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Thyme For Some Literary Healing: Exorbitant Medical Expenses
In today’s Thyme for some Literary Healing, we’re going to discuss the big elephant in the room. Not that one, another one – one that we deal with constantly and rarely discuss. Wait for it — Exorbitant medical expenses. So many of us are forced into bankruptcy, moving in with relatives, and homelessness. Treating chronic conditions in today’s economic climate is horrific, regardless of where you live (I think). Even if the country you reside in offers a public option, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get the care you need unless you go ‘private’. Additionally, in the US, doctors are as stuck as patients are with respect to insurance – they don’t get paid – we don’t get coverage. It’s a vicious and frustrating cycle.
We thought we’d ask a few questions, so we can connect with each other and share our plights, ideas and resources.
- Do you have medical insurance?
- What is your out of pocket with medical insurance?
- If you don’t have medical insurance, how do you treat your condition?
- What does it cost you to treat your condition per month?
- How has the cost of treating your condition affected you?
Ready? Set? Write!
Tags: cost of Graves Disease, cost of Hashimoto's disease, cost of Thyroid Cancers, cost of treating chronic conditions, medical bankruptcy, pre-existing health insurance, thyroid health care
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2 Responses to “Thyme For Some Literary Healing: Exorbitant Medical Expenses”
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Thankfully??? My doctors understand that I do not have insurance so they have been very helpful in keeping my costs down. That being said I am still over $12,000.00 in debt due to testing. I can only make so much in payments a month so that is what I do. I cannot stress anymore about the money that is owed. I know I can only pay so much a month and that will have to be enough. I have had to drop from a full time job to a very part time one. I know my thyroid is still not under control and I do need to have it removed. Which brings us back to the no insurance thing. They hospital staff needs to get paid and right now there is just no room for another payment. So, what do I do? Waiting seems to be the only answer.
I can’t even put a number on how much my thyroid costs a month as it fulctuates. Usualy it’s somewhere around $200.00. Not including the payments I am making on the testing bills.
Thy’d-up in MI
My husbands employer does not provide health insurance for employees. I do free lance work, so I don’t have insurance either. This means we have to purchase a private plan — which started out $460 per month, but over the past 5 years has ballooned to $1210.00 per MONTH! (and will jump again when I reach age 50)! That’s $400 more than our house payment. It’s ridiculous.
Also, the insurance won’t even kick in until AFTER we have satisfied our yearly $2000 family deductible ($500 per person). We have no other options here, since Graves disease is “pre-existing” and the other companies won’t sell me a policy as long as I have that disease.
Thankfully, my son is now in remission from Graves (over 4+ years now) after 3 years on methimazole/synthroid therapy at a University, and he’s not on any drugs of any kind now. He only has to see a doc for tests once per year. So that expense is nearly gone now.
My own thyroid is well under control too, doing the same therapy as my son: a combo of Methimazole and Synthroid (generic co-pay is only $30/month). And since everything is under block & replace control, I only have to get lab work done every 4-6 months. But I insist on going to that very expensive University hospital — where labs alone are $1000. Just to see the endo is $275 per visit. So I meet my $2000 insurance deductible every year — even when getting labs done only 2-3 times per year.
The insurance company has been raising my rates by about 25% every year — the more tests I have done, the higher my premiums go. They are doing all they can to “purge” us. I’ve long heard about this ‘Insurance purging’ of older clients before, but didn’t understand it until I reached at 48 and saw my premiums skyrocket. What a shameful racket.
Since we also have to pay $30 for every office visit, and have no vision or dental coverage, our total medical/dental expenses take up about 1/4 of our income.
And the real kicker is that we spend 25% of our income on premiums and copays, and NOBODY in our family has any major illness or has ever been hospitalized!
If I didn’t have insurance, I would be paying about $40 per month for medicines — at least, until I reached remission. If I didn’t go to the expensive hospital, my lab work would be only around $400, with an endo fee of $175. This means Graves disease would cost me about $200 per month average.
Since I choose to go to the expensive hospital for best care (since my goal is to soon be in remission like my son), my monthly expenses for Graves (without insurance) would be about $200 per month.
But since I choose to buy insurance (to avoid bancruptcy if major illness comes along, and knowing if I drop this plan I’ll probably never get on another one), I am paying more than $1500 per month for this disease!