Gano Life is the Best Assurance Policy

Broke and Uninsured: My Visit to the ER Amy Chyan thought she was having a heart attack. Unemployed and uninsured, she navigates America's costly healthcare system. By Amy Chyan, Special to Everyday Health | Follow @EverydayHealth Amy-Chyan-Healthcare The pain in my chest intensifies. My heart is beating so fast I feel as if there are guppies jumping out of my throat. My extremities tingle, and I become light headed. I squat down so I don't faint and knock myself out. I Google my symptoms, clicking on the first link under "chest pain on left side." Everything points to heart problems. I start to panic, wondering how I will pay for a visit to the ER if I need it. I am unemployed, uninsured, and I might be having a heart attack. Getting Sick: A Horror Story As a non-resident from Canada, my coping mechanism for getting sick in New York City is to simply… not. When I do come down with the flu, I end up staying in bed and relying on the only remedy I know: Nyquil, Gatorade and the fetal position with lots of movie-watching in bed. Today was different. Today I might've actually worried myself sick because I was scared about how expensive the hospital would be. My non-American friends and I like to trade horror stories of paying obscene amounts to go see the doctor. I am not an anomaly when it comes to not being able to afford healthcare. Uninsured: Affording Healthcare Almost 16 percent of Americans are uninsured, and the number of employer-sponsored insurance is also dropping, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means 48.6 million Americans are without health insurance, and it’s affecting our youth. The group most likely to be uninsured is young adults ages 19 to 34, according to a 2012 nationwide survey report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Uninsured rates were highest among part-time workers and the unemployed, although one in seven full-time workers is also uninsured. It’s $1,000 for blood work here, $30,000 for an appendectomy there. These stories are passed around like warning tales, and we grimace in unison and quickly vow to never get sick. Uninsured: America’s Youth Bianca Consunji, an associate video producer at the online publication Mashable, recently received full-time benefits. But as an intern and freelancer, she had no healthcare benefits and depended on over-the-counter medications.