You ever feel like you’re just staying afloat with a second-hand life preserver from a garage sale and then something or someone pulls the tape off the gaping hole, which then sucks out the remaining air in the process?
Ugh.
That’s what the unexpected feels like. Things like speeding tickets and pimples. Or in my case a $626 bill from some ultrasound that happened about 11 months ago and my kid is five months old. What is that and why am I just getting it now? Where’s my insurance?
I’m trying to rack up enough money here so that I can move out of my parent’s place and I get hit with something like that. I thought I had insurance. I thought all the bills were paid five months ago when we brought the baby home. What are these trickling financial side effects of birth? In addition to the $626, I got another bill for $174 for the anesthesiologist. Dude. I was there for one day and one night. It’s not like I got a suite at the Bellagio in Vegas. I was at the hospital experiencing the painful miracle of birth. And here I am five months later continuing to receive bills. I thought I’d get pediatrician bills yes…definitely yes. Giving birth bills no…no. I thought that was done.
Pre-natal care, hospital fees, doctor bill, anesthesiologist, lab results and pediatrician exam. If I had shown up in an ambulance I would have to sell my car.
I went through the entire wonderful customer service representative experience that seemed to raise my blood pressure and that cost is still up in the air with my insurance company. I’m hoping it’s an error. As for the anesthesiologist…well that happened to be out-of-pocket. I don’t know why it took them five months, and neither do they, but apparently the billing clerk had a valid point. $174 seems like a good deal for a less painful birthing experience. I mean you did need it, didn’t you? Dude…like I need oxygen.
So for now the unexpected continues and the holes in my financial life preserver keep getting bigger. Suze Orman would be so disappointed.
The Wish Factor 