Jeez that sucks because the thread is about ridiculously high medical costs.
I'll share my story:
At 23 I started a painting business here in New Hampshire. I started from scratch, with nothing, but I did well and put $140,000.00 through my checking account in the first year. I was working pretty much all day every day, and at the same time was experiencing some serious back pain. After numerous trips to the ER and a doctor, I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, arthritis, and a disc herniation. I had no insurance, so any type of procedure would have been out of pocket, and since I had already been diagnosed insurance wouldn't cover it anyway because it's considered a preexisting condition.
If I had taken the time off to do a procedure (surgery) then I would have lost my business and wouldn't be able to pay the bills anyway. So what did I do? Yup, you guessed it, I got hooked on pain medication. At least I could still work and make money, which was useful because after 3 years I was taking so much, it started to cost me around $800 for oxycontin, $90 for oxycodone, and $150 for the doctor visit (pain center) EACH MONTH. These were valid prescriptions by the way.
After a while the addiction took control of my life, and it wasn't about the pain anymore, it was about the pills. You know the story, taking too many, selling some to pay for the script, running out early and having to pay 4 times as much on the street as from the pharmacy. I tried to go to a rehab, but there are VERY FEW in NH, and every one I called had that question everyone hates: "What type of insurance do you have"? Well when I said that I didn't, they would give me the number of "a place that might help someone in your situation". Well I called every place, and actually made a full circle back to the first place I called. No help there.
Well one day I decided I didn't feel like paying for the prescription (actually I didn't have the money) and I did what any normal citizen would do in my situation. I put a ski mask on and robbed the pharmacy. (a different one that i didn't go to regularly thanks). Well I got caught and was sent to prison for 4 years. Not cool.
After a couple years in the prison my pain got so bad that I couldn't walk without the help of a cane, I couldn't do anything, sit, stand, lie down, shave, shower, etc. I finally got the medical staff to realize I wasn't just faking it for pills, and they realized it with the help of mri's and x-rays. All at the state's expense. And finally last March I had a spinal fusion (L4+L5) while incarcerated, again all at the state's expense. Just amazing how much the surgery helped me, I'm able to do just about everything I used to be able to do.
So in the end, I did get a much needed operation, I stopped the medication, and am generally doing ok. But my life is so fucked because now I'm a felon. I just wish at the beginning, I could have somehow got the operation done and not got addicted to pills.
