Personal experience: how I got homeless insurance in the USA
'05.10.2018'
Source: HFTRAVEL
We have a couple of stories about how we got used to the new status of future parents on a trip, and even in a country with very expensive medicine, ”says blogger Lesya Rekunova. Lesya and her husband Vitaly are the authors of the blog Hftravel and experienced travelers who have traveled the world. This time it will be about America.
History number one
When all emotions subsided and common sense turned on, we decided to see a doctor. But how to do this if the Internet is replete with stories about how someone was x-rayed and sent a bill for $ 600 or billed for 50k per day in the hospital and excised appendicitis? We decided to act deliberately and trust the most faithful guide of modern life - Google.
And he quickly gave the address of a free medical service for the homeless. Simply put shelter. Well, we sort of got used to the status of strollers and decided to try their luck.
At the reception window, the surprised aunt asked what we want. They answered honestly - no insurance, no money, a doctor is needed. My aunt called the guard and without any questions we were escorted to the second floor to the emergency doctor. Us - this is me and the toothless bum whose last tooth ached. When the rare tooth was finished, I was called for an appointment. In the office was a white female doctor and her assistant, eyes reddened by marijuana smoke. The guy turned out to be funny, but not very smart. After three minutes of fiddling with my passport, he entered me into the database in no way other than PEKYHOBA (he entered the name REKUNOV in Cyrillic into the database in Latin and I turned into a picukhoba) which brought a lot of problems later, but let's go in order.
The doctor turned out to be a very sweet woman, who, moreover, apparently for the first time faced such a story. She was eager to help, but the main thing needed to be clarified. “Are you homeless?” She asked me, either hopefully or sympathetically. Thousands of options flashed through my head, but the best one turned out to be by itself: we temporarily live with friends. Everyone was satisfied with this answer, and at that moment I was safely ranked among the clan of homeless people in Missouri, they wrote a letter of guarantee for the hospital with a request to provide all the services and sent there.
Pregnant women will understand that everyone has this magical period in different ways, but there is one thing that can unite millions. It is better not to go far from the toilet. In general, by the end of the appointment, my traveling ears were already gurgling with might and main, and the news that I needed to go to the hospital 2 kilometers away and take tests there to confirm the presence of the younger curly-haired one upset and delighted at the same time. Never before have I rushed to the hospital so quickly and felt warm feelings for the toilet room in the laboratory. True, before we met, I had to wait another hour and a half (yes, yes, expensive American medicine in its free manifestation has no less lengthy bureaucracy as ours). In general, when I was already thinking badly and could barely move, the confusion with the pikuhoba and the rekunov was resolved, and they gave me the coveted jar, sent me into the laboratory just like in the TV series "ambulance" or "house doctor" - and we retired.
After another hour and a half, the doctor invited me into her office and said in a completely calm voice: “such things, you will have a child” (despite the fact that we already knew this through numerous pharmaceutical sticks with stripes and plus signs, these words force every time move inside).
And then, no less calmly, she asked - do you want to leave the child or not? All tolerant America was concentrated at that moment in her eyes, and if I answered no, I assure you, she would have proposed a plan of action in the same calm voice, not for a second condemning my decision. A positive answer satisfied her as well as a negative one could, and after a long questioning and questions about lifestyle, allergies and other things, she offered to take out temporary insurance free of charge, which will cover all expenses, including childbirth. It was stupid to refuse, and I didn’t want to tell you that we weren’t planning to hang out in America for so long, so after another half an hour the “homeless” traveler got insurance, and after the question about family income and an honest answer about $ 200 per month, there were also food coupons. It was not even clear what Vitalik would be more happy about, after all, a full basket of free food from the supermarket is a serious thing).
In addition to everything, we were immediately enrolled in the courses of young parents on Thursdays, we were given a thick folder with brochures about motherhood, we scheduled the next visit with an ultrasound scan, where we already saw our bean).
What's all this story for? To the fact that "capitalist America, bourgeois and saturated with money," is actually ready to turn a human face to those who really need it. At the expense of taxpayers' money, Obamacare programs and others. But it turns, the main thing is to believe in yourself and not talk too much).
We had another adventure
When we crossed the states from east to west for the third time, planning to sell the car in Los Angeles and fly to South Korea, we stayed with our friends in Austin, Texas. One morning I felt bad - neither sleep, nor eat, nor go. It seemed that I was about to faint. The temperature is low, the pressure too ... being at the very beginning of pregnancy, I was scared in earnest, woke Vitalik at six in the morning. I say take it to the hospital! For some reason, we decided that the medical policy was valid only in the state of Missouri, where I received it, so we were looking for an admission for cash, it was a pity for the money we earned, but it was about the health of the future Vitka, so we rushed off.
We went to one, to the other - only by appointment three weeks in advance. We arrived at the third - of course, we will, fill out the form!
While I was entering the passport data with shaking hands, Vitalik ran away to move the car from one free seat for fifteen minutes to another. And I was taken under white little hands to the emergency room - the most real, as in the series "Clinic" or "Ambulance". Handsome doctors, smiling nurses, all come up to me, asking me what and how. They dressed me in a shirt with ties on the back, took tests - both the needles are modern, and they take blood from a finger with a special instrument, it doesn't hurt, they turned on the TV and told me to wait.
A nurse came running after five minutes and brought a glass of orange juice with crackers. Eating the last one, I tried to guess how expensive this cracker would be in my life.
After some time, Vitalik came to the ward - they let him in with difficulty, but found it easily - the patient's surname is displayed on the scoreboard near each ward. We sit worrying together. One doctor comes, the second, the head of the department. Analyzes are normal, there is no anemia, well, it happens in pregnant women, there is no need to worry. Wait a little longer, rest and you can go. Five minutes later, a girl comes into the ward and says:
- Hello, I am very glad that there is no danger to your health. Tell me, how is it more convenient for you to pay the bill for services?
I look expectantly at Vitalik. He insinuatingly asks:
- And what is the amount?
- Eighteen hundred, - smiles politely.
Oh, this stupid feature, say no eighteen hundred, but eighteen hundred. From excitement, I first decided that it was about one hundred and eighty dollars. I smile, I ask:
- How can you pay?
- You can pay now the entire amount, either half now and half in installments, or we will send an invoice to your address and you will pay it within two months.
I open my mouth to say that we will pay right away, Vitalik interrupts - let's bill for the house. And then it dawns on me that I've eaten nearly two thousand dollars worth of crackers.
Writing down the address of my parents, the girl politely asked: “What is oblast?”. And then I realized that we would never pay this bill. That, most likely, he will not even reach us.
For the next two hours, my conscience haunted me and no persuasion from friends and Vitalik that in the USA this is a widespread phenomenon - unpaid medical expenses without insurance, that we will not get anything for it and no one outside Texas will know about it. Still, it was difficult to come to terms with it. Pregnant women throw scandals to their husbands on many occasions, my reason was honesty before American medicine, which, I must say, calculates the price at a triple rate if you apply without insurance.
That is, for insurance, a glass of orange juice costs for example five bucks, and without it fifteen. Because insurance is cut for every dollar in the bill, but there is no one to cut for us.
It was decided to go and bargain - also a common practice in the states, when you come and speak, I cannot pay two thousand dollars. Let me give you three hundred at once and close the case, better than nothing. They say it works. And here I stand in front of the registration window, waiting for a second of reckoning and at the last moment I remember about insurance from Missouri.
- Can I use Obamacare registered in another state?
- A minute, - she checks something in the computer for a long time, knocks on the keys, calls someone and after ten minutes smiles:
- It should cover everything!
The second time I left the hospital is healthier than the first. It’s almost two thousand times that St. Francis or Joseph’s holy hospital doesn’t have to have an incredibly positive health effect!
Available medicine and travel!
