To this day I remember what it meant to for family to have health insurance. As a kid we always took an annual vacation but this time we never made it. Every year we would take a family vacation. The night before the trip we were packing and looking forward for my dad to get home from work. My dad worked long hard hours at the local industrial plant just outside of town. He worked there for as long as I could remember. Mom was a part time cashier and saved her money for our vacation. Dad was running late so my brother and I had gone to bed but were still awake when dad got in. Shortly mom and dad started in at what sounded like an argument. Dad was really upset and mom was crying. They sat us down and told us that dad had lost his job. After the dust settled they promised that everything would be alright and that we were not going to miss our trip. I was nearly eighteen and I remember not feeling so sure. That morning I awoke to an awful scream, it was my brother crunched over in his bed holding his stomach. The pain must have been excruciating for him to be crying like that. In no time we were in the emergency room. It all happened so fast and before I knew it a doctor came out to tell us that my brother had a tumor in his intestine that needed to be removed immediately. Standing there my mother gasped as if she remembered something horrible. As she started to cry I heard her whisper to my dad, “how are we going to pay for this”. I had assumed that with the fact that my father just lost his job meant that we also lost our health insurance. In the end everything turned out alright, brother got his surgery and recovered wonderfully and he ended up being covered through COBRA which my father was able to maintain after he was let go from his job. My mother was able to work full time and I also got a job to pitch in. For as long as I live I will never forget the look on my mom's face that day and the words “how are we going to pay for this”. You will be so thrilled that you have your family covered with decent health insurance when you might need it. Having medical insurance is really the only way that you can be protected from medical debt.  Related ContentPost a comment
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