22 Weeks 6 Days: Don't Bite The Hand...

Dear Baby,

Power tools are dangerous.

Sincerely,

Dad






So, yes. I cut the tip of my finger off with a circular saw. The homeowner where I was working had to take me to the emergency room where the sewed it back on. And then they will be sending me a bill. Who knows how much that will be. $10,000. Maybe a million? And then I have to go back and pay a doctor to remove the stitches. Of course my inexpensive doctor said he could do it, but I'm thinking about just doing it myself. Snip snip, pull. Snip, snip, pull. It's not rocket science. Which makes it so frustrating that these doctors charge so much. Some of these procedures are really simple.

And of course, not only did the hospital cost me money, but it backed up my workload so I had to reschedule a lot of work this week for next week and I'll be making less money. So it double screwed me. I guess I'll be more careful around power tools from now on.

13 Weeks 6 Days: $200 For a 15 Minute Dr. Visit

A while back I went to the doctor because my blood pressure was through the roof (couldn't use my normal naturopathic doctor, long story). So I was told, since I have no medical insurance, I couldn't see the doctor until I paid a $150 deposit. Which I did. Then I saw a nurse practitioner (not even a real doctor) for maybe 15 minutes, no tests were done, she checked my blood pressure, listened to my lungs and wrote a prescription. That's it! I figured they would credit me back some of my deposit. Until today when I got a bill in the mail for another $50. It was $200 to see a nurse practitioner for 15 minutes?!?! Are you out of your mind? Our healthcare system is fucked. All you people that say a national healthcare program would ruin our country are crazy. It's already fucked! All you people are either 1. rich, 2. already have some healthcare that is paid for, or 3. not in need of healthcare (ie. young, unmarried, no kids). When you're middle class and want some healthcare to protect yourself, your wife and your upcoming baby and you find out that it would cost $500 a month plus a $5000 deductible (after the baby is born since the pregnancy is a pre existing condition), you open up to new options real easily. But it's easy to ignore if you aren't in a market for healthcare. What we have now is not working, plain and simple. It's time to try something else. So if you are one of those people not in the market for healthcare and you are campaigning against single payer or a public option: you can bite me. I need healthcare for myself and my family and I shouldn't have to pay out the ass for it because the insurance company wants 40% of premiums to be profit. This isn't meant to be an attack on anyone. Everyone is entitled to their views. But so am I and views against healthcare reform affect me A LOT. It's just really frustrating to hear people talk out their ass about how reforming healthcare will hurt the country while at the same time, I'm not able to get any good healthcare to save my life (almost literally). So if you don't need healthcare, shut up. If you have great healthcare that is affordable, by all means clue me in. But if you want to tell me I'm wrong, then you better be ready to tell me about your healthcare or experience shopping for healthcare or how to get great affordable healthcare at the same time. If you can't do that, don't bother. I don't need to hear people talk just so they can hear themselves talk.