Returning to the issue of money buying happiness, and the endless debate about health care reform, the lines between money and happiness get blurred in this arena. It takes money to have health care, and it takes money to buy health insurance. I can think of a lot of situations where lack of money and, therefore, health insurance would have guaranteed certain suffering. The mere existence of health insurance brought a great deal of happiness into a person's life. Most people can probably think of a case in their own life of a friend or family member struck with a life threatening illness that would not have survived without treatment. Most people do not stop to think about the cost until they are faced with the bill and no way to pay for it.
In my own life, the happiest thing that ever happened to me came at a very great expense. It is very easy to criticize the enormous cost of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) care until one becomes the parent of a child who is a patient in one. After that, there is no test, procedure or intervention that is too expensive if it was needed to help ensure one's own child's survival. I faced this situation four years ago, quite unexpectedly one winter day while eating lunch at work. Without warning, at 34 weeks pregnant, I felt my amniotic fluid leaking. Up to that date, everything had gone perfect, no problems, complications, the baby's size was good and I felt great. I did not smoke, drink, do drugs or abuse my body. I ate well, took care of myself, had good prenatal care, a supportive husband and so on. My only sin was advanced maternal age but no one else seemed too worried about this so neither did I. Until that day.
The series of events that followed were somewhat of a blur with a lot of panicked phone calls to my husband at work, a trip to the obstetrician and hospital and the eventual comedy of errors that lead to the birth of a somewhat distressed boy who was healthy for his age and able to breathe on his own, thankfully. He spent the next 31 days in the NICU and my husband and I spent our days going between our home and the NICU several times a day to visit him. I even returned to work part time so not as to burn up all of my maternity leave. I would dutifully see patients for two hours then hiking down the block to nurse him and return to see more patients. Neither one of us thought we could endure but one of the other NICU parents told us "you get used to it" and he was right. Eventually we learned the routine enough to endure until the magical day when he was finally released to go home. He wore oxygen by nasal cannula for several months and an apnea monitor for several more. The oxygen tanker that came every two weeks to fill up the big silver missile in our living room did tend to attract some odd looks in the neighborhood and it was hard enough being inexperienced parents without family nearby to help us learn how to care for a newborn as it was. We certainly could do without the hindrance of a 30 foot tube that he had to be kept tethered to 24 hours a day, but somehow we endured.
Today, our son is a perfectly healthy four year old who knows how to read quite a few words, asks questions like "how do Ipods work?", and loves to go to Preschool and swimming classes. No one would ever know how rocky his start to life was unless we told them. For all the torment we went through, I would do it all again to have a healthy child now. I was lucky enough to have health insurance to cover most of the bills, although I still had around $5000 out of pocket expenses to pay. Not a problem for a doctor, but the cleaning staff working at minimum wage might have a tough time stomaching this kind of bill. Imagine life for those without insurance. For those who do not want health care reform, think about those people and their children before rejecting the idea entirely.
In summary:
The total bill for the NICU alone: about $75,000.
The cost of the RSV vaccine he received every month for several months after discharge: $1600 per injection.
Apnea monitor:$350 per month rental fee.
Home oxygen and equipment:Your guess is as good as mind.
Having a healthy, happy child:Priceless.
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