Hard Times Make Health
Three years ago, I had some heart palpitations that scared me. Had I had health insurance, I would have headed off to a general practitioner to get things checked out. Yet, like many Americans, I didn’t. I felt like I had no other option other than to go to the emergency room (stupidly thinking that it would be free of cost)-and off I went, feeling alone and scared. They kept me there for several hours, during which I slept for an hour. I woke up to have somebody tell me that all my test results came back fine; I had nothing to worry about. Relieved, and feeling giddy with happiness, I went back home.
I remember that day, feeling like the luckiest person in the world. Yet within a month and a half, I received a haunting envelope in the mail from that hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. I carefully tore it open, and panicked when I saw that it was a bill for 1300 dollars. How could...