![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Oh, America...
Dec. 3rd, 2010 08:09 amTis the season for most of my friends' list having to deal with hospital level illnesses apparently.
Best wishes to everyone and here is to a speedy recovery.
Interestingly enough, the majority dealing with hospital what not are not from the United States.
As an American, I am programed to feel empathy and concern as to how you are going to cover all of those hospital bills.
Now, I understand, that you live in a country with a crazy notion that sick and injured people have the right to receive help without taking a third mortgage out on their house.
But as an American, I was raised to believe health care is a luxury. Like name brand cereal, gourmet dining, or manicures/pedicures for pets.
So I got to thinking, perhaps my non American friends might like to know how the American brain works when it comes to health care. What we think and why we might stay at home and chose to make a duct tape cast for our broken arm instead of taking out a fifth mortgage on the house to see a doctor.
Enter my brain, won't you?
I have insurance, and it still cost $300 per night to stay in a hospital. (Not counting any tests that are run, or if they need to give me medicine or a bandage.)
So even with insurance, I am hesitant to see a doctor.
Four years ago, when I woke up vomiting blood. I went to work. Why?
One, I needed the money.
Two, I stopped vomiting for an hour and figured I was alright.
Three, in the States, blood vomit requires a hospital visit. Even if I showed up to my primary care doctor, she would have dismissed me and told me to go to the hospital.
(Note, not send me in a vehicle to the hospital. I would be discharged with something so serious a physician can not handle it. But be expected to get to the hospital, which is on the other side of town, on my own accord.)
Since work was a short walk and the hospital is a long walk, I chose work.
Eventually my work sent me home. Apparently, my blood loss gave me a disturbing look that frightened the students.
So I walked home and continued my vomit-a-thon.
Soon enough, I thought I was going to die. But what if I didn't die? There would be a huge hospital bill to deal with.
I vomited some more and thought about my options.
Finally, I go to the hospital, I was given dozens of expensive, even with insurance, tests.
As each vial of blood was drawn, I saw another week of groceries go into the garbage.
Who needs food, right?
After a half day ordeal, I was diagnosed with a simple case of gastritis. I was told to not eat for a few days, living off of water, and then work my way up to clear broths.
A month later, I received the hospital bill.
A day after the bill arrived I received a call from the hospital collections agency.
You see, I hadn't paid my bill yet. (The one that arrived 24 hours earlier.) And they were getting ready to send my case to a collections agency.
Everything worked out. But it required me missing a day of work to hunt various people down on the telephone at the hospital in order to pay my damn bill.
Which I used a credit card for. Because they don't take cheques over the phone.
Most Americans have to take out a credit card for, or use one they already have to pay for their medical expenses.
Yes, it's true, Americans are in a lot of credit card debt. But we aren't all rolling in the latest designer clothes with the latest gadget. A lot of this debt is due to not having the funds to cover hospital and medical expenses.
And not everyone has the funds available to pay off the credit card in full before the next month rolls around. If they did, they wouldn't have used the credit card to pay for their hospital or doctor visit in the first place.
(I am fortunate that the only reason I had to use a credit card over the phone was due to them wanting the money ASAP and not taking a debit card (at the time, mine did not have a credit card logo) or a cheque. I was fortunate enough to be able to pay it off in full the next month. I ate meagerly for awhile, but it was paid off.)
And that is how the cycle begins. Or continues.
I am not really certain where I was going with this.
Moral of the story, if you live outside of the United States and have a Yankee friend visit you who then becomes ill or hurts themselves, this is the reason why they are hesitant to go see a doctor.
We aren't brash adventurers who walk off broken legs because we are just that badass.
We are broken by a system that tells us health is a luxury.
FIN
Best wishes to everyone and here is to a speedy recovery.
Interestingly enough, the majority dealing with hospital what not are not from the United States.
As an American, I am programed to feel empathy and concern as to how you are going to cover all of those hospital bills.
Now, I understand, that you live in a country with a crazy notion that sick and injured people have the right to receive help without taking a third mortgage out on their house.
But as an American, I was raised to believe health care is a luxury. Like name brand cereal, gourmet dining, or manicures/pedicures for pets.
So I got to thinking, perhaps my non American friends might like to know how the American brain works when it comes to health care. What we think and why we might stay at home and chose to make a duct tape cast for our broken arm instead of taking out a fifth mortgage on the house to see a doctor.
Enter my brain, won't you?
I have insurance, and it still cost $300 per night to stay in a hospital. (Not counting any tests that are run, or if they need to give me medicine or a bandage.)
So even with insurance, I am hesitant to see a doctor.
Four years ago, when I woke up vomiting blood. I went to work. Why?
One, I needed the money.
Two, I stopped vomiting for an hour and figured I was alright.
Three, in the States, blood vomit requires a hospital visit. Even if I showed up to my primary care doctor, she would have dismissed me and told me to go to the hospital.
(Note, not send me in a vehicle to the hospital. I would be discharged with something so serious a physician can not handle it. But be expected to get to the hospital, which is on the other side of town, on my own accord.)
Since work was a short walk and the hospital is a long walk, I chose work.
Eventually my work sent me home. Apparently, my blood loss gave me a disturbing look that frightened the students.
So I walked home and continued my vomit-a-thon.
Soon enough, I thought I was going to die. But what if I didn't die? There would be a huge hospital bill to deal with.
I vomited some more and thought about my options.
Finally, I go to the hospital, I was given dozens of expensive, even with insurance, tests.
As each vial of blood was drawn, I saw another week of groceries go into the garbage.
Who needs food, right?
After a half day ordeal, I was diagnosed with a simple case of gastritis. I was told to not eat for a few days, living off of water, and then work my way up to clear broths.
A month later, I received the hospital bill.
A day after the bill arrived I received a call from the hospital collections agency.
You see, I hadn't paid my bill yet. (The one that arrived 24 hours earlier.) And they were getting ready to send my case to a collections agency.
Everything worked out. But it required me missing a day of work to hunt various people down on the telephone at the hospital in order to pay my damn bill.
Which I used a credit card for. Because they don't take cheques over the phone.
Most Americans have to take out a credit card for, or use one they already have to pay for their medical expenses.
Yes, it's true, Americans are in a lot of credit card debt. But we aren't all rolling in the latest designer clothes with the latest gadget. A lot of this debt is due to not having the funds to cover hospital and medical expenses.
And not everyone has the funds available to pay off the credit card in full before the next month rolls around. If they did, they wouldn't have used the credit card to pay for their hospital or doctor visit in the first place.
(I am fortunate that the only reason I had to use a credit card over the phone was due to them wanting the money ASAP and not taking a debit card (at the time, mine did not have a credit card logo) or a cheque. I was fortunate enough to be able to pay it off in full the next month. I ate meagerly for awhile, but it was paid off.)
And that is how the cycle begins. Or continues.
I am not really certain where I was going with this.
Moral of the story, if you live outside of the United States and have a Yankee friend visit you who then becomes ill or hurts themselves, this is the reason why they are hesitant to go see a doctor.
We aren't brash adventurers who walk off broken legs because we are just that badass.
We are broken by a system that tells us health is a luxury.
FIN
