Health Insurance and Luck.

Most people who are unemployed don't have health insurance. Sooner of later you're going to get hurt. Hopefully, it won't be that bad. You can get up, brush yourself off, put a band-aid over a cut, and miraculously let your body heal itself. Then, there are times you will be unlucky.

Many people in their late 20s and 30s gamble with their health by not having health insurance because they are healthy. It's a gamble that many make because they can't afford to pay the monthly premiums. Even some of the employed don't have health benefits, while others work at places like Starbucks that provide health care, even for part-time work. Needless to say, health insurance is a very big deal.

Two months ago I was playing flag football at a local park in Queens, and after making a difficult catch at the goal line, I noticed my pinky finger on my left hand was dislocated. A good doctor can diagnosis the medical condition correctly. However, proper treatment without medical insurance can be difficult and uncertainty of the condition can be one of the problems.

I had a few options. The first was I could relocate, or outwardly reduce, my left pinky myself. Second, wait for a friend who is a chief resident, and my girlfriend's roommate, at an area hospital to come back from a trip to Florida. Third, go to the emergency room. Because, I didn't want to fix it myself and I've heard of people getting huge medical bills from trips to the emergency room I waited for my doctor friend to get back.

After a couple of days my dislocated finger had swelled complicating what seemed to be a simple procedure. However, with much effort, my finger was eventually set back in place by the good doctor and splinted for the ligaments to heal. This took longer than expected.

By November the splint came off and I could hardly move the finger. Panic set in at the thought of permanent damage. Anyone I knew who could help I called. This is what you do when you don't have insurance.

It turns out one of my oldest friends is a radiologist in a New England hospital. I called. Left a message and waited. My Father told me of a cousin who works as an OT (occupational therapist) at a Hand Surgeon's office in Huntington. I called another cousin to get in touch with him. This all took more than a day. David, the radiologist, called back first and his advice was to go to the Emergency Room.

If you live in New York City and don't have health insurance and need to see a doctor you have two choices. The first the New York City Free Clinic run by New York University.

http://nycfreeclinic.med.nyu.edu/

The clinic is located on 16th street near Union Square. You must speak with a social worker before you can get an appointment to see a doctor. Appointments are only available on Saturday. And you will be seen by a medical student from NYU who will be supervised by an actual doctor. The second choice is to got to the Emergency Room at hospitals that are part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/facilities/directory.shtml

Their mission, as stated on the website, is to provide healthcare to all New Yorkers, "regardless of their ability to pay." Whoever wrote that also used important sounding words like equally, quality, dignity, respect.....blah, blah, blah. What is important is being seen by a physician who has access to medical equipment, such as a x-ray machine.

It seemed like a big decision to go to ER at the time, but I didn't have a choice. The wait wasn't that bad. I walked out of Elmhurst Hospital Center six hours later with different questions though. What is Boutonniere's Deformity?

After being seen by a medical student in ER, the doctor told me after an examination and X-rays that I had a leguminous injury. Possibly a central slip injury and the beginning of Boutonniere's Deformity. An appointment with the hand clinic was suggested and made for a follow up.

You can scare the shit out of yourself by using the internet to self-diagnose medical conditions. Trying to sleep believing you are permanently disabled in part because you made the wrong choices can be difficult. David called back later and told me he worried about that particular diagnosis. My appointment with the hand clinic was for 12:30 on Friday.

If you don't have insurance you have to register with the hospital and get a HHC card. This took about an hour. I was then able to get past the secretary at the hand clinic and into another waiting room. I waited for over four hours. Doctors and nurses finished their shifts and other patients got treated multiple times. I changed my seat multiple times, looked at the television, tried to read, and listened to other people speaking in Spanish. After an interminable amount of time a doctor with wispy white hair and glasses told me after examination that I had a bad sprain. This he was able to determine without looking at my X-rays. Meekly pushing a roll of medical tape towards me on the desk with two fingers he said, "You can have this. Make sure you buddy tape the pinky to the ring finger. You should be okay."

After waiting four hours and paying $15 that lukewarm prognosis was the best I could wring out of the system. I made another appointment with the Elmhurst Hospital Center hand clinic at the end of the month. When I went to the hand surgeon my cousin works for it was as if I had been transported by benevolent aliens on board their mothership, treated with space aged technology, and returned safely.

There are many unemployed who don't have access to medical care. In some cases it is their reason for that status. This time I kinda of lucked out.