So I pulled a calf muscle in my last half marathon, nothing debilitating but I am limping a bit. And I’m wondering if I should go see a masseuse about my calf, to see if they can tell if it needs anything more than basic TLC. It’s because at this point I’m avoiding doctors at all costs.
You see, less than a year ago I broke my fibula – that’s the small shin bone. It was pretty bad, and the orthopedist convinced me it would heal best if they surgically implanted a rod to fuse the broken halves together. I agreed, and in retrospect, I’m glad I did.
But even with insurance that thing cost me over $5000 out of pocket. Even not including physical therapy, it cost me about $4000 out of pocket.
I got a bill from the doctor, a bill from the anesthesiologist, the surgery center charged my card before they even let me in the door and the company that provided the rod and screws billed me. That’s not including the copays I shelled out between visits or the miscellaneous drugs I was prescribed.
Each bill was almsot $1000. It’s ridiculous. I don’t have the money to pay these guys, I’m basically paying about $100 a month between them all to keep it from going into collections. The insurance company is absolutely no help in helping me figure out if any of them are even justified in charging me. All for a freaking outpatient surgery. I think the surgeon told me it took 15 minutes to do the acutal procedure.
The whole industry is like a pack of vultures on a carcass. It wasn’t always like this. Back in 2000 I had a burst appendix and spent a week in the hospital, the whole thing cost less than $30k and the insurance paid for eveyrthing.
And here’s the thing. I’m not poor, I don’t have some shitty job with no benefits, I make over the median and pay extra for decent coverage. But apparently, decent coverage now allows you the same benefits as no coverage did only 10-15 years ago.
Why is this not the foremost issue in Washington? How is it that people aren’t up in arms about this? Not only are they not up in arms, they’re actually defending the current system! The health care system isn’t broken: we HAVE no health care system. There is no such thing as health care in America anymore. It’s a health profit system. They find ways to make money off you if you’re sick or injured, and God help you if you actually expect them to make you better.