What am I supposed to do with an "explanation of benefits" letter from my health insurance company stating that they will not cover the vast majority of the expenses incurred when my 9-year-old son had his second open heart surgery and spent 2 weeks in the ICU?
Yep. That's over $400k for one open heart surgery and 2 weeks in the ICU. And what about the $1000 payment I owe every time he sees the cardiologist?
This is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS. I'm baffled. I'm inspired to quote old sayings like, "You can't squeeze blood from a stone." I could rant about the injustice of it all, but the number is so astronomical that I can see it from a distance. I can look at it through jaded, cynical eyes that have seen some serious shit . . . and I can laugh. Yep, I'd like to say I was surprised, but deep down I was expecting something like this. Nothing comes easy in life, good breaks are pure fantasy, and I'm just another hamster spinning my own little wheel, always moving but never getting anywhere. So I shrug and laugh about it, because that's all I can do.
Some might say I'm lucky that debtors' prisons were abolished in America. To this- I shrug again.
Some might say I should get a second job, even a third job, and work myself to the bone to pay this amount of money. That's not gonna happen.
Some people might kill themselves in the face of huge debt.
I think I'm taking the healthiest possible approach by accepting that I can do nothing to fix this country's healthcare system, and it's definitely not worth me killing myself. I would be a totally useless martyr for the cause, and I realize that.
My husband and I both work full-time jobs, albeit at the bottom of our perspective ladders. We have a mortgage, 2 car payments, and 2 growing boys. We live paycheck to paycheck as it is. We have no savings. In this situation, all we can do is make the smallest possible monthly payments and go on with our lives.
We'll be paying till we die.
The important thing is that our son's surgery was successful, and he is happy and healthy.
