with a fifteen thousand dollar hospital bill? Or would we not have taken her to the hospital at all? Tried to treat her blood infection with baby tylenol?

No easy answers here, I guess. Other than, boy does something need to change.

3 comments:

Clare said...

I had a seven hundred dollar bill for Maya AFTER insurance. All so that doctor's could poke, prod and freak her out (she now hates doctor's) all to discover that it was in fact just a one time UTI and not something internal. Seven hundred dollars for nothing. Completely unnecessary.

At least Ella was really sick and it was important care.

Anonymous said...

It is shocking, shocking and obscene. I'm so happy we don't have to make those horrendous choices and finally surrender all dignity by doing the ER route into the hospital and just facing the bill collectors afterward. The bad part is that happens to working folks--really poor families have MA, which is surprisingly good--and what we should all have--single payer insurance.

Gramma Liisa

shauna said...

The thing that makes me sick is 70% of this bill is for the freaking bed. Not the care - not the doctors or nurses - not the medicine, just the bed. Highest paid bed in the country. Unbelievable.