Monday, December 21, 2009

Medical Crapstain

This year (while only paying a third of our mortgage) we paid off my medical bills, which were in the thousands.  We have crap for insurance.  And we pay over $500/month for it.  And in July it's going up to over $600/month.  And the July after that, it will go up to over $700/month.  We will have been forced to cancel it long before then.

I just ordered Allie's type 1 diabetes supplies (including the insulin that keeps her alive) to the tune of $1,400 for a 3-month supply.  Luckily, she's still on her dad's insurance which is better than mine and Todd's.  But what will happen when she's out of school? 

Will she have to fork out $466 EVERY SINGLE MONTH to keep herself alive?  Is that the future kids with type 1 have to look forward to?  Will she find a job with great insurance?  

These are just a few of the things that keep me up at night, along with my difficulty-swallowing issue that's been going on for endless months now.  Did I mention I went to the doc for that?  He said it was probably from stress, and that I probably had acid reflux disease from the extreme stress as well. 

I broke down yesterday and started taking Prilosec (OMG I just turned 40 and I'm already on meds!) and guess what?  My stomach feels better already and it's marginally easier to swallow.  Can't wait to see how much better I feel after the 2-week course of proton pump inhibitors.  (Doesn't that sound cool?)

Now can they just come up with a cure for stress? 

2 holla'd back:

Amy said...

Wow! We really need to find a better solution for T1D than insulin. Is it $1400 out-of-pocket after insurance?

I know people have a lot of complaints about Obama and his spending. But, the biomedical science community has seen vast improvements in funding this last year. Bush was (and republicans in general are) terrible for funding science. The NIH always hurts when they are in office. After many years of struggling to get enough funding to do the research they want, many scientists are finally starting to see money and more on the horizon. Labs are hiring more post-docs and technicians and taking more grad students. And, they are starting up the more ambitious projects that have been on hold for 8 years. So, for those anxiously awaiting better treatments for chronic disease, there is a silver lining.

I'm glad you saw a doc and that you seem to have found the source of your discomfort.

sandi said...

No, the $1,400 is before insurance covers their part. It's not so bad on her dad's insurance; on ours it would all be out of pocket until we reached our deductible. But I just heard rumor that her dad's insurance is changing at the beginning of the year. It has me nervous.

That's great news about funding for research!

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