Monday, October 15, 2012

The cost of cancer ...

We received our first bill - it was for $4500 for the 2 labs that were ordered. This is NOT the pathology, the 2 surgeries (biopsy and port placement) or the 5 doctors visits (ENT, surgeon x3, oncologist). Well we will chalk that one up to them not having our insurance on file - lets see what the next one says.

I was looking into our health insurance... luckily we have it. It looks like each round of chemo will cost $50,000.  This is a rather conservative estimate as well. So with 4 rounds of chemo is $200,000. Plus the two surgeries and another one to remove the port. Plus all the lab work and doctors visits. We are looking at a $350,000 adventure. Wow. I could buy college educations for my kids or a really nice house. Wow.

Well there are some miracles of modern medicine. I would be dead if it weren't for this. Three times probably - when I got sick in college, when I broke my ankle and now.... But really, what would we do without insurance. My family would be poor. I don't even know what we would do. Oh and I had a person in the waiting room today at the doctor tell me that Viagra was covered by his health insurance but not his hearing aids....

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