We all know we will pass away at some point in our lives. However, we hope that we can live a full life with no health problems to a ripe old age.
Unfortunately, there is a real possibility that, at some point in your life, you or a loved one may have an unexpected health crisis. Something completely unexpected that will shake you to the bone personally, emotionally and financially.
For me, it happened in 2014. I was running my own law firm and my wife had a serious health emergency. The next few months after exposed me to a lot of realities I had never experienced:
1) The Emergency Room experience
When I got to the Emergency Room, due to the nature of my wife’s condition, she was seen right away. However, the thing I remember was some one from accounting who came into the room and wanted to speak with me. They asked two things: 1) what’s your insurance and 2) what’s your credit card for unexpected things your insurance won’t cover. Now, my mind was going 100 mph. The love of my life was in the other room and I was stressing over the things and the last thing I expected was to answer questions like insurance and credit cards. Fortunately, I had both but it definitely caught my attention.
2) Who Do you Tell
When you or a loved one gets sick, the most important thing they (or you) need is rest. However, when you start spreading the news about someone being sick, the phone starts ringing off the hook. Also, not everyone wants their health situation being broadcast. I learned this lesson the hard way.
3) You want the best but not sure if your insurance covers the best
I was extremely fortunate. I had Blue Cross / Blue Shield through the Affordable Care Act and the coverage they had was awesome. My wife was able to get treatment at one of the best hospitals in the state and it covered everything. However, at various phases of her treatment, I keep checking to ensure the insurance would still cover what she needed.
4) The hard part of balancing your life
In my case, I had to balance keeping my law practice going, taking care of our pets, and going to the hospital. The hospital was an hour away from our home (I had a virtual law practice). However, since I had paralegals working virtually in different states, I was able to do a lot of work from the lobby of the rehab facility. But I still spent a lot of time driving back and forth.
5) The crazy part about Coverage
When you purchase insurance, you probably are only interested in co-pays for routine office visits. It’s not until you have a health crisis that you start asking more detailed questions. Does it cover hospital Stays? Does it cover in patient rehab? Does it cover out patient rehab? Does it cover medicines? Does it cover medical devices? You probably never thought about ANY of these things when you got your insurance until you realized you needed it.
6) The Financial Freak out
In any other situation, you have normal bills (Household, car, rent, mortgage, utilities). Things you pay for in your day to day life. Once you have a health crisis, you have to factor in medical bills. You, also, have to factor in extra bills (for me, it’s was eating on the road driving back and forth to the hospital and the cost of gas)
The reality is that we all want to healthy, wealthy and wise. But a health crisis can really shake you to your core. And for many people, a health crisis can devastate a household.
#healthcare #healthcrisis #covid19 #coronavirus #stimulus
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