So I've been restructured ... shit...

Yes, and I was surprised to see that. Not many people seem to know about that nickname anymore.

 

Dixie likes their pepper steak...

 

So long as dixie doesn't sit in the special chair in the dungeon while eating, it's all good.

 

Word for freaking word. DO. NOT. GAMBLE. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Find a health insurance company - Blue Cross Blue Shield is usually a good start - and get your own policy. It doesn't have to have obscenely low deductibles or complete blanket coverage of every little option on the planet, but get something to protect you in case of something catastrophic. If you don't - and something happens - you could end up paying for it the rest of your life. Seriously.

And amraeder, I'm sorry as all get out for what happened. Best of luck in finding something new and lean on this place. It's pretty good for things like this.

 

Just to further piggyback on what Sam and I have been saying...my wife was hospitalized for a rare blood disorder in 1999, when she was a mere 24 years old. She needed an even rarer treatment to recover. It was all covered by insurance.

Near the end of her three-week hospitalization, we asked how much it would have cost w/o insurance. We were told deep into six figures. And that was nine fuckin years ago. It's probably seven figures by now. Or eight.

My father has always told me to come to him if I'm ever uninsured and he'll give me the money to get some coverage, b/c that's the one thing you just cannot mess with.

Get. fucking. insured.

 

Oh, and my brother-in-law's mom is unemployed but needed some serious surgery a few years back. The hospital garnishes her minimal wages to pay off the debt. She'll never get there, unless she lives to be 350.

When she dies, the hospital will take her house (unless my brother-in-law is somehow able to pay off the bills before that). So Sam is not kidding about the debt.

 

It's not a joke.

Raise the deductibles on your vehicle insurance to scratch the funds together. Cut out eating out. Drive less. Use the John Wayne toilet paper instead of two-ply. Do what you have to do to make sure you can pay for medical coverage. You cannot afford not to do this.

BYH's stories should scare anyone not covered straight. This stuff is no joke, and neither are health systems when it comes to getting their bills paid.

 

OK, OK, you two have scared me enough.

I just went and signed up for a catastrophic coverage plan. I've been sans insurance since the end of June, when I changed jobs and became a contract employee (you know, the kind without health insurance).

Now the papers are in the mail. Are you happy?

 

if i'm young, with no kids and no spouse, i don't take cobra either.

 

Yes, ducky. BYH and I are saying it because we care. And I mean that.

I've read and heard horror stories as bad as BYH's. I saw one case where a good friend of mine would have been facing a probable seven-figure bill for care of a young one.

But he was insured. Total cost: Barely $1,000.

Good work, ducky.

 

Ahh yes contract work: Allowing employers to exploit their employees for...well, a long time now.

And that's not a knock on Ducky. I've been there and done that and I'll probably do it again.

Regardless, good work on the insurance.

 

What if I'm in between insurance?

Mine doesn't start up until Dec. 1. Is there something I should be doing in the meantime?