Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay.
We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.
Contributors:
Joe Guidry
Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.
Jeff Stidham
Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.
William Yelverton
William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.
Jim Beamguard
Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.
Jackie Papandrew:
Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.
Camille Beredjick
Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.
Jim Harnish
Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.
Angela Hunt
Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.
Sheryl Young
Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.
Christie Gold
Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.
Natalie D. Preston
Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.
Fernando Figueroa
Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.
Gary Beemer
Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.
Nicole Yunger Halpern
Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.
Kris DiGiovanni
Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com
H. David Braswell Jr.
H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.
Sean Marcus
Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is
expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com
I just got the bill for my emergency appendectomy - $22k and change. To recap: I arrived at the ER at 2:00 am on a Thursday, and was discharged at 1:00 pm Friday, so that is roughly 35 hours of care – less than a day and a half. The $22,000 includes use of the ER, blood work, X-rays, CT scan, use of the surgery suit and recovery, all my meds and IVs, nursing care, and a hospital room for 1 day.
Still to come are the individual bills from the surgeon and anesthesiologist. I’ll probably get one from the radiologist who read the X-rays and CT scan too, and maybe one from the ER doc
I’m waiting anxiously to see what insurance will cover. The funny thing is, the day before I got sick, I was thinking about how much that $380 monthly premium would help with food, utilities, and other necessities, and I was going to talk to my husband about dropping our medical coverage. Since neither of us have any medical issues, and we try hard to stay healthy, the payment was starting to seem like a luxury. Boy, was I wrong on that one!
A $22,000 debt would be more than our fragile finances could take. Bankruptcy would be our only choice, and we’d lose everything. I’m still nervous about exactly how much we’ll have to pay, and whether we’ll be able to come up with the cash or have to do a payment plan. But, at least we are not responsible for the entire amount.
I looked up the cost on the Internet, and found out that my bill is on the low end for hospitals around here. The average cost at one local facility is $44,000-$62,000. Who knew there was such a difference in what hospitals charge! Next time my appendix nearly bursts, I’ll be sure to check in advance to make sure I’m not going to the priciest hospital around. (snark) Actually, if you are planning on having a procedure done at a hospital, it might be worth your while to check out the link above and compare prices and success rates. (Incidentally, the hospital in my area with the highest price also has a higher than expected rate of infection.)
I guess the point of this post is that if you have insurance, do whatever you can to keep it. If you don’t, and you can manage it by cutting back on some other things, try to get some. If you don’t have medical insurance, and can’t afford it or are uninsurable – bless you, and be well!
PS - And watch this video!
Here’s the linky, if the embed doesn’t work for you.
The author can be reached at KrisDigiovanni at gmail dot com
