single parenting with Amber Jones

 Health insurance, an absolute must have, especially with a child but even for you.  Should you be one of the millions of Americans out there without health insurance let me tell you how you are playing Russian roulette with everything you have earned and paid for in your lifetime.    

My youngest daughter was born a normal, healthy, baby girl.  Less than eighteen months later she was hospitalized for dehydration and rotavirus.  Rotavirus is a virus that you can get anywhere.  She happened to pick it up at daycare.  After a few days of diarrhea and vomiting she needed to be hospitalized for two days to replenish her fluids.  Total cost:  $3800

One month later she developed a UTI (believed to be caused from the diarrhea she had from the rotavirus) that went into her kidneys called pyelonephritis for which she had to be hospitalized for five days.  Total cost for the acute illness:  $8000

With all of the follow up care from her two episodes as well as other normal illnesses throughout the year the total cost of her healthcare without insurance would have been $30,932.  With our health insurance it cost us $3767.93.  (This is for my youngest daughter only; it does not include the other family members.)

This past year my normally healthy family ended up having three separate hospitalizations and surgeries.  I began the cycle with a gallbladder attack, my older daughter then developed a cyst on her foot which needed to be removed, and my youngest rounded it out with having to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out.  Out of pocket cost for the year between health insurance premiums, hospitalizations, surgeries, routine physician visits and medications: over $10,000.  Had I not had health insurance we would have had to have sold our house because I would not have been able to afford to keep it along with paying our medical bills.

Although premiums are high it is a wise investment.  If you can not afford the premiums for a regular plan, at the very minimum you should purchase a catastrophic policy.  Those types of policies are not going to pay for the everyday doctors visit but if you are in a car accident and need care that will cost into the tens of thousands of dollars they will pay the at least a portion of the tab.  Take it from me, even if your family is healthy you can never predict when a healthcare event costing thousands of dollars will happen — be prepared.