Insurance and my sister

Where to start . . . my sister has had a lot of medical difficulties in her life. Both when it comes to her personal ailments and when it comes to being able to pay her bills. When my niece was around 7, I think, they filed for bankrupcy because they still owed a bunch of money for Anna's birth (among other bills that had piled up). She didn't have dental insurance, so she didn't go to the dentist even though she knew that she needed work done, which resulted in all her teeth being pulled last summer. Then it took 7 months (at least) for her to go back and get fitted for dentures because she didn't have money or insurance to cover dentures. (She now has the dentures, but doesn't wear them which totally wigs me out, but that's another blog). She had back surgery almost 2 years ago and still has horrible pain from it. She quit going to PT during recovery because it hurt her. She won't exercise because it hurts. So I don't have a lot of sympathy for her pain because I think a lot of it because she's lazy and sits on her ass all day long. She complains and complains and complains, but doesn't do anything about it and this is one of my biggest pet peeves about anyone. So this morning we're talking and she mentioned that she thinks she has a pinched nerve in her back and that's why she's in so much pain. I asked what kind of tests they could do to figure that out and she told me that the best way to do it is with an MRI, but they don't have insurance and don't have $1,000 to cover the test. I asked if they would have insurance once my bro-in-law had been at his new job longer and she said that he was eligable for insurance, but they couldn't afford to pay $700 a month so they would do without insurance. I mentioned that there has to be something cheaper that they could do on their own ~ go directly with an insurance company ~ to have some sort of coverage, but she said even that was too expensive. My response to that is stop smoking 3 - 4 packs of cigarettes a day and you'd probably have money for freakin' insurance!

Insurance is something that I'm anal about and I think everyone should have. In college I paid for my own health insurance and never thought twice about it. I only used it once or twice, but I still don't regret shelling out $60 a month for it (and that's a lot of money when you're in college with only a part time job that pays $6 an hour!) Knowing my sister's history with health problems, as well as her husband and daughter's problems I don't understand why they won't shell out money for insurance. Isn't it better to be safe than get thousands of dollars in debt and have to hide from bill collectors and file for bankrupcy again?! Again I say . . . quit smoking! I bet they would be amazed at how much extra money they would have! I understand that it can seem like a waste, but what about those times when unexpected things happen. When something that is supposed to be a simple laser surgery turns into doctors having to practically slice your husband in half? When someone who is so sure she can do natural childbirth realizes that she will throw herself out the window if she doesn't get an epidural in the next 5 minutes?! lol She may be my older sister, but for the millionth time in my life I feel so much more grown up and wiser than her and that kind of sucks!