Healthcare Reform, Please?

It started out as a gorgeous sunny Southern California day as I made my way up the 5 freeway towards LA. Sun glistening like a million little diamonds across the ocean as I pass Camp Pendleton and charge north. 5 minutes later a monsoon came down and rained harder then Seattle, WA in the winter time. Trust me, I used to live there. Traffic came to a crawl and the drive just reached unbearable.

My destination was Mammoth Lakes, CA. Where the beautiful Mammoth Mountain resides. The word big is not a good choice for describing the sheer size of the mountain along with the massive amounts of snow it receives every year. After hurdling through the cesspool of horrible drivers known as LA traffic, the open road and beautiful mountains ensued. As well as a handful of small Indian Casinos. My favorite was the Paiute Palace in Bishop, CA, frankly because myself and my two companions doubled our money in 10 minutes by playing blackjack. Money won and Mammoth bound!

The snow was towering, taller then myself and I am 6'7". The level was almost to the second story balcony at our condo. It was fantastic, the snow conditions were great. Although they didn't open the top half of the mountain due to high winds, the bottom half still sufficed for my snowboard fix. Two hours into our first day on the mountain, I was off in the trees getting some un-tracked lines. After dropping off a small cliff, I ran into a semi-protruding rock under the snow. Bang, right on my left shin. It was like being kicked by a girl back in elementary school. You know how flirting was back in those days. A solid bang, but nothing I haven't felt before.

After taking a breather, I continued snowboarding for 5 more hours without checking my shin. When it was time to leave, I was rolling up my pants to take off my boots and my long-underwear was completely blood drenched. A thick red all the way down my shin to my sock then dripping on my shoe. I knew it was bad at that point and pulled up my long-underwear only to reveal a large gash right on my shin down to the bone. I won't go into details but it looked like something out of a horror flick.

I knew I had to get stitches and I was upset about it. Not having any health insurance due to being laid-off almost a year ago and not having sufficient funds to afford it, I knew the bill would be the worst part of this experience. Luckily the family medical center in Mammoth Lakes was open on that Saturday so I didn't have to go to the Emergency Room. That would've cost me probably 5 times more.

They squeezed me in roughly 7 hours after the incident occurred. 5 stitches and $435 later, I was sewn up and broke. It was outrageous how much it cost for only being in there for 45 minutes and only having 5 stitches done. I understand that it would've been much cheaper if I had health insurance but still, come on, $435 are you kidding me? Not only that it was the first day of a supposed-to-be two day snowboard trip so I had to lay on the couch all day Sunday watching the snow fall.

The doctor recommended that I have another doctor take a look at it down here in San Diego as well as remove the stitches in two weeks. Sadly that isn't going to happen because I cannot afford to go to the doctor again this month. As for the stitch removal, my Mom who is a nurse, gave me some medical tools awhile back so I will get a chance to put them to use.

I know, I need to get health insurance. But even if I get a plan that is affordable to me, the deductible is going to still be fairly high. Help me out here President Obama, so I can go snowboarding again and worry about how deep the powder is, not about getting injured.