Welcome to my world

I am a wife, a mom, a daughter, a sister and a friend.
I've learned that who you have in your life matters more than what you have.
Thank you for stepping in to my world!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Kicking cancer's ass - day 289

Let's talk insurance.  There has been a lot of controversy in this country the past couple of years regarding health insurance.  I admit that I didn't follow most of it because we are fortunate to have insurance through Hubby's job, and it's very good insurance.  Thankfully Obamacare isn't even a blip on our radar.  One of my friends does not have health insurance, and she has figured out that it will be cheaper (at least for now) to pay the penalty for not having insurance and pay privately for medical bills than it is to buy insurance through Obamacare.

In the fall when I was going through chemo I touched on how much some of my medical stuff costs.  If you'll remember, for the injection I received the day after each chemo, our insurance company was billed almost $10K.  For each shot.  That doesn't even include the chemo itself.  For each of my radiation treatments the cost ranged from just under a thousand dollars to almost $3500.  I had thirty-three treatments.  You do the math.  My surgery in January cost over $50K and that was just for the hospital portion.

I can't say I'm a fan of the Obamacare plan, but I do often think of my friend, and others, who do not have health insurance.  What if what happened to me happened to them?  There is no way they could ever pay for everything.  I feel for my fellow warriors who don't have good (or any) insurance coverage.  It's overwhelming.  We have really good coverage but still have had to pay thousands last year and this year to reach our maximum out of pocket.  I guess that's the one good thing about having major surgery the first week of the calendar year!  Everything (for me) since then has been covered 100%.  Since I'm still facing at least two more surgeries, I plan to fit them in this year while we are at our max.

For years Hubby and I have talked about getting life insurance.  He had a small policy but I didn't have any life insurance.  Want to know the irony?  We finally met with our insurance agent and bought a policy for me - the year before I was diagnosed with cancer.  While life insurance isn't something you want to focus on, it's one of those things (like writing a will...something else we took care of in the last few years) that adults, especially those with children, should really get done.  The genetic counselor said that a life insurance company can refuse you if you've had genetic testing done for cancer.  I have, and I tested positive.  So if we had waited even a few more months, I would most likely have been denied coverage.

God has His hand in everything.

No comments: