High medical bills and job loss related to an illness are the cause of many foreclosures and bankruptcies in the United States. I don’t think the average person realizes that an illness can place a huge burden on your finances until you are faced with a sudden illness or a chronic illness such ...
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I second that!
Brandi Polatty
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 11:37 AMre: I second that!
Jan Gambino
Thursday, July 02, 2009 at 12:42 PMHello Brandi,
Thank you for your comments. Your family has an enormous burden-first caring for children with a chronic condition(s) and second from paying the cost of the medical care. Both wear out the caretakers-mentally and physically. I don't know what the answer is either. I just know that families with a child or adult with a chronic health condition should be able to have an affordable house to live in and not spend all of their money on healthcare instead.
Jan Gambino
The Reflux Mom
www.refluxmom.com
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Jan your posts seem to always be something of which I can relate.
Like the couple you mentioned, my husband has a good job with excellent health insurance. For the average person, it would be more than enough to make sure they got adequate coverage. I can't imagine what our life would be without it, so I'm hardly complaining. But that said, last year when we calculated milage, room and board, inpatient food and copays and our 10% responsibility it was well over $16,000 out of pocket. Now, we live in a moderate house. When we qualified for it, it was actually less than what we could have borrowed. We have one auto loan. While we make sure we pay our house payment first, our credit card is mounting. We want to provide things normal children want that are even more important for our kids because there aren't a whole lot of things in life that go their way.
Our credit card is the highest ever for us. I don't know if we'll ever get it paid off, but I can't worry about that. I have to provide a roof and a means of transportation for the over 67 trips we took to the pediatrician last year.
I know our medical bills are high, but I also know others are higher and I think of children with chronic conditions who aren't insured at all--hopefully with the new legislation that will be a thing of the past.
I know people will argue the government does nothing well and government is not the answer. I'm not sure what the best way to deal with this health crisis, but for sure the effects trickle down to everyone in this country and it is partly responsible for man aspects of the condition of our country in one way or another.
Thanks for your insight into your friend's family. We'll pray for them and for our world. We pray for our children to get better so we don't have to worry about this. We pray for God to take care of our every need (which he does) and we pray for you to continue to reach people and make people think---why is it this way and how can we make it better!