Mondays With Marlene

In my opinion....

When I was in grade school, I was madly in love with the boy next door whose name was Bill, but the bills I’m dealing with these days are not the least bit loveable. People-type Bills come in all sizes, shapes and personalities, but the paper bills I am now involved with are all big. Very big. In fact so big that they are painful.

Been there done that? I’ll bet you have. Appointments with doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, and heaven knows who else, and the bills keep coming. Whether the pain you are dealing with was the result of a car accident, a fall, or is part of that big black hole of undetermined, I can guarantee you have not only had to deal with the pain, but with the painful business of paying bills. There is no question that those of us lucky enough to live in Canada have a pretty good medical system, but it’s not perfect, doesn’t pay for everything and can drop us into an endless round of bills that we often don’t have enough money to pay, or have to pay in instalments – sometimes for the rest of our lives. Granted, we do have the option of purchasing supplemental insurance to cover a portion of what the provincial medical system doesn’t take care of, but not everyone can afford it. It’s even more critical these days when so many people are losing their jobs due to the economic downturn. I tell you, this can be a combination of the perfect storm and the ultimate catch 22.

So what do you do when you’re in pain and trying to recover from the “sticker shock” cost of being ill? I wish I had some simple answers, but I don’t. I have protested one bill I received from a U.S. hospital, so we’ll see where that goes. If you have any ideas to share with us, please feel free to leave a comment. Perhaps if we get a dialogue going, we can all get some insight into how to deal with that bill thing and be able to put more of our energy into getting our lives back.