You won’t hear many people disagree with the claim that America’s health care system is broken. But most of us will never even face half of what Michelle DuBarry did when she lost her toddler – and then had the rest of her life crushed under hospital bills.

The Portland-based writer lost her son Seamus suddenly when he was hit by a car by a “careless driver” in a crosswalk a few years ago.

He was rushed to the hospital where he had two surgeries, but they were unsuccessful.

Seamus spent 27 hours in the hospital altogether before he died there.

Even as she sat by her child’s bedside, DuBarry knew it was going to be a financial nightmare. (And hopefully we can agree that no parent should have to stress over the cost of a life-saving treatment for their child.)

But the trama didn’t end with Seamus’ death.

DuBarry shared her terrible ordeal on Twitter in February:

(Ignore the commenters bickering in the background over whether 2010 – when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law – or 2014 – when more changes began to roll out – is the “correct” year to cite here. That’s missing the point spectacularly.)

The real point is that only a cruel system would force someone to do this kind of math.

Unfortunately, DuBarry’s husband was also injured in the crash. He was actually denied treatment by his primary care doctor because she didn’t accept his insurance.

Health insurance is complicated, but the real problem is that even those who have it (and pay through the nose for it) can’t afford the care they need.

Eventually, DuBarry’s situation became the kind of nightmare we didn’t even know was possible.

Something is very wrong here.

Putting politics aside for a moment, even if we all have different ideas about how to fund healthcare, we can certainly agree that the system shouldn’t look like this.

At first, it appeared the couple would owe $5k after their insurance covered the rest of Seamus’ astronomical hospital bill.

But no.

A pain and suffering settlement they received from the driver’s insurance company for $175k was taken from them by their insurance company. They insisted it be used to cover their financial loss.

We ask then: what’s the point of insurance?!

(Note: This is now illegal in the state of Oregon, thanks to DuBarry.)

If you’ve ever researched your hospital bill, you know that some of the charges are unnecessary and wildly inflated.

Take, for example, the woman who was charged $39.95 for holding her baby after birth:

The problem here is that a hospital can charge an insurance company for just about anything. Sometimes they’ll pay it, but other times they’ll pass it on to the customer who can often get inappropriate charges removed just be asking. (And if all it takes is pointing out something is ridiculous, shouldn’t we save some time and misery by insisting charges be reasonable in the first place?)

DuBarry does go on to make a political statement about the “healthcare for all” espoused by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, but one doesn’t have to believe in his plan specifically to know that we can certainly do better than this.

Healthcare is expensive and someone does need to pay for it. But Americans pay an awful lot into a system that doesn’t always give much back.

You may believe that it’s the government’s job to pay for healthcare, or the people’s. Or you may think that a lot could be solved by fixing medicine at its core. We can all have different opinions about it and recognize that DuBarry’s situation is unacceptable.

Scroll down below for the whole Twitter thread – with a warning that the comments turn political almost immediately.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

In 2010, I had good union health insurance. Obamacare was the law of the land. In November that yr my 1yo son was struck by a careless driver in a crosswalk. After two surgeries and a night in intensive care, he died.

— Michelle DuBarry (@DuBarryPie) February 23, 2020

Source: Michelle DuBarry via Twitter; H/t: Bored Panda