i’ve spent a lot of the past 6 years in a hospital. i’ve talked with a lot of people. you’d be surprised at how people will open up to someone with a tube sticking out of their chest. i guess it’s a ‘you must know where i’m coming from’ type of thing. and let me tell you, about 97% of the time the topic of insurance and costs comes up. and in every single case they couldn’t afford it. healthcare cost is ridiculous. people have sold their cars, their homes, their baseball card collections just for a drug. parents have to have second and third mortgages just to get their baby a transplant that might save her life. and even if the family makes it in to a recovery/remission stage they are left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt they owe to the hospital. forever. if they can even get that far. there are some case where the money just can’t be found. and yes, there are programs out there to offset the cost. but there are requirements and qualifications. for the without insurance folks that is where their saving grace is. but to the people who have insurance, who have a semi-decent paying job there is no help there.
in the past 6 years i had exactly 1 year without insurance. so all of the services and drugs i needed was paid out of pocket. granted it was heavily discounted because i begged and pleaded my no insurance/college student case. but i still didn’t qualify for any assistance due to my ‘fortunate’ bank account. so to date (not including my current stint) i have paid OUT OF POCKET over 1.5 million dollars. i have yet to qualify for any sort of program. i can barely get the hospital to stop charging me $84 for tylenol . i am so very fortunate to have good insurance. i am also very fortunate to have the money to pay those bills. but if i weren’t, i wouldn’t be in this hospital bed. i wouldn’t have made it this far. because i wouldn’t be able to pay the $2,500 a month drug bill. or the $200,000 drug treatments. how can anyone be expected to pay that? how can you ask a parent to make a choice between one childs christmas presents and the others medication. because no matter what you choose, both lose. and no matter how much debt you go into to make yourself healthy, you will be paying for that while living in poverty. unfortunately in this country, it’s cheaper to commit a felony and get treated in prison than to be an honest citizen and never have enough money to pay for you next round of treatment.
Overheard in the Student Union by me:
Guy 1: What is on Joe Biden’s head?
Guy 2: What? Is that a bruise?
Guy 1: Who punched Joe Biden in the head?
(At this point, I look up and realize I know Guy 2.)
Me: Guys, really? Are you really being serious?
Guy 1 and 2: Yeah, we’re serious. What is on Joe Biden’s head? Who punched Joe Biden?
Me: No really. Are you being serious?
Guy 1 and 2: Yes!
Me: Guys, it’s Ash Wednesday. Come on, I’m Jewish and even I know that!!
Guy 1 and 2: Oooohhhh….hahaha.
Guy 1: But seriously, it looked like someone punched Joe Biden in the head.
SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour.
COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.
NAZISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you.
BUREAUCRATISM; You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away…
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.
VENTURE CAPITALISM - AN ICELANDIC CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.
A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market it worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are. You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.
AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them.
A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad.
| — | Rep. Steve King (R- Crazytown, IA) on why Congress deserves their annual pay raise (which is not voted on). (via alcaniglia) (via think4yourself) |
