I'm Sorry You Can't Afford To Be Alive
https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2021/08/im-sorry-you-cant-afford-to-be-alive.html
I'm Sorry You Can't Afford To Be Alive
(and other stories of the USA)
by C. A. Matthews
"There, there, Betty Lou," Grover the doctor said, patting her gently on the hand. "There are worst things in life than having to pull your father off a ventilator because your insurance won't cover it."
Betty Lou gave a long, loud sniff and nodded. "Yeah, he could have terminal cancer like my auntie. She doesn't even have any health coverage because her state wouldn't accept the Medicaid expansion."
Grover rolled his googly eyes and gave a harrumph."Well, at least your dad won't suffer any since he's in a coma, unlike your poor aunt… Didn't you tell me they arrested and jailed her for possession of street opioids?"
Betty Lou bit her lip and tossed her yarn braids over her tiny shoulders. "Uh-huh. But she needs them for the pain. I hope they're giving her something for the pain in prison."
"No worries. They'll keep your aunt occupied there," Grover reassured her. "She'll be kept busy sewing lingerie for Victoria's Secret twelve to fifteen hours a day. She won't have time to worry about her cancer."
"That's a blessing, I guess." Betty Lou turned to go but was halted at the door by a seven-foot-tall, feathery hospital office worker named Big Bird.
"Not so fast," Big Bird boomed in a loud and cheery voice. "You've got a bill to pay--and I'm not talking about my big yellow beak, either. Your family has a very high deductible."
"But we can't afford to pay my father's hospital bill," Betty Lou explained. "It will bankrupt our family. Dad wasn't able to work this past month due to his illness. The bank has already threatened to come and take our home away if we can't pay the past due amount on the mortgage soon. We'll be thrown out on the street if we try to pay dad's hospital bill."
Big Bird shook his head. "That's not our problem. We're a for-profit hospital corporation, and we have lots of Congress members to bribe. They don't come cheap. But we're not totally unkind. We'll work out an installment plan with you."
"Oh, thanks," Betty Lou mumbled, tears welling in the corner of her Muppet eyes. "How much will we have to pay?"
"Let's see…" Big Bird flipped open a large computer printout that trailed from his hands all the way down to the floor and back again. "Ah, here it is." He came over to Betty Lou and pointed to the total amount. "I think at a pay back of about a thousand a month for the next ten years we'll be able to call us even."
Betty Lou gasped. "We don't have an extra thousand dollars a month lying around just to pay for the twenty-four hours my dad was in intensive care. Are you sure our health insurance didn't cover most if not all of the costs?"
"Pretty sure it didn't," Big Bird replied. "Your policy was with the No-Go-to-the-Doctors insurance company, right?"
"That's right," said Betty Lou.
"Ah, but then you took your dad to the doctors and they sent him here and neither of those visits are covered by your policy." Big Bird lowered his voice and winked. "Trust me. I've argued hours on the phone with No-Go just to get ten bucks out of them. You get what you pay for."
"Their premiums are terribly expensive, too. We would have been better off not having health insurance in the first place." Betty Lou gave a loud sigh. "I don't think this day could get any worse."
Just then the lights flashed and then went dark as the building shook violently. A loud warning siren began to wail outside.
"Oh, dear," said Grover. He went over to the window to scan the scene outside. "The earthquake must have caused the nuclear power plant to melt down. It's hard to see it well through all the smoke particulates and thick greenhouse gases, but that glow on the horizon is unmistakable."
He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "They tell us that nuclear power is 'safe clean energy' all the time, so I wonder how that could have happened."
"My dad, Homer, didn't report into work today as the shift technician, that's what happened," said Betty Lou, shaking her head in disgust. "The plant's owners are too cheap to hire more workers or pay a decent wage to retain skilled people to fix things properly."
Betty Lou pushed past Big Bird and quickly exited the room. From the hallway she cried out, "Good luck all!"
"Too bad they didn't take the climate crisis seriously a few years ago," Betty Lou muttered to herself as she got into her car and headed toward what was left of her family's home. "But then again, nobody really wanted to build wind turbines or solar panels and shut down the coal-fired power plant in town and put all their employees out of a job. We got what we paid for."
“We have never seen health as a right. It has been conceived as a privilege, available only to those who can afford it. This is the real reason the American health care system is in such a scandalous state.”
Shirley Chisholm— Papa J (@72MichiganPapa) August 12, 2021
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Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie
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