Reply #68: I remember when I had no insurance

[undergroundpanther]

and my cat bit my hand. I was yet to learn he had cancer and I was giving him prednisone so he could get a biopsy..Prednisone made him loopy and he bit my hand. I tried to home doctor it.(DO NOT EVER DO THIS WITH A CAT BITE BTW.)The next day my hand was aching red,swollen and very hot.I went to patient first. I saw the doctor there and she said I had to go to the ER for IV antibiotics ASAP..I cried my eyes out in her office hearing that.I begged her for oral antibiotics instead .She said the infection was too serious and deep in my hand...for that. I cried,more..At the hospital I was told I would be staying overnight.I cried again..

Not because I might have lost my hand,or got blood poisoning that could have killed me,(there was a red streak making it's way up my arm too) but I cried out of fear over the hospital bill.
I didn't cry over the danger I was in,or fear of losing my hand or dying,I was crying over the DREAD of the BILL.
when I got home I found out my cat had cancer and he was dying.
I cried again. He died three months later.

In a situation like a cat bite or any other health issue , no one should be crying in dread over the bill.
This is the fault of the greed of the wealthy.Their insatiable greed WARPS even your own health priorities into nonsense because of the threat a medical bill represents..
It's evil this lack of health care situation.Really.

Now when I get a cold it is, oh shit, my throat is swelling up. I have to go to the doctor because when my throat swells huge bone spurs could scrape my esophagus open and there are big arteries in there.(I have huge bone spurs in my neck.) But luckily I have MA now.I am so glad I do because every time my throat swells it could kill me,It has swollen to the point I could not drink anything,and it has cut my air intake to 70%.So if it swells I could rapidly bleed to death, drown in my own blood if the spurs dig into the esophagus.. And I am not kidding.
If I had to deal with this issue without insurance every cold would be a terrifying time for me.