As if being sick with Strepp throat and a lung infection isn't enough, but some sort of social experience had to put me in my place and once again remind me that even though my lungs are burning and I want to gut my swollen eyes out... I'm actually quite fortunate. 

I'm currently in one of those awkward months where when switching insurance plans, jobs or making life adjustments, leaves me uncovered for about a month.  My coverage is supposed to kick in Feb 1st, so of course three weeks prior I had to get sucked into the land of the living dead.  After about 4 days of painful burns, snot grossness, and disgusting cough noises, I finally decided it's time to see a doctor. 

I was able to find some local non profit family care clinics that take locals at a low cost if they don't have insurance.  It blew my mind that despite being financially stable,  not having insurance is like a death sentence. My local doctor wouldn't take me without insurance.  What blew my mind even further is, when you call, no one asks if you're medically serious, their first question is "Do you have insurance" and the second is "how will you be paying."

So the first clinic I went to on 30th in North Park turned me away b/c they were too full, honestly if you saw me today and heard how I sounded, I was shocked how easily someone would just say, "try again tomorrow."  When I called the city heights location, the rep was nice enough to hear how I sounded and booked me for an appointment.  I got to see a doctor after waiting about an hour and laying on the table for 20 minutes, and got my test results an hour later with my prescription.

Just to talk to a doctor, get vitals = $35
Test - $20
Meds - $4-30
Humidifier (docs orders) - $37
Total: $90-$120 (not bad right??......)

So honestly I get it, that it's not bad and there are worst medical bills that one can have.  I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford taking care of myself.  But what got me thinking was, what about the family who's barely making wages, $100, hell even $50 is a lot to dump into one occurrence.  AAAAND don't even get me started on the quality of care you receive at lower costs.  I also get it all costs money.

I called the Mr. after to tell him how I was doing and about my day and he said "you're lucky you're Canadian, if anything serious happened we could fly you back up here and get you taken care of." We both have friends  who are going to school down here and if they break an arm, or get into an accident, they have to go back home to get better care.

A while back I watched a documentary by Morgan Spurlock (supersize me) where he and his g/f spent 30 days on minimum wage and I completely agree with his final thoughts, which is we live in this glorious country that is the most powerful nation in the world, we should be taking better care of our people.

The whole health care experience  here, between buying insurance, shopping doctors and shopping meds reminds me of the car buying business.  It just stinks of business politics, money and sales.  How many times have you heard someone say "I can't afford to get sick."

I fully understand that's the status of how things are, but I just can't accept that. 


Then you have the people who are insured, can take care of themselves and could care less if anyone else lives, as long as they can see their doctor within 5 minutes.  I think i'm more astonished by when people care than when they're self involved assholes.