Guaranteed Healthcare

I'm just out of college and currently unemployed. I moved back in with my family for a while, and was saving up money from my seasonal job so that I could get on my feet and get started with my life. A couple weeks before Christmas, I woke up with a sore throat. I didn't think much of it, and I've been uninsured since I was eight years old, so I tried to just take it easy for the day. By the end of the day my throat was almost swollen shut and I was running a high fever. My family all work in food service and didn't want to run the risk of getting something contagious, so they insisted that I go to the emergency room. Sure enough, I had strep throat. It's a minor enough ailment, so I paid for the antibiotics and moved on.

I waited for the ER bill to come, not making a follow-up appointment with my doctor because I didn't want to add on any more costs. Two days after Christmas, the other side of my throat was swollen. I called every doctor's office in town until I found one that was open so shortly after the holidays and paid another doctor's bill and another prescription. Then my ear started to hurt. I held out for about a day or two before going back to the doctor, and paying another bill, to get medicine for an ear infection. By this time the doctor was making jokes about my bad luck. Two days later, I was back in the ER. Even though I was on two different antibiotics at this point, my ear hurt so badly I couldn't sleep. My family was worried that the infection was getting worse instead of better and insisted I go to the ER. At the very least, I could get something for the pain. I started crying when they asked me to go, not only because I hadn't slept in days and I was in pain. I cried because, even before paying the first ER bill, my meager funds were running out.

But I went and I saw the doctor who rolled his eyes at me for wasting his time with something so minor. He wrote me a prescription for another antibiotic and some mild painkillers and sent me home with a couple of codeine pills and the promise of another bill. The antibiotic he gave me ended up costing $120 for a ten-day supply. The doctor wrote me that Rx knowing that I didn't have insurance, knowing that my job had died down for the season, and knowing that I had already been sick twice that month. Luckily, I had a massive allergic reaction to that drug and my local pharmacy was good enough to buy the remaining pills back. The hundred dollars I got back might be minor for a lot of people, but for me it was the difference between being behind then and being able to hold out for another month.

Between prescriptions, doctor's appointments and two trips to the hospital, strep throat and an ear infection cost me almost $800. I've been looking for work for about a month now, with little success. Because I have to pay student loans, the emergency room bills have gone untouched during that time. I was making do before I got sick; now my financial situation is desperate. My latest loan payment is a week late and the chances of me being able to save up enough money to get on my feet are more and more remote. All because I got two of the most minor illnesses imaginable at the wrong time.