Not So Affordable Health Care

Most of you know that I had a lousy year in 2015, health-wise.   This was all due to an elusive gallstone and then a fractured knee cap.  Regarding the former, I am not told that the radiologist misread a report in April and totally missed the gallstone which was later rediscovered in November and then zapped out in December.  This idiot ultimately put me through tons of anguish...

...and lots and lots of medical bills, which have finally started to arrive.

Here's the deal.   As an independent person, I paid for my health insurance all by my lonesome.   This amounts to a monthly bill of about 600 bucks a month.   And that's with a deductible of 5000 greenbackerinos.  So, anything up to that amount, I have to cover.

That worked well for all the years I was healthy.  Until 2015.   And then you discover all the things that are not covered and don't contribute to that already astronomical deductible.

You can imagine how this all piled up.

Seven primary care doctor visits.

Four visits to my gastro guy.

One visit to an orthopedist who ultimately sent me to another orthopedist for two more visits.

One knee immobilizer which I am told is not covered by insurance because it is a medical device with heavy tax due to Obamacare.

Two MRIs of the abdomen.

One ultrasound of the abdomen.

One nuclear fusion test.   Sounds cool, right?  It, too, was expensive.

X-rays of my fractured knee on three different occasions.

One emergency room visit for the aforementioned knee.

One shot of morphine in the aforementioned emergency room.

One endoscopy to remove said gallstone.

You can get to $5000 pretty damn fast.  Except some of the above is off the table for coverage due to....wait for it...Obamacare.

So who's the culprit here?   The insurance company?   The medical facilities?  A health care system that now favors only the destitute?   None of the above?

Actually, it's all of the above.   And I am now drowning in paperwork that I don't understand.

Let's face it.  The Affordable Health Care Act is really geared for the completely destitute or those on government assistance.  Even if I was interested in going that route, I don't qualify.  And besides all of my regular doctors told me they don't work with those exchanges.  

What's a gallstone to do?

I have no answers to the problem facing a lot of Americans.  It's totally out of my skill set and pay grade.   I just know that I am now one of them folks who are struggling to deal with a system that clearly does not work.   And I've got the bills to prove it.

Dinner last night:  Leftover spaghetti.