I Dropped My Health Insurance

I’ve been thinking about writing about this for a long time, but I guess I was too embarrassed to openly admit it: I no longer have health insurance.  I dropped it, I simply couldn’t afford it.

I’m not like those people whose employer pays for all or a portion of their health insurance premiums.  As a solo consultant and small business owner, I had been buying my own health insurance for many years.  I’ve watched the premiums go up and up and up every year.   I shook my head and paid assuming – like auto insurance – that I couldn’t afford to be without.  It was all OK, while the economy was OK.

But then this past Spring, I took a look at all my debts and bills and projected what my income was likely to be. Then I looked at how much my premiums were about to go up yet again (nearly a 35% increase).  Bottom line: something had to go.  So I swallowed hard and stopped paying my premiums.

You see, I figured that I’m in pretty good health for a 49 year old (the only doctor I ever see regularly is my chiropractor), and besides: the President and Congress are finally going to do something about making insurance affordable, right? So, I thought, I can just do without it for a while.

Well wouldn’t you know it?  About a month after dropping my insurance I started having chest pains while on a business trip.  Crap! Am I having a heart attack? I can’t afford to be ill!  The pain subsided and I went into denial that it ever happened.  Then a week later, the pain came back while I was at home on a Sunday morning, reading the paper.  So, I took myself over to the emergency room, preparing myself to pay through the nose.

Turns out after a blood test, an EKG and lots of questions by nurses and doctors, that my heart is fine; I actually had some kind of chest infection.  After 3 hours, they released me and I steeled myself for the bills. They came in recently.  Total cost including the blood work around $2,750.00 – about $1,000 an hour.  It’s not jaw dropping, but it sure ain’t chump change.  I called the billing department – they said they’d be willing to negotiate if I paid everything right away.  Interesting.

Now, I’m talking about all of this because right up until this morning, I was pretty sure that finally the government was going to do something about the insane cost of health care in this country.  Silly me. Now, they’re saying they won’t do anything before the summer recess.  Who knows if they’ll ever get anything done.

All I know now is that I can’t afford health insurance and there are a lot of politicians (who have terrific health care they don’t pay for) and wealthy Americans with health insurance who don’t seem to give a damn about those of us who can’t afford the premiums.  They’re so worried about America going “socialist” they’ve forgotten about middle-class hard-working Americans who are really struggling.   News flash: Social Security is “socialism,” are they gonna give that up cause they’re against socialism?  Federal employees and active duty military have retirement benefits that are extraordinarily generous – that’s “socialism” too.

Call it socialism, communism, or totalitarianism for all I care – I just want some decent health insurance that I can afford?! Is that too much to ask?