The cost of everything scares me, sometimes.
Mrs. Denmarkguy has been struggling with an ear infection for a while, likely going back all the way to the trip we took back in July, where we spent five days ”rough camping” at a festival we attended in Oregon.
She has been to the local Urgent Care Clinic a couple of times, been through a batch of antibiotics, various ear drops and whatever else, in service of getting this issue to clear up.
It never really did, so she went in for a ”full” appointment with our Family Doctor on Friday… where some more potent medication was prescribed, and now she’s in line to get some scans done at our local hospital, to eliminate any possibility of tumors, growths, etc.
Sadly, we couldn’t get the new medication on Friday, because it needed to be ”approved” by our health insurance carrier.
Reason?
Well, these particular antibiotic/steroid eardrops cost — drumroll — $400.00 for a tiny bottle with 10 days’ worth of ear drops.
Thankfully, the approval was given and she could pick up the ear drops today from our local pharmacy, at no cost. How somebody without insurance would deal with such expense is a frightening prospect.
Being from Denmark, I grew up with socialized medicine. Even when I still lived there, you never thought about going to the doctor when something was wrong… it was just automatically covered. Maybe there was a $3 ”paperwork filing fee” for ailments that were neither urgent nor acute. If you had to pay for medications, the cost was relatively nominal… not so high it could bankrupt you.
We used to have a pretty ”fancy” health insurance program here, but even with an annual deductible of $5,000 and an 80/20% coverage, it still cost $633 a month to have coverage for Mrs. Denmarkguy and myself.
And when she went in to have shoulder surgery at the hospital — a surgical procedure and ONE night stay in Hospital — we ended up with about $22,000 out-of-pocket medical bills, after the insurance had paid its part.
That ate up our savings… and messed up our credit.
Speaking of credit… even the cost of credit cards scare me!
The other day, I got an offer in the mail for a MasterCard (since we’re eventually going to be moving, we’ve been trying to rebuild our credit) and it was simply bizarre.
For a $1,000 line of credit, not only at 35.9%, but with an annual fee of $99, AND a monthly ”maintenance fee” of $19.25.
If you actually do the math — which I am sure they are counting on people NOT doing — the card actually costs $689 a year… or an effective interest rate of 68.9% to borrow $1,000.
What the eff is THAT about?
Of course, that’s the joy of ”free markets:” there are no limitations on what can be legally charged for debt… and I am sure there are those who are desperate enough to take on such an offer… or the banks likely wouldn’t be bulk mailing these kinds of offers all over the place.
It’s just scary!
I suppose it is also somewhat scary to consider that we live in a society where so much of our existence revolves around — and depends on — debt, as a way to keep things going.
Meanwhile, I worry about much simpler things, like what's in the sale flyer at the supermarket, because it has been a long time since we were comfortably able to buy and eat the food we want, rather than the feed we can afford.
Life is expensive.
I guess all we can do is deal with it, to the best of our ability.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2024-09-10 01:59 PDT
1210/2467