Billing, Bureaucracy, and a Broken Lung
How America’s Healthcare System Made a Sick Woman Pay — and Almost Cost Her Life
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It was just like any other day — but it wasn’t. Melody woke up sick. Body aches, fever, and a myriad of symptoms. She managed to muster enough energy to get up and drag her ass to the emergency room to have a doctor see her.
At the check-in window, a list of questions were asked, and her proof of insurance and ID were demanded before they could process her admission. The wait was endless because those who were shot, bleeding to death, or in vehicle crashes took precedence over her. The hours crawled by painfully slow, and every time the door opened, a cold draft swept through the room, filling it with an icy chill that drilled straight into her bones.
Finally, they called Melody and informed her that the insurance wasn’t approving the visit — and since her illness wasn’t life-threatening, they couldn’t see her. Melody wondered, how the hell do they even know my condition isn’t life-threatening? Why do we put up with this kind of treatment? she asked herself, remembering that her 401k was invested in healthcare brokers — blood money made off everyone else’s pain. So they sent her home.
Once at home, time dragged on and her condition worsened. Melody missed a day of work — money she knew she wouldn’t get back — and by the look of things, she’d be missing more. She tried home remedies, but the fever only climbed higher.
Melody tried to set up an appointment with her doctor, but the earliest one available was three weeks out. She explained her situation and the urgency, but the clinic only told her that if they had a cancellation, they’d call. By this point, Melody was missing even more work — no pay coming in — and she questioned whether investing in healthcare brokers was really worth it. She tried to rationalize it as “for retirement,” but the irony burned.
Finally, Melody got in to see her doctor. The doctor explained that she needed an antibiotic shot and sent her for an X-ray. That, too, took time. While she waited for her turn, an older woman was trying to work out a payment plan for a $2,500 bill. The woman said her pension check was only $250 a month.
When Melody’s turn came, she had to provide her information again — insurance card, ID, the whole thing. After the X-ray, she went back to the doctor’s office and waited again. Finally, the doctor came in and told her one of her lungs had taken a hit because she hadn’t been able to treat the illness sooner.
Later, Melody got a bill showing a balance due. She paid it, but a few weeks later, the same bill showed up again. She ignored it, knowing she’d already paid and had the receipt to prove it. Then came the pink bill — the one that said if she didn’t pay, they’d send it to collections.
So Melody called the billing company to fix the issue, but that was another nightmare. She had to stay on hold forever, and since she was at work — where personal calls weren’t allowed — it put her job on the line. But waiting until she got home wasn’t an option; by then, the billing office would be closed.
Her boss caught her on the phone and got on her case. Melody tried to explain, and while her boss understood, she said there wasn’t much she could do — she was under pressure too.
When the billing company finally answered, Melody went through her whole story again. After a long back-and-forth, they confirmed she didn’t owe anything. She felt a brief sense of relief — until a few weeks later, the same damn bill arrived again.
At that point, Melody wished she’d just died that day instead of putting up with all this bullshit. Now she has a compromised lung that requires expensive medication, a boss breathing down her neck, and a system designed to break her. And she can’t help but question again — is investing her 401k in healthcare brokers really worth it?
Melody didn’t need to experience any of the harshness of our current healthcare system — not the waiting, not the denials, not the financial stress — if it weren’t a business built on profit and greed at the expense of human health, and maybe even human life.
Those who suggest universal healthcare for all are not wrong. Some call it Medicare for All — and that’s not a bad idea. In my opinion, we should learn from our allies in the EU, who provide healthcare to their citizens as a right, and improve on it rather than pretending it can’t be done.
What doesn’t work — and never will — is maintaining healthcare brokers and insurance middlemen who only care about making money. They’ll invent all sorts of medical codes and billing schemes to extract as much as possible from the government and from us, all for their own profit. These so-called health insurance companies aren’t about health at all — they’re brokers of pain. Unless you’re an investment or a high-priced athlete worth millions, the medical technologies and cutting-edge treatments you see on TV aren’t meant for you.
The real problem with healthcare is greed — pure and simple. Profiting off sickness is the rotten core of it. And of course, the moment someone suggests universal healthcare, the powerful shout “communism!” — as if caring for people is a threat. Yet the same system hands out subsidies, corporate welfare, and tax loopholes to billion-dollar companies — all of it paid for by us. Funny how that kind of socialism never seems to bother anyone.
The brokers of death and despair must be abolished from this country. We need to stop pretending that health should be a business. Expand the VA system nationwide — you make an appointment, see your doctor, get your meds. No bills. No brokers. No middlemen making a living off human pain.
The roots of this mess go way back. The Rockefellers helped build the system that turned medicine into an industry. They funded the medical schools, the research institutions, and the policies that made healthcare a business model — including the Flexner Report of 1910, which reshaped medical education and pushed out naturopathic and homeopathic schools. The old schools were replaced with the new “scientific” model — one that just happened to rely on patented drugs and the people who sold them. They didn’t need to make anyone sick; they just built the machine that profits when we are.
And yes, out of their money and influence came the University of Chicago’s “Chicago Boys”, the economic minds who pushed deregulation, privatization, and profit above all else. That same mindset — turn everything into a market — is what twisted healthcare into a commodity. Patients became “customers.” Sickness became “revenue.”
You see the pattern. From medicine to economics, they set up the system where human suffering feeds corporate profit. Agent Orange, endless allergies, chemical dependencies — maybe they’re not plotting it today, but the foundation was laid a long time ago. The same logic runs it all: profit first, people second.
Here’s how you know it’s broken: In 2023, U.S. health‑care spending reached $4.9 trillion, or about $14,570 per person, and accounted for roughly 17.6% of the country’s GDP. American Medical Association+3Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services+3Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services+3 And yet — by comparison with our peer nations — we pay double or more per person while getting worse outcomes. Health System Tracker+1 Administrative costs alone? Hospitals and clinical services cost hundreds of billions just to keep the billing machine running. Commonwealth Fund+1
And then there’s the Court. SCOTUS hasn’t just sat on the sidelines — it’s enabled this system. For example:
In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), SCOTUS upheld most of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including its mandate for insurance coverage. PMC+1 That might sound good on paper — but it tied citizens more deeply into a system that still requires brokers, middlemen, complex billing, and profit around every turn.
More recently, in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the Court ruled that people covered under Medicaid have no right to challenge a state’s decision to exclude providers, even when that exclusion harms access. Center for Medicare Advocacy That means the Court protects the system’s mechanics — even when it fails people.
Another recent case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, is attacking the structure of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. They’re trying to dismantle even the few protections we have that force insurers to cover preventive services without cost‑sharing. KFF
In other words: while we’re picking up the pieces of this system we didn’t ask for, the people on the highest bench keep protecting the structures that make this system possible — not reforming them. They’re not the villains writing the script with a pen; they’re the referees who keep letting the game go on when everyone else keeps getting conned.