Insurance is an amazing thing. It's an annoying thing a lot of the time, dealing with customer service, waiting on hold for too long, calling about claims that didn't go through, etc. The total time I've spent in the last two and a half years (mainly do to Noah's medical expenses) on the phone with insurance companies and medical billing offices is ridiculous. But my goodness, insurance is fantastic.
I am grateful for my HMO.
I've been having some bad neck, shoulder and back pain, coupled with some brutal headaches. Without getting into unnecessary details, after ruling out the worst, I decided to try some physical therapy to see if I could bring myself some relief. I went today for the first time, and I was so pleased! Jose did a great job, and I feel really hopeful about the whole situation. He thinks a lot of it is from my poor posture, i.e. sitting on the couch with a laptop blogging every night...hmmm...who does that?
But, the fact is, I can go to this place for FREE. Essentially - I mean, we pay for our insurance, but I have no out of pocket expenses. And it gets me thinking about how great my insurance is, and looking back at our crazy expenses with Noah's birth, and how I never paid more than a couple of hundred dollars for it ALL - including the 160,000 dollars in expenses from his NICU stay and surgeries. YEAH.
How sad that there are so many people in our country who don't have the same peace of mind that I do regarding medical care. I know, no matter what happens to our family, health-wise, that we'll be taken care of. Thanks to Jason's work, we have an amazing healthcare plan that provides us with all we need in that arena. But, the reality is we aren't all so lucky/blessed. I just don't know what to think about the whole healthcare crisis...
Moving Day
14 years ago
I think it's crazy that your NICU stay was $160,000! I know that is reality, but it's ridiculous. My mom found a carbon copy of the receipt from her hospital stay when I was born (1978) and guess how much 3 days in the hospital and having a baby cost? $1500. Yeah, crazy. I don't know for sure, but I've heard that having a baby costs around $10,000 these days (if you go to the hospital) and more if you end up having to have a cesarean (sp?). I don't know if there is one right answer for the healthcare crisis, but it seems that there must be some solution to it all.
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