On A Claire Day by Carla Ventresca and Henry Beckett for September 17, 2024

So glad I put my Wife on my work insurance. When her 3+ heart bypass surgery was done they paid for all of it. Over $250,000.

An unhappy, but accurate, summary.

When we were in England, my Mother had to visit the emergency room. We were seen immediately, possibly because she was older and they weren’t sure what was wrong with her. We asked for the bill, explaining that we were Americans and didn’t qualify for the free medical care. They replied that they didn’t have any forms for making out a bill, no one who would know how to make out the form if they had one and anyway everyone who was getting paid was busy taking care of sick peopleOn the other hand, when my son needed surgery for his cancer, he had to wait six weeks for the doctor to have an opening in his schedule. And, later, his treatments were postponed because the insurance company was deciding whether to pay for them. This was the president of the Midwestern Prostate Ontological group being dictated to by a pencil pusher who probably never graduated from college. That was in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States of America.We pay more for medical care than anyone else on earth and it’s not because we are paying for actual medical care. We are spending money to support a huge insurance industry with money that then isn’t available to provide for patient

My husband’s insurance took over paying for my chemo & then my Stem Cell Transplant after my insurance stopped. (I had given my retirement notice before my leukemia was diagnosed – so though I was on medical leave & no longer working, my insurance was still active until my retirement day. & until then, I had double coverage).