I AM Running Up Your Health Costs on Purpose

We have all heard about the acute illness, surgery, perhaps, that is devastating to someone without insurance, and now, they can't work either.. However, when they recover, and many of these have a good outcome, they can deal with these costs in some way.

We are lucky that we live in a society that will give life saving treatments before paying. This means that most people without insurance, who have not abused the system, will get the acute treatments they need. It is sad in that we could cover everyone, but we do cover most people. This system is also unequal and location based. But you can get things done if you learn the system, and pick your locations.

Another problem is major (often terminal) illness treatment. Our society does not provide support for these kinds of illnesses, although you can get various treatments without paying for them. Of course, these treatment options are more limited than they would be for someone with insurance, since they know you are not likely to pay them back for the treatment. In addition, the ill person will not be able to earn any kind of income again, or most likely be able to hold a job. Our society doesn't provide much support for this.

When terminal illness hits, your income is massively reduced. There are actually ways to create temporary money for a short time, but one eventually finds out that you cannot pay the mortgage or the car payment this way. You find you cannot replace things when they break. It becomes difficult to keep your house up. This of course, does not take into account the fact that your family is facing a major loss. But you can get some type of medical care now even without income.

But then you have me, the CHRONIC PATIENT. We become in so many ways society's dead weights. We cannot earn a living anymore. We have to depend depend on others for support. Some of us are lucky and are able to depend on our families for help and medical coverage, and, because we were productive in the past, and did some future planning, able to get disability payments to help out some. However, it usually takes about six months to get qualified for these payments. No matter what I earn in the future, I will not be able to replace the money our family used up because of my illness. This is a devastating thing to realize. No one's resources last forever, especially us common people. Then you are always dealing with your family being scared every time you get ill again.

And so we exist, us chronic illness people. We go back and forth, to the hospital and back, and I will remain on this gradient for the rest of my life. I will use up more medical costs out of my health plan than I will pay into it for my insurance. Us chronics are the biggest drain on your health costs. But, the new health bill doesn't address us at all. It will in fact, add more of us to the insured rolls, which will drive up your costs even more. But the new health law doesn't really address this, it just puts more people under some type of insurance. Unless of course, they just take the money and run.