Carol’s story

Story #1 (Circa 2005, Texas)

My father had a heart attack while we were out getting some maintenance done on the family car. He very suddenly fell over, hitting his head on the concrete. I was nine at the time and I ran on autopilot in the immediate aftermath, apparently running into the car store and getting help. The next thing I can recall is that, after immediate surgery on his heart and his head, is my father, what I assume is a few days later, arguing with our health insurance provider and his doctor having to physically take the phone from him - my father is very stubborn - because the call, which was over whether the provider would pay for his hospital stay, was raising his blood pressure to dangerous levels.

I have to mention that we overall had good health insurance through my mother’s work as she was in academia. It still did not protect my father from having to argue for bare minimum benefits while still actively in the hospital.

Story #2 (2022, Pennsylvania)

While I am a Canadian citizen, my mother still lived in Pennsylvania at the time of this event. I went to assist her during a recovery from surgery. Her recovery took longer than planned, resulting in me running out of several key prescriptions that I use to keep my mental health on track. As my prescriber (my family doctor) is not authorized to prescribe in the United States, I was bounced between clinics and pharmacies in our area, all while my mental health declined as I was forcibly removed from my medications. Eventually, my mother - who was supposed to be receiving care from me but was having to care for me - took me to the emergency room in a last-ditch attempt to get a prescription.

The visit to the ER took about 15 minutes, including a brief wait in an empty lobby. The nurse and the doctor heard my symptoms and were given a digital copy of my prescriptions. They quickly wrote a prescription and I was back on my medications.

When I returned to Canada, I received a bill from the hospital for $1,700 USD - for a 15-minute appointment. I sent it to the provincial health insurance provider, who paid all of $15 because, well, a 15-minute ER visit would not cost more than that in Canada. I told the hospital administrator that I could not pay the remainder as an unemployed student and was preparing to have to tell them to kick rocks. The administrator let me know that I could fill out a form to have the charge written off, which it ultimately was.

I can't stop thinking about if someone went in and they didn't give that “write-off” offer now being saddled with debt for some money that I guess wasn't actually necessary since it was so easily written off. Small fries in comparison to some charges, but it would've buried me at the time for a quick visit.

This isn't so much "health insurance" but the rot within the entire health care system and its bureaucracy, which I think is worth discussing (Elisabeth Rosenthal really got into how hospitals contribute to sky-high health care costs) as many health care companies, such as hospital conglomerates, work with health insurance providers.