"So shines a good deed in a weary world." ~ Willy Wonka

I spend a good amount of time on the Internet between email and Facebook. Ahhh...Facebook..that phenomenon of social networking. If you are familiar with Facebook, and if you're not, you need to seriously reconsider that "hermit" thing, you know that people post things all the time. Some are of interest to me, others are not, but every once in a while someone posts something that touches me deeply. This morning as I was scrolling through my news feed I came across a video that Jim Beaver posted. It was about a softball team and one particular player who scored her first home run, but there was a problem. She hit the ball over the fence, but turning 1st, she tore her ACL and dropped to the ground in pain. The rules state that if her own team members were to touch her to help her around the bases, she would be called out. What to do? And then something happened. A player from the opposing team asked the umpire if she could pick her up and carry her around the bases. She was told there was no rule against that, so she and another teammate picked up the injured player and carried her around the bases, stopping to touch her uninjured foot on each base. She had her home run, her first and last, as the injury ended her softball career. The opposing team lost the game that day as the home run they assisted with drove in two other runs, but it wasn't about winning that day. It was about doing the right thing, putting someone else before yourself! As I watched the video, and, YES, I cried, I couldn't help but think, ALL IS NOT LOST! There is till hope for a better world when you see young people exhibit such selfless behavior. The world is in their hands, and I'm pretty comfortable with that.

I'm having a heart attack, take me to the ER....WAIT! Can you afford that?

This is my 114th blog post, and the 113 before this one have been personal revelations, insights, opinions, not many have entered into the political realm. This one won't really either, but something happened to me about a month ago that has opened this door for me.
On the 10th of June, I started feeling this all too familiar pain in the left flank of my back. The annoyance of a kidney stone. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones that suffers with kidney stones. they were first presented to me as a gift from my soon to be born second child back in 1995. From 1995 to 2005, I had a major stone ~ by that, I mean one causing pain severe enough to send me to the ER ~ about every 6 months. And then, as if by magic, they stopped. I'm sure it had a lot to do with diet changes. They stopped until Friday, June 10th, 2011. By Saturday, June 11th, the pain was so intense I could barely take a breath, and the pain had moved. It was more in the front than the back and seemed to be in my abdomen. I thought, what if this isn't a kidney stone? What if my appendix is about to burst or I have some major Gastrointestinal issue. I woke my daughter and asked her to drive me to the ER. Ahh, the ER, perhaps another blog post for another time. Needless to say, it was not a great experience. Cutting to the chase, I spent 5 hours there to find out I had a kidney stone (actually, 3, but one large enough to be lodged in my ureter, hence the pain in my abdomen and two smaller ones sitting in my kidney) and to get a pain shot with discharge instructions to follow up with my urologist. Now, let me start by saying I am not a baby when it comes to pain. I have a very high tolerance for pain. An Example: The accident I had when I was young that I have blogged about before required that I have a plastic surgery procedure on my face called skin planing every 6 months for 8 years. That's 16 procedures. The patient is given a local (in my case, Novocaine) and the procedure is done while the patient is awake. I felt all but one, because I apparently needed more Novocaine than the average dose. However, I never told my doctor until the last procedure that I could feel everything because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. All that to make this point. I don't visit the ER at the drop of a hat. When I visited on June 11th, I was asked for a $75.00 co-pay. I thought to myself, "Oh, it's gone up from $50.00 to $75.00," never looking at my card to check.  Not checking the insurance before going to the ER, this was my first mistake. Me, of all people, one who used to pay insurance claims. I remember denying claim after claim because the insured had not followed procedures.
Yesterday, I received a bill from the hospital for my 5 hour stay in the ER. Are you ready for this? Over $8,000. Luckily, I was not being billed for the $8,000. I was being billed for $680.00, which might as well be $8,000, because I don't have either. I couldn't believe it! $8,000 for 5 hours! Thank God they didn't admit me! The reason I should have checked my card? I no longer have a co-pay for the ER. My insurance only covers 70% of an ER visit. I know, right now you're doing the math and saying 30% of $8,000 isn't $680.00. I did the same thing, but am deciding to just keep my mouth shut. It'll take me years to pay the $680.00 off. What if I didn't have insurance? How in the world could I or anyone else who isn't a millionaire pay an $8,000 bill? Something has to be done! Not just for people like me but for the elderly and the people with no insurance. If it's not national health care, then something needs to be done about the vicious cycles of the the hospitals and doctors charging these astronomical fees because the insurance companies are paying less and less, and the insurance companies paying less and less because the they feel the doctors and hospitals are charging too much. I don't have the answers, but somebody needs to come up with them. No one should have to decide if they can afford to be sick or pick and choose which life-saving medications they should eliminate because they are too expensive. I  told my daughter who was there when I opened the bill, "If I ever have a heart attack, make the EMT's treat me in the living room because I can't afford for them to take me to the hospital." She thought I was joking. I wish I was.