Friday, December 5, 2008

Oh Frabjous Day!

After several long (and nerve racking) months without any health coverage, we can all sleep easier knowing that Stellan will be able to get the health care he needs, if and when he should need it.
Not to get all ranty about it, but I am ready for some health care reform. Medical care is excessively expensive, even prohibitively expensive if you don't have insurance; and we don't have insurance. In fact, insurance through the university would have run us $5,000 per person. Private insurance was also out of our grad school budget, along with many other comforts we once enjoyed. We've experienced a couple of close calls in the months since I left the Museum, where we had to weigh our worry over a urgent medical condition and our willingness to go into debt to pay for treatment. If you've never been in that situation, imagine having to put a price tag on your concern. Are you sick $50 worth? Are you sick $100 worth? Are you sick $1000 worth? Just how confident are you that you'll improve without treatment? Then substitute your concern for your own well being with the well being of your child, and see how well you sleep at night.
Thankfully for us, we'll be able to ensure that Stellan gets the health care he needs to stay healthy. And my heart goes out to everyone who doesn't have that assurance right now.

2 comments:

Usandthings said...

Oh yes, the health care crunch. We were there for many years. Luckily, Lillian qualified for MediCal so I never had to worry about her. I never had insurance except during my pregnancies and Tyler only got basic health care coverage through school (like for strep throat and albuterol). So worrying about car accidents and major illnesses gave new urgency to the prayer "help us to get home safely" and "help this food to nourish and strengthen our bodies." I feel for you.

Jess said...

I hear ya! We have a government subsidized program for our kids, so we only have to pay $111 a month instead of the $800 it would cost through Ral's job (not to mention the ginormous deductibles), you'd think that if they weren't going to pay teachers very well, they'd at least have decent benefits...oh well. I just don't get sick.