Year End Totals

I recently discovered that the company who provides my health insurance keeps electronic copies of all the payment statements. Interesting. I have all the paper copies and had meant to do a grand total of what costs I incurred this past year. Maybe it will be easier to track online.

I set up an account and login. Sure enough, there are copies of eveything submitted, what they paid, and what I had to cover. Its a bit clunky of a system, but I figure out how to work it to generate some totals for me. This will be a typical non treatment year in the life of a cancer survivor. The last actual treatment was October of the previous year when I went through the Bexxar infusion. So this year has all been follow up and maintenance costs.

I click and add and columnize and punch tabs until I reach the breath taking total. To remain healthy last year, just for my own care, the bills submitted came to a whopping $82,596! Unbelievable. I really am the six million dollar woman. And the worst part? I just accept it. I am done ranting about the evils of insurance and the system and the medical inefficiencies.

This is how it is. I am grateful for the insurance. I can do little to change the situation. And I am shattered to know that if I no longer have insurance, I will die because I could never pay that amount of money even in ten years. Lord have mercy.