Getting married, getting on Matt\’s health insurance, then using Matt\’s health insurance are possibly the worst decisions I have made since the age of 24 (maybe even earlier).
Despite making sure each step of my knee\’s treatment was pre-approved, the health insurance has come back and said it\’s not covering anything due to a pre-existing condition. It\’s been proven in court that pre-diagnosis symptoms are NOT a pre-existing condition, but we don\’t have the luxury of taking this to court. Medicaid isn\’t covering any of my shit anymore, which means the co-pays on my medications are now $150 or so per month. My medical bills for my knee add up to about $7,000, all of which is now being billed directly to us. I couldn\’t even finish my physical therapy because of the billing issues, which is maybe the worst part because I\’m still unable to bend my leg all the way (and am therefore still limping and still in pain).
We drained our checking accounts in the past six weeks while I was unable to work. We have some left in savings but it\’s all tied up in the offer we have on a house (and are still waiting to hear back about). I essentially have no income right now and Matt barely makes enough for the two of us. In the next few weeks, though, his health insurance is going to start taking money out of his paycheck to cover some of the medical stuff — in addition to the $400 per month he already pays out of his checks for our medical insurance.
I\’m so appalled by all of this. It\’s hard to believe that this is the second time my medical bills have crept up behind me to take over my life. I had to declare bankruptcy by age 21 to take care of the first round of bills. Now it\’s looking like it might have to happen again, right as I was just starting to have a clean slate of credit. And this time, Matt\’s going to have to do it, too.
Every day I think I should have stayed in Australia with Dr Maude and the comparatively wonderful Australian Medibank program. I\’m an idiot, a gimpy idiot. Striking out for independence, what was I thinking? I can\’t afford it. Now I\’ve brought Matt down financially, too.
