Transfer #13

Subject: The finances of sickness Posted Date: Monday, January 23, 2006 - 4:32 AM

Ok dear readers,

Today is a lesson in the economics of sickness told anecdotally.

When I was in NYC, the cost of health insurance was more than 600 dollars a month for a private individual not part of a company plan. I was not making a lot of money at the time, and it was a struggle to me the premiums. Since my condition was not responding to the initial advice of doctors, see e hallucinations brought on by our friends SSRIs, and I had turned to more experimental tests, I bore the brunt of paying for allergy tests, blood tests and hair analysis etc. I was fading quickly, and could not work anymore. But who would pay for treatment and the search for a cure if I could not work? My wife? My parents? So, unable to work, I took a huge risk.

I gambled that I would recover. I gave myself 3 years by applying to law school. Truth is, I was unable to work or leave the house from about January of 2000, so I had to live off savings until I could begin school at EVA. When I rain out of money, I lived with my dad.

How does someone so far gone apply for law school and receive tens of thousands in financial aid? Its easy, leverage grades and test score from before the illness. I took my LSAT in 97, and my grades were from 93-97. I did not become psychotic until 98, so the application looks pristine.

I got in, and I set to work haunting medical libraries, the internet, faith healers, witch doctors, alternative therapist, CTM practitioners, MDs, DOs, chat rooms, message boards, etc... Oh, and I also managed a little class.

Honestly, passing law school is not that hard. Excelling is. That said, it was all I could do to make it, but I did. All of this was hoping that I could heal in time to not be discovered and fired from a job. I had about 3.5 years.

I didn't make it. I was a year late. But that's another story and suffice it to say, law takes care of its own.

But I did get there, and I will hold on to this job. And that is a good thing, because insurance does not pay for supplements, or many of the tests I need. This is another rant altogether. But the short of this is that by miscalculation, or is I were not as fortunate as I have been (Ok, forget it, its wasn't fortune, I manufactured a cure), then I would not be unemployed, unemployable, without money, sick and crazy. Instead I surfeit for 5 years on the back of my college scores, waiting for a miracle.