Stay Healthy and Save Money

Save Your Health

I awakened one morning and to my dismay I was very sick and in severe stomach pain and was taken to the hospital. Unemployed, uninsured were the farthest thing from my mind when my pain was off the scale. Of course, our great health care system accepts you even without insurance when it is an emergency at some locations. When you are as sick as I was it did not matter about the future consequences, expense to be exact, as I was too ill to think rationally and I did not care. When you are in pain you go to the hospital and they give you a diagnosis so you can get better. That is the old day idea. Here is a version of the new day healthcare. 

After day 5 I left the hospital still vomiting and very ill but as I had no insurance and they could not find out what was going on they seen no reason for me to stay. They or should I say the physician’s assistant, could care less that I was still in pain. She even said that they could not give me anymore pain meds so I would have to just live in pain. The doctors never put a hand on me other than to shake my hand my whole stay. At that moment I realized that they could care less about my health or how I felt. The bedside manner of the physician was superficial and totally absent of human compassion. 

Where was Dr. House? He would have made sure they found out what was wrong but that is television. The ethical code of honor is to heal the sick, stop the pain or find the reason for the pain. Care stopped when they couldn’t find the reason for my obvious pain.  Feeling of compassion was absent for fear of not being known as a great doctor. This human quality does not come from a book. It is a quality that many doctors in this era seem to lack. I am not saying all doctors are like this but when you are just a body that is sick without insurance it affects the way you are treated by nurses, physician and especially the physician assistant. To be informed that you could just suffer in pain without medication and stay in the hospital made no sense to me. 

Due to the lack of care and trying to find out why you are still in pain I left still vomiting and in pain. Whether you live or die when the doctor is unable to find a cure you are discharged. The hospital bill must be paid even when you’re still sick. If I did not fix the plumbing at the doctor’s home would I get paid? Within a week all the doctor bills begin to pour in and to make it even more difficult while you are still in pain, they all bill you separately for each procedure. 

Stress is what keeps you sick without a diagnosis but do you think they care about this when you owe them money. The person that does this job only sees you as a number so this really takes the human quality from the illness that you have. They immediately create added stress to your illness demanding payment at once. Sure you got a little break as you had no insurance but do they care if you are well. The future of your health now depends on paying cash for the tests you need to find out why you are still sick. 

How is a sick person ever to get well when you are the unfortunate person that has currently has no insurance at this exact moment in life. When you had insurance you didn’t need it or at least that is how it was with me. When I did have it I was required to pay money I didn’t have so I would not use it. It’s a vicious circle and the only person that really wins is the insurance company. Preventative health is a joke as you can’t afford it so the best way to save money is try to stay healthy and never get sick, LOL. 

To heal the sick is the sacred oath of the doctor but beyond that there is a gap in being able to get healthy and the ability to afford it. You can’t pay for the tests that will make you well as you are trying to pay for the emergency bill that was not written off. You are hounded by the creditors that want the money you could never afford in the first place but your illness was an emergency and required to sustain your life. 

This stress adds to remaining sick. After 5 days in the hospital and a $38,000 bill no one has a clue why you are still in pain. My advice is time your illness to never be sick and having insurance doesn’t save you money as you still will be hounded by the bill collectors for the %20 you still owe. Save your money by never getting sick.