Last week I had what I thought was a spider bite on my right shoulder. I let it go for 4 days thinking it would get better. Well, it just kept getting bigger, redder and more painful. I do not have health insurance right now as I once did. I called my physician that I normally see and the receptionist answered the phone. I told her my situation and asked if they could see me without insurance. Her reply was, “You must bring $100.00. “ I told her that I did not have $100.00 cash that day, but I really needed to see the doctor. I said, “Can you not just bill me?” The unfriendly receptionist snapped back with, “You need to go to the emergency room.”

I managed to come up with the $100.00 that could have bought groceries for my children. Then, I rushed to the doctor’s office. I sign in and the receptionist really needs the $100.00. Then I am in the “get to see the doctor” club.

My name is called and I go back to the privileged area. They take my vital signs and stick me in a lovely room. The physician comes in, looks at my shoulder, tells me I have a skin abscess and lances it. The whole procedure took about 5 minutes. He tells me to leave the dressing and he will repack it on Monday (three days from the day I am there now). I thank him for his wonderful services and head to the receptionist to set up another appointment. She gives me back $25.00 in change and gives me my next appointment. I ask her how much I need to bring for the next visit. She replies with, “$100.00.”

My Next Visit to the Money Pit

On Monday, I take an additional $100.00 that I really can’t afford to spend and head back to the doctor. I sit in the waiting room for an hour (where I probably will end up with the swine flu on top of my skin abscess.) Finally, my name is called to go to the privileged area again and get my vitals taken. Then I am placed in a room to wait for the healer. After staring at the wall for 30 minutes, he arrives. He looks at my wound which is severely infected now, and puts me through torture for about 5 minutes. He tells me that I have to come back every 2 days now for wound care. The nurse comes in and covers the wound and states, “most of the time these wounds are successfully healed. “Great”, I think to myself. “Most of the time, maybe I will get better.”

I head back to the receptionist to schedule my next appointment for 2 days and am told not only that I need to bring $100.00 to the next visit, but also that I owe $100.00 for the first visit. Somehow, they added some additional fees to the last visit over the weekend. At this point, I am beginning to think my family may starve to death.

I have to go back tomorrow for another visit. Hopefully I am on of the lucky ones that will be healed from this skin abscess. I do not plan to pay a few bills this month because they told me that it could take up to six weeks to heal. You go figure, $100.00 a pop every 2 days for who knows how long, can be rather expensive.

Why I Don’t Have Health Insurance

I know most of you are just thinking I should have health insurance. Well, that would be my goal. However, I just can’t afford it. I have looked into some plans. It will cost about $200.00 a month with a $10.000 deductible. What’s the point in having insurance if you have to pay $10.000 up front? I don’t have $10.000 just lying around the house. I know that Obama has a plan for health insurance but I do not know the details of it. I wish someone could fix this healthcare problem in America. Until then, there are many Americans that will go without medical attention, simply because they can’t afford to see a doctor.

Doctors Do Not Care

The last reason that I think healthcare in Americais horrible, is that doctors do not care about the patients. It is obvious that physicians work for the insurance and drug companies. This is why you see a drug representative there every time you are at a doctor visit. This is also the reason that a lot of doctors push off drugs that patients don’t really need. The physician gets a kickback off of those drugs.

Furthermore, in a lot of cases, a person can go to the same doctor repeatedly. If you took away the patients chart from the physician and you asked him the patient’s name, he would not even be able to tell you. I think if I had a business and I charged a person $100.00 every time they got to see me, I would at least take the time to know their name. I assume that med school does not teach you things like empathy, how to care (or even to pretend to care).

In summary, if you are not insured, you better hope that nothing major happens to you. It could cost you a fortune. Society does not care, the health care system does not care, and you are not anyone’s concern but your own.