Every day, when I head into work, I stop in to the coffee shop downstairs to get an iced tea and a bagel. I enjoy chatting with the barrista socially, as she's only a few years younger than myself, and we have a good deal in common. Around three weeks ago, I asked her what she would be doing for the weekend, and she told me she would be visiting her friend in the hospital.
This friend of hers saved a woman's life - quite literally. He saw her getting stuffed into a trunk and somehow (didn't inquire about the details) got into an altercation which saved her, but resulted in his getting a concussion.
Now, concussions frequently aren't super serious, but they can turn out to be. But he didn't have insurance, so he did what many uninsured people do - he didn't go to the hospital out of fear of having to pay for it out of his own pocket.
He went back to his apartment and passed out for three days before anyone found him and brought him to the hospital. He passed out on his own leg, cutting off circulation, forcing the doctors to amputate it. He was also in a coma for two weeks - a coma the doctors didn't expect him to wake up from. Although he is apparently now awake and responsive at times, he's still on so many painkillers that the doctors are unsure how much permanent brain damage he has suffered.
And of course, if he does recover, either he or his family will have a bill for tens of thousands of dollars - a bill that may end up being written off by the hospital ultimately, but which could have been eliminated entirely if only someone had footed the bill for the original post concussion examination.
The more I reflect, the more horrified I get. I can't think of any better example of how flawed our current health care system is. And I wonder, for every story like this I do hear, about the millions happening which I never hear about at all.