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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

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Facing a Lifetime of Debt Just Because I Got Sick

Posted Oct 14, 2009 by Kris DiGiovanni

Updated Oct 14, 2009 at 12:47 PM

According to a study by the American Journal of Medicine, more than six in every ten bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. I believe them.

After my emergency appendectomy in July, which was very straight forward, no complications, and for which I spent less than 1 ½ days in the hospital – I now owe more than $25,000 in medical bills. The private insurance, for which we pay nearly $400 each month covered less than 10% of the total costs associated with my hospitalization. I must not have read the fine print, or misunderstood the legal jargon in the contract, because what I thought was a reasonable policy turned out to be a total rip-off.

So now what? Where are we supposed to come up with that much money? Let’s say we could get a $100 a month payment plan. It would still take more than 20 years to pay it off. And the docs and hospital deserve better. I received excellent care.

My experience illustrates the goal of the health insurance reform now being debated in Washington. “Obamacare,” as obstructionists like to call it, is NOT socialized medicine or the first step down that slippery slope. Its aim is simply to ensure that all Americans can purchase insurance at a reasonable price that provides a minimum standard of care. That’s what I thought I was paying for, but obviously wasn’t.

Of course I’ve been researching other insurance options since getting the news from my current provider. The best I’ve been able to come up with for my husband and myself - both over 60, in good health, no pre-existing conditions, and never smoked – requires a premium of $607 per month and a pays 80% of medical costs after I have already spent $7,000 out of pocket. The next best plan has a $455 per month premium, but a $12,000 deductible.

But I can’t afford either one. The monthly premiums are more per month than I spend on food. If I had $7000 laying around, I’d use it towards my existing medical bills. This is an untenable situation – not just for me, but for the nearly one out of six Americans, have no medical coverage, and no money to buy it with.

We need health care insurance reform, and we need it now.

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