"A Degree in Health Insurance"

Earlier this week, The Mate sorted out a medical bill from last year some time that had landed with a collection agency.  Sigh of relief.  It went to collection because the emergency room bill had a different date than the doctor's bill.  Because we arrived at the ER shortly before midnight, and saw the doctor some hours later.

It took a series of phone calls and faxes to get this sorted out.

The bill in question was for around $150, and a friend wanted to know why it was worth the hassle, why not just pay it? Because if we just paid all the bills that got spit out for one reason or another by the insurance company -- and they find myriad reasons for not paying -- we'd be in for thousands of dollars a year.

Suleika Jaouad put it this way in a recent piece in the Times: 

If you have a chronic illness in America, there’s a good chance you also hold a degree in Health Insurance 101, whether you want to or not.

The Mate has the degree; I've only done a bunch of course work: he's the one who has the job of sorting all this stuff out.  I don't know if Obamacare will take care of these issues.  I do know that when we lived in England while I was on sabbatical, we didn't have to deal with a single one of these problems.