I woke up thinking about this comment this morning. This sounds OK but take a reasonable scenario and see how it wouldn't be enough.
Meet Mr. X, a 30 yr old man who has squirreled away about 7K. He works hard at his job as a delivery man as well as a second job on the side doing some carpentry. The second job allows him to put aside $ for a rainy day. He has insurance with a 5K deductible because he is a healthy guy with no problems. He walks out onto the back steps one AM, slips on a patch of ice, and goes down a flight of stairs wrong way up. On the way down he badly fractures his right ankle and when he grips the bannister to stop his fall, wrecks his right shoulder and lacerates his forehead as he strikes his head and briefly loses conciousness. He badly enough hurt that he needs to ride in an ambulance. Lucky for him he just needs the ride and not much more attention (250$ (this is probably 2ce that))
ER visit- CT of head (1000$), xrays of neck, spine, ankle, shoulder and upper arm (1000$ to be minimist), Dr eval- (250+), Pain meds (another 200). They determine he has a concussion but no bleed, needs surgery on ankle with the placement of a plate and a few screws and has a minimal rotator cuff tear. He gets stitches in his head (100). He needs to stay in the hospital overnight waiting for the OR and a surgeon for his ankle (300 for the room and board, 7K for the surgery if we are being really nice/no complications. Oops there goes his nest egg but Yeay for him, he has met his deductible and only has a 250$ for copay and his coverage requires him to pay the first 1K for hospitalization). He gets discharged home in a cast after another day (300 + another 200 charged for various meds and IVs) with crutches, a wheelchair because he can't crutch too well with a bum shoulder (500$ this is not covered, excluded in his insurance). He can't work. He can't drive until after he is cleared by ortho in about 4-6 weeks if he heals amazingly well. He can't do his carpentry because altho he can get someone to drive him and his shoulder doesn't need surgery he has enough pain he can't use his arm consistanty. He didn't think he needed disability insurance because he was healthy. His job gives him 3 weeks of earned time for sick and vacation. He needs PT for both the ankle and shoulder 3 times a week for about 4 weeks because he has both ankle and shoulder issues (200/visit but his insurance only has a 50$ copay X 12). He will probably need PT after he returns to work once a week for a few weeks (50 X2) He needs to see the ortho for post op f/U (200 but only a 50$ copay) and again in 4 weeks (another 200 but he has a 50$ copay). He sees the primary care for removal of the stitches in his head (30$ copay). He needs a cast change in the middle of that (100 but only a copay of 50). He also has HA from the concussion that is persisting after 2 weeks so sees primary for that (30).
Meanwhile he is now out of work for 6 weeks because of his dual injry to shoulder and ankle. He has no income for 3 wks of it. This guy is probably not going to be able to tolerate 2 jobs for about 5-6 months, even if he is Superman, without ending up out again. If he is lucky he won't have lost his job but will probably lost some of his carpenty customer base. He will have residual pain and some loss of function no matter how good the outcome.
This is a best case scenario- the guy has no co-morbidities, doesn't end up needing shoulder surgery (which they would wait to do until he was mobile and would take 6 more weeks of out of work, PT, etc), his post concussive sx go away and he has a nice recovery from his surgery. He has no sick or vacation time left so he better not get sick or have any complications from the injuries because he can't take further time off and get paid.
Work out the math (I hate math so you can do it). This isn't an actual case but a composite of things I have seen with none of the complications that usually show up because they have dog's luck. I have probably underestimated most of the costs.
If the guy is uninsured the $ are even scarier. Go ahead and attach his pay. How much do you want of it % wise? How long do you think it will take for it to be paid off? How long is it going to take to build up a contingency fund of 5K for him, if he can?
This is a trauma, not a sudden dx of a chronic illness such as diabetes. If it was a chronic illness it require an equal amt or more of $ for testing/hospitalization but then require chronic expenditure for meds, follow up, testing etc. Most likely, despite absolute compliance on the patient's part sequelae occur which will increase the cost as more meds/treatment/testing occur. If it was your kid, not you, you would need to take time out from work to do all of that.
Think about it.
