over the years we have had periods of no insurance - and I also had no ins before I married. I worked 3 jobs from age 12 till 27 yrs old, waited tables at a small mom and pop place, they did not have insurance, was a nanny, - no insurance and worked a factory that supposedly technically offered insurance except NO worker got enough hours to be eligible, they refused to ever schedule anyone enough hours to get it. And I sold Avon. LOL. Dureing that time I DID mess up my knee and required major surgery (this was pre arthroscopic surgery) What I did all those years ago was after getting the verdict on my knee, with help from hospital soc wrkr, I applied for social security disability, even tho technically my injury was not a qualifying kind,workers comp even tho it was definetly not workers comp related, and applied for unemployment, even tho that was absolute incorrect, I was advised to do it anyway, and then apply for welfare, due to applications pending on everything else. Of course this was pre computer age....and at that time, they would give you temp coverage while everything was pending, and the surgery got scheduled in in a hurry in that small short window of time. ANd yes, post surgery my denials trickled in, but my surgery was covered.
when my 2 girls were small, I worked as a nurses aide at a nurseing home here, and at first our pay was ok and covered our ok medical insurance, but, then ins began to rise in cost, and before long our health insurance deduction began to be higher than our pay checks and on pay day we had to PAY rather than get a paycheck. Worse at that time there were 10 of us who had gotten our certificate to be a nurses aide thru our employer, (that was when CNAs first began needing to be certified) and our employee certified us BUT we had to agree to work there 2 years in exchange, so we were in a bad spot......
Since then, there have been times we barely qualified for Medicaide, and some times where we were mere dollars per year over income cut off guidelines.
Our hospital will NOT accept $5 a month payments.....they actually have some deal going with Capital One for medical care credit card something or anothers. I believe our hospitals "arrangement" is something along the lines of a bill under x must be paid within 3 months and a bill over x must be paid within a year? if you miss a payment, within a week of the due date, the collection agency is on your tail continuously and aggresively. And unless something is life threatening, the hosital and docs will not provide care until you put up a hefty deposit up front.
when I first became ill with my Lupus and rheumatic illness, I had crummy insurance and I did see doctor, but doctor was not getting a diagnosis on me going. I wound up becoming so ill, I could not work, but did not have a diagnosis that qualified for disability at that time....so- I could not get any help and lost my job, and still could not get help. and without my job I could not get care.....and wound up with a long period of no care, no job, no support for my family, kids included, and after 2 years of that, social security THEN said since I had by then been unable to work for 2 years, they sent me to their doctor to be examined and I was THEN awarded bens and retro back pay, becuz THEN I finally got a diagnosis. (formally)
Health care here has been hit or miss, sometimes limping along.and even when we have had Medicaide, it can be quite difficult-near impossible to GET care. Many people do wind up haveing to declare bankruptcy due to medical issues. I am not certain, but I believe it is possibly the number one reason for bankruptcy. and that has been true for decades. There is some saying along the lines of many many people are just one medical crisis away from total financial devastation. Truth is even people who DO have insurance can fall into sevre financial hardship from a medical crisis. My sons eye surgeries were $80,000 EACH. not includeing Rxs, equipment (eye patches, glasses etc) or travel etc. My best friends medical bills for her cancer battle came very close to a million, and insurance paid only approx 75% on her. a friend battleing luekemia had $350,000 in bills one year.
and sadly many of the jobs that do not provide opportunity to get insurance also do not hold someones job dureing a medical crisis.
I sympathize strongly- it is a bad bad mess. it is my fear for my children as they get older and move towards independance.