Life was much simpler when we were on our parents health insurance. We went to the DOCTOR each year to find out how much TALLER we had grown and how much of an outlier we were becoming from the medical GROWTH CHARTS.
From MEASLES to MONO, CHICKEN POX to a COLD, a variety of ailments leads the average minor to the doctor or emergency room. For many of us, while we vomited up the soup and DIMATAPP our mother had forced down our inflamed throats, the last thing on our minds was how we would pay for the trip.
I remember my mother pulling out a white CARD -- like a credit card -- to pay at the register--ration desk and I was on my way.
Then one day it happens. A couple months after the euphoria of having that 4 year degree wears off, you receive a letter in the mail stating that you are no longer eligible to remain on your PARENTS' HEALTH INSURANCE, unless you are still in school.
I forwent this inevitability for two more years as I worked on my master's degree. When that ended I was left with the reality that I had no health insurance.
Months passed and my internship turned to part-time and then a full-time job. I learned tough lessons in healthcare:
1. GET HEALTH INSURANCE! Sure you are 25, a non-smoker or drinker, in shape and feeling good, but lumps emerge on healthy bodies just like they do on 50-year-old, overweight, smoking alcoholics.
2. Unlike a credit card, to use the health card you have to PAY $$$ UPFRONT each week. Your health care provider is second in line behind Uncle Sam for dibs on your paycheck.
3. Unless your employer's initials are S.C. (Santa Clause), there are NO FREE BENEFITS.
4. If your visit doesn't meet the DEDUCTIBLE, you may have to pay for it. This creates an incentive to get as much done in a visit as one can. Why not go for the ultrasound or cat scan?
5. Repeat #1. That extra $25-50 a month can pay for cable or a couple of nights out, but what happens when you twist your ankle getting off the train or sprain your wrist on the last frame at the bowling alley? That may cost you cable for the rest of the next couple years.
If you don't remember anything else, GET HEALTH INSURANCE.
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