Have you ever suddenly lost your vision? Yesterday it happened to me. It’s very frightening.

Like many of us I’ve played the health insurance “gamble”. Since college graduation I’ve had health insurance benefits only 20% of the time. So, based on budget and a general feeling of “healthy” I did without. You might know this method as “CYF Health Insurance” — Cross Your Fingers.

We all know this approach can have potentially life- and financial-threatening implications. Despite these serious consequences I laughed it off and continued the gamble. After all, the most serious medical situation in our household thus far was on a trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. My boyfriend was bitten by a police-mounted horse. (I mean really… that’s kind of funny..! What’s not funny is he doesn’t have health insurance, either).

So back to yesterday. I was working when suddenly I started to have difficulty seeing directly in front of me on the screen. “That’s weird”, I thought, as I adjusted the light on the monitor and in the room. I put on my reading glasses. No help.

Then I started to get dizzy. Maybe I just need a small snack? A rest from the computer screen? No, in fact…it got worse. The pounding in my head grew in intensity. At this point I knew something was really wrong because what vision I had was dark and getting dimmer. You know how the alien pops out of Sigourney Weaver in Aliens? That’s how it felt — like my brain was going to burst out my eye sockets and splatter across the wall.

That’s when I freaked out. I don’t know what a stroke feels like. But a stroke killed my grandfather. Could I be having a stroke? As I left my apartment I could barely walk, see, and felt sure I was going to throw up. I was in a panic.

By the time I got to the emergency clinic I had regained most but not all my vision. Once it was determined I wasn’t having a life or death situation it dawned on me: how much will this cost? No insurance and it’s all out-of-pocket.

Let’s see:

First: the emergency cab ride – $10 — didn’t wait to count change or tip

Next: my minimal insurance ($50/mo) doesn’t cover anything. (That’s why it’s called “minimal” – it basically gives me the right to see a doctor!).

The local emergency clinic operates on a sliding fee scale. They charged me $91 to see an emergency doctor. Then another $91 to see the eye specialist. All this and they said, “You probably had a migraine”.

Talk about the pounding headache continuing! I’ve never had a migraine and it doesn’t run in my family. Nor is it something I’d ever like to encounter again. I spent the bulk of my day there routed through various lines to get my pupils dilated, my blood checked, and all the other things you do when there is something wrong.

But… the really wrong thing is that despite being a generally healthy, employed person, I cannot obtain health insurance that doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars a month.

One strategy I’ve used is to sign up for health insurance under the umbrella of my freelance company (through which I do contract work). But even that is cost-prohibitive. Even though I know better I will probably continue with this minimal coverage for as long as possible. And that really puts my financial life at risk if my physical life is endangered.

I guess this is a good reminder of one real issue at the heart of this election. If you’ve got opinions on health insurance, voice them at the Geezeo Group “Health Insurance – AHH!”.

Further Reading

• Stimulus Plan: What’s In It For Me? (0)
• Freelancers, file under: “we all are…” (2)
• Insurance Options for Your Small Business (3)
• What to Do if You Lose Your Benefits (1)
• Illegal Medical Bills and How to Fight Them (1)

Tags: Agents and Marketers, Business, Financial Services, health, Health insurance, insurance, Migraine, United States

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 11:32 am and is filed under Social/Environmental. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.