I care very much about a woman’s right to chose. I care even more that a beloved friend is stuck with a $400,000 hospital bill his insurance company refuses to pay because he went out of network in order to save his brain. The local hospital sent him to the best brain trauma center. He was given care he probably couldn’t have gotten other places and is fine–well crazy but he always was.
Rafe as I call him was a legal immigrant who came here with less than nothing. He owns a successful hair salon in Manhattan and a condo. He paid for his daughter’s law school tuition and expenses. He didn’t want her to start off life with massive debt. That’s a parent’s dream for their child, and not a crime. Yet now people will say he shouldn’t have paid so he could have had the money. But he had investments and savings also. Then 07,08 happened and along with most Americans he lost some of his money but didn’t need it and wasn’t planning on using it for many years. Save for a rainy day in America is really save for any medical condition.
Is it a crime to have saved money? Should it go to an insurance company? Is he supposed to begin again at 55? He owns the business yes and probably can sell it but can no longer cut hair. He is, I admit, lucky that he has a business to sell but why should he be forced to?
In the midst of the turmoil, was his wife, who forced him into the car to go to the hospital after he had a blinding headache and threw up, supposed to remember to call the insurance company? If it’s that important shouldn’t the original hospital’s social worker have reminded her? Made the call for her?
We take people at their most vulnerable moments and make them responsible for decisions that will impact the rest of their lives. Oh Pia, keep spouting cliches. Real original writing here.
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OK I put the rest in draft. Basically like everybody I need encouragement and validation.
I know I accomplished a lot in the past couple of years but I wanted to accomplish so much more. Maybe I will. But I have to stay away from anything NLD because it hurts and makes me feel like an idiot.
I will never accept “disabled” as “differently abled,” nor will I ever allow myself to be thought of as disabled. Social Security doesn’t. People thought I had strange problems, was dramatic and exaggerating my balance, coordination and other problems until I found out about NLD. Maybe that was better.
Maybe that was way better as I thought I was a person with much to offer. I hope to think that way again.
That is ridiculous! Poor family. The good thing about where I live is that healthcare is free, we don’t see any form of a bill/insurance papers, the government covers it. The downside of that of course is that they can’t afford to pay as many workers in that industry so it’s sometimes a much much longer wait than it should be to get the proper care you need and things like homes for the elderly get shut down at times.
Pia, you manage to be funniest mid-rant. And great post title. I hope Rafe comes out ok, financially and able to play the piano.
Thanks. I like the title also. Where was I funny? I try but….
He has a business and if anybody could sell one he could but these aren’t great times for selling
I try to stay away from being real political because I respect the feelings of the people I live amongst but Rafe is the real story of the greatness and failings of the American health care system–not illegal immigrants clogging up the emergency room trying to get something for nothing
I’m the real story–pay a ton in premiums each month. Only half my body is covered and I live in fear that if I submit a claim it will be denied.
We shouldn’t have to fear spending our money on medical emergencies when we pay so much for insurance
I would love a return to pay the doctor a reasonable fee and only have major medical but doctors would hate that as they couldn’t get to play with all their fancy machines
Will there be a Rafe chapter in the book?
And in some parallel universe, do you tell Rafe stories about us? 🙂
Wasn’t one of the gripes of the fearmongers against health care reform that they wouldn’t be able to choose their own doctor?
I guess it’s better that the medical experts known as insurance companies decide what care we need and don’t need.
I don’t tell Cooper, Doug, Sage and other people stories; I only tell Bone stories to a few people and well they were basically about how the name Bone came to be and Little Nibbler. Because frankly my dear they think you’re obscene if I don’t explain 🙂 Yes you. Truly funny.
The book. I think I’m trashing five really seven or more years of work as it’s depressing and I’m not enamored with my writing. I’m reconsidering that but so far….
Speaking as someone enamored enough with your writing to have voluntarily waded hip-deep in the early drafts of it, I hope you don’t throw everything out.
If the first draft of History doesn’t contain the true story of American Healthcare pre-reform, it’s up to us to ensure that the second draft does.
Thanks Wombat. You know how much your feedback means to me. I didn’t throw anything out–magic of the Internet cloud. I decided to take the summer to write something fun and edgy. Something actually enjoyable, and then I will see.
ha everyone already said it for me.I am enamored that should count for something…
Cooper–that means everything to me ) Watching you grow from a 19 year old girl with a blog to the professional you are today has been a joy
I might just need a break from the material. I’m too myopic in every sense
Anyways thank you all. I didn’t mean for this to be a Piafeast however I’ll take the compliments and love
“Oh Pia, keep spouting cliches. Real original writing here.” is funny.
I was spouting cliches. So I had to acknowledge the humor in that
I’m working on my health care rant–i wasn’t going to say anything about the debate (I’m not exactly happy with the Democrats, either, as I think they should have gone further if they were going to have to do it alone), but then I found some things said by my local state representative to be reprehensible and he got me angry. And the spitting and racial name calling…