My bad Anon. It is likely a cyst, those things can grow quickly.

I hope the surgery goes well Anon!

My dog recently had to have a cyst removed (the vet was unsure about exactly what it was). it was growing really rapidly so had it removed and tested. Thankfully benign. But it was around $1000! I know that’s vet services and not really comparable but it was still expensive!

My husband had shoulder surgery in February and we are still paying on it. His insurance went to deductible only with a FSA that carries over but since it’s the first year we didn’t have any savings built up. Sigh…I don’t really worry about medical bills as much as I used to. I just pay what I can monthly and that’s that.

Having Crohn’s disease…I can’t be without a job because I need the health insurance to cover the infusions. And since the insurance I have now has so far paid nearly all of it I’m also afraid to change jobs (I like my job so not looking to change right now). Husband and I were maybe thinking of trying some different life things but needing an expensive medication really puts a damper on taking risks!

My mom had planned to be a stay at home mom. My dad is a barber. Life had something different in mind. My older sister was born with a rare liver disease. For her 1.7 years of life, she was in and out of the hospital weekly. After she passed, my mom got a job solely for insurance purposes. It took them 20+ years to pay off those medical bills. INSANITY!!

What drives me nuts now is the different pricing based on insurance, etc. The example anon cited is a great example of that. As is List’s example of her doc jacking up the price for the insurance.

It’s so fucked up.

I’ve recently learned that on Medicare there is NO coverage for hearing loss. Over the counter aids were recently introduced, I have no idea how expensive those are but the average cost for audiologist provided hearing aids is between $5000-$8000. Fully out of pocket.

And not for nothing – do you know how many people from Gen X and Millennials have already lost some of their hearing from concerts, movies, etc being too loud (I wear ear plugs at the movies and it’s fucking loud!)?

Invest in audiology tech!

I have maybe posted this here before, not sure, but here is my story. My sister and her husband went to Florida to take a cruise. They planned to spend a couple days at their hotel and enjoy the area/relax. We are all Canadians.
Within 3 hours of checking into their hotel, my sister was struck by a speeding drunk driver while she was crossing the street at a marked crosswalk. I will spare you all the awful details but she was rushed to a nearby Trauma unit. She was so extensively injured that she never “woke up” and if she had survived she would have been in a state so as to need to live in an intensive care facility for the rest of her life. She died, irretrievably broken, 10 days later.
My point is to comment on the American medical/insurance system. Also the insurance system for vehicles/accidents. Fortunately my sister and spouse had gold plated health and travel insurance. The idiot who killed her, apparently had 10,000 coverage. Here we are required to have a minimum of 200,000 and many people opt to pay for 1 million in coverage to cover pay outs in case of injury or death. This guy had 10,000. What a joke! We could have sued but the stress of that, especially since there were 2 different countries involved was not worth it to us.
During the time my sister laid comatose, I was approached by a Dr. who asked me what I thought of the care my sister was receiving. I told him that it was excellent. I also told him that in Canada she would have had great care as well, but that we/no-one would at such an awful time, have to give any thought to money…a whole other stress by itself. He replied that if my sister did not have insurance they still would treated her. Great, but again, besides all the medical issues she would likely have forever, she would be bankrupted by the bills.
They were admin people from the hospital that actually followed us and my brother-in-law around the hospital, asking when we or he was planning to come to the office and give them money…the whole thing was shameful.
Our system is not perfect but i don’t think compassion and care should come with a price tag. My brother-in law- found out later that the costs for her care ( that thankfully were covered by his insurance) were in the 450,000 dollar range. If they had been able to do some of the procedures they were hoping to, like surgery on her shattered legs, which they did not do as she was so unresponsive etc; I imagine it all would have cost over a million dollars.

@Peggy – I’m so sorry that happened to your sister. I hope the driver had to go to prison – hopefully for the rest of their life. So many drunks are serial offenders.
The last thing people need in times of trauma/crisis is to be hounded by admin staff about insurance/money. I hate that part of our system and I’m sorry he had to deal with that while worrying about his wife.

My sister actually was an hospital admin but only lasted a year. She felt so bad about having to ask families for all of that information while going through traumas or crisis.