Some Other Costs of Being Sick.

My family has had three inpatient hospital stays and a week of daily outpatient treatment during January amd continuing into these early days of February. I have discovered that this is expensive.

I am not talking about the cost of medical care. With good insurance, these are limited to copays. For others, they can be severe, but we are all aware of that. There are all kinds of other expenses that are related to hospital visits that we don't really think of until we are in the situation.


I'll mention a few:

Travel: Family members either have to spend money on gas going back and forth to the hospital or pay for a nearby place to stay. When a child is hospitalized one parent can sleep at the hospital. The other needs to work something out. For us, this wasn't so bad. We live fairly near Mass General and Children's. There are families here, though, who have come from much further -- across the state, across the country, across the world. Some will be eligible for assistance, others will not.


Parking: Unless you live in a spot that allows for a public transportation option, you need to pay for parking at the big hospitals. There is a discount for patients/families, but it still comes to $9.00 a day. If, like us, you are only in for a few days at a time, it's not so bad. For longer term patients and those who are frequently hospitalized it's a huge burden.

Food Patients are fed. Family members, unless they can brown bag it, have to buy food. I have met one family for whom that has meant one caregiver eating two meals a day from the cafeteria or the local food court, for over a month. This adds up quickly.


And there are other small costs, like purchasing necessities you forgot to bring from home, buying things to distract or entertain the patient, coin-op laundry, phone calls.


Health care reform of any type can't do anything about these costs. Charities which support patients and there families can and do, but from what I have seen there is not really enough help around. (Again for us, this is just a little blip, but for many families hospitalizations are ongoing. Their savings can take a serious beating before they ever see a hospital bill. that)

I'd love to see a few different restaurants chains provide a meal a month for long-term patients. Or maybe churches could do something like that if they have the right food service capabilities and credentials. A parking program that allows more significant discounts for long-termers would be a great idea, too. And I strongly suggest that everyone prepare for this possibility with a "rainy day fund."

And finally, most importantly, I would like to see real health care reform that stems the tide of rising costs and helps these tangential items are less of a problem for families facing serious illness. I am not sure exactly what that would look like, but I hope somebody figures it out.