Got my hospital bill yesterday. I thought the cut hurt. Yes, I know I should have insurance. Yes, I am now looking much more serisously into it now. Yes, my kids do have insurance, I just don't. I know, I know. And I know this post is scaring the hell out of all of you out there wanting to quit your jobs but are scared to lose your insurance. Well, take a good look, or have a good read. It can happen. You play the roulette game of no health insurance and sometimes you lose. In the grand scheme of things I am lucky. Something small happened. We won't even do all the supposing of other things... But I played and lost. I figured about $400, right? HA! Let me say that again. HA! I was there 3 hours. A nurse practitioner stitched up my thumb. 7 stitches. It took maybe, MAYBE 15 minutes that I was actually seen by someone. Are you ready? Are you ready to go to medical school? Because I know I am. Boy howdy. $847.30. Yup. Not sure what the 30 cents is for, but I will find out. Yeah, they don't even send you an itemized bill with that. And you better believe I am requesting one. And you know no insurance company in the world would actually pay that. No, the big giant corporate company gets a negotiated rate. They pay like half (I worked for a doctor for a year and did billing) Yeah, so they stick it to us little guys. Nice. So last night I took out my stitches and am mailing them back to the hospital with a note explaining that had I really can't afford their stitches so they can have them back, but thanks for letting me try them out.

NOTE: And yes, I will be on Blue Cross Blue Shield within the next week, I already made the call and set up the paperwork...