05/27/2025
This one is personal.
Why IS health insurance considered financial protection?
I'll give you my personal example, the one that opened my eyes to the importance of having decent health insurance and how it saved me thousands of dollars... and possibly my life. Let's face it- uninsured people are treated differently in the medical field, unfortunately.
It was December 2018, during Open Enrollment period for health insurance through my employer. I was 36, young, healthy. Only went to the doctor twice a year for birth control refills. Maybe an extra trip for the occasional sinus infection or flu. I told HR to cancel my health insurance.
WHY was I paying $187 a month? Cash pay at my doc's office was $50, and my birth control was only $9. Seemed like a waste of money, spending $187 a month to get a $9 discount once a month and save $20 on the occasional copay.
Fast forward to Valentine's Day 2019, about 2 am. Out of nowhere, my stomach started hurting. Like maybe I was gassy from a bad meal, or similar to monthly cramps. I have a high pain tolerance, but very quickly, the pain became unbearable. I was crying, curled into a ball, in agony. My then boyfriend (now husband) took me to an outpatient emergency room. They ran tests for HOURS. Blood tests, urine tests, X-Ray, MRI, ultrasounds, multiple physical exams, and could find nothing. They were ready to discharge me but I begged them to help me, something was very WRONG with my body. Finally, they did a CT scan and found air pockets in my abdominal cavity.
The doctor very calmly explained that I suffered from a condition called Diverticulitis, and likely had a rupture in my intestinal tract, which was leaking air pockets into my abdominal cavity, causing the pain.
AIR POCKETS, Y'ALL.
They advised me that they would be transferring my by ambulance to a surgical/trauma hospital.
I had lost someone several years before who had a ruptured colon, and his condition was not properly diagnosed in time. His colon leaked bile and waste into his body, which poisoned his organs, caused him to fall into a coma and die of sepsis.
So I knew what this was, and I was terrified.
My surgical and nursing team were amazing, I was in emergency surgery that day, where they did in fact find a rupture, and had to remove 18 inches of my intestine. Lucky for me, I had not become septic, and the surgeon told me I was the healthiest intensive care patient on the whole specialty floor of the hospital.
I was in the hospital for 5 days. Once I was no longer terrified of losing my life, the dread began building at the thought of the bills that would start rolling in.
When the first bill of $57,000 came in I almost wished I had died... until I saw that MY responsibility was only $5,000. My max out of pocket was $5,000. So ultimately, when all was said and done, over $112,000 worth of medical bills, and I was only responsible for $5,000.
Apparently, the HR manager "forgot" to cancel my insurance back in December- Thank God for her mistake. The $187 a month I was upset about paying literally saved me financially. Instead of paying $466 a month for 20 years to pay off $112,000, I only had to pay $416 a month for one year. Paying $187 a month saved me $107,000.
Medical emergencies aren't planned. They can happen to the healthiest person on earth at any moment. It's a statistical fact that more people use health insurance for accidents and injuries than anything else... which the average person also does not plan and will never see coming.
So... the next time you think health insurance is a waste of money... think about going bankrupt instead. Medical bills are the 2nd highest cause of bankruptcy in this country.
Meanwhile, I'm still alive, married to my wonderful husband, with great kids, and running a successful, fulfilling health insurance business that allows me to educate and offer H.O.P.E: Help Other People Everyday.
