The question you were all too polite to ask

No, I am not dying anytime soon. Not that question. The other question - how much does it cost for all this stuff? People are too polite to ask but they secretly wonder how much it would all cost. Everyone I think just has a general impression that it is really expensive to get cancer or any other life threatening illness. But until the bills start rolling in, you really have no clue.

A few weeks ago someone else who I know who is going through treatment for breast cancer told me she looked at all her bills and figured out how much her insurance had saved her in medical bills. Her number was high and I was pretty shocked. But then I started thinking 'how much would my treatment cost without medical insurance?' So yesterday afternoon, after I played lumberjack and cleaned up the big branches (including the one that was hanging on the backside of the fence and I had to go around and climb up on the stone wall to cut it down) and I needed to go inside and recover from my escapades (Walter is away so this is when I get into trouble), I sat down with an Excel spreadsheet and all my little insurance statements of coverage.

I learned that chemotherapy cost about $10,000 per infusion for one drug and $2600 per infusion for the other drug. That would have been about $70,000 alone. Radiation only cost about another $40,000. Surgery each time ranged from $6000-$15,000 for another $30,000. then I had another $80,000 worth of tests, procedures, and hospitalizations for a total of around $220,000. That's a lot of money. Of course my insurance didn't actually pay that amount, they paid their lower negotiated rates. That is what the hospital would have charged me if I didn't have insurance. So I guess my message is if you don't have insurance, could you afford to be sick? Probably not. If you don't have insurance, try to get it.

Some people think that national health insurance is the solution for this. I am not so sure. I only have seen the Canadian and English systems and not personally had treatment in either. However, I have seen the headlines in England where patients have their surgery postponed too many times until it is too late and they can't be saved. I have heard about long waits for treatment in both countries. I know I know people have private doctors and dentists outside the government system to ensure prompt and quality treatment. A US national system would have to provide prompt and high quality care otherwise it just wouldn't be worth it. Time to get off my political soap box and get ready for work.