Couldn't your brother afford insurance, or did he just elect not to purchase insurance?
There are a lot of Americans who elect not to have insurance because of their young age.
Affordable insurance can be obtained with the help of government through some mandates and getting out of the way of competition. The government insurance is not the answer to this problem we're facing.
No he had lost his job when the company he worked for shipped the jobs from his plant down to Mexico.
I don't know if anyone's ever seen how much it costs to extend health benefits after you've been laid off, but it eats up more than half of unemployment. Getting on a government program takes time, and though he had applied, it still took two months to get on it. The infection hit him about three weeks in. His employer hadn't offered dental, so my brother always paid for his kids to go first and then of money was left over, he would go himself. It had been awhile this time around.
I had offered to help him out when he lost his job, but my brother doesn't like charity and thought he'd be back to work right away.
He had to be forced by his wife and kids to even go to the emergency room the night he did go. He said he'd wait till morning, but in reality, he knew the bill would be more than he could pay and didn't want that over their heads as well.
The doctors told us if he had waited even that one extra night, he'd be dead now.
He is since better. He dd find a job almost six months after the incident, driving trick and has since been promoted to head of his office, which he says is just a fancy was to say he's the dispatcher.
The bill for 1 week hospital stay that saved his life was almost $300,000 dollars, which will hang over his head the rest of his life.
