When the thermometer gets hotter, hospital emergency rooms brace themselves...
You may call it summer, but in Emergency Rooms across the country, the three-month period that follows spring is known as "Trauma Season." It is particularly true in the Pacific Northwest, when children -- and adults -- who have been cooped up for months emerge from hibernation and school classrooms. This year has been exceptional oppressive. Don't you agree?
When we spring forward, and turn the clock ahead, children get extra time to run, jump, climb and fall. In April, incidences of bicycle-related injuries start to rise. As the months get hotter, there are more swimming and water-play injuries. And every summer, there are reliably three to five lawn mower injuries that require attention in every emergency room.
Among children, traumatic injuries can double during summer months. In winter months, where Urgent Care facilities might see 100 kids a month for traumatic injuries, from May to September, that number is usually between 170 and 200 a month. Adult trauma cases also jump 25 to 30 percent in the summer months.
Adults, naturally, tend to have more grown-up injuries -- bad sunburns, burns from gas grills and joint injuries among weekend warriors who aren't in top physical form (golfer's elbow is one of the most-reported summer issues for men). Falls are more common, too, as people who are painting houses and cleaning gutters tumble from ladders.
Throughout my carrier I have heard many stories of traumatic injuries. Experience has shown that when a person has an injury or an illness 2 things always happen;
1. You have new expenses, you have to meet your deductible first for emergency care. Depending on your plan your deductible may be as high as $5,000 or $6,000. A broken leg will run you 7-15K. What if you need follow-up care, drugs, therapy? Where will the money come from?
2. Then what if you can’t work for a few days, do you get sick days, how much will losing a week at work cost you, what if it was longer than a week. The bills still need to be paid.
* Over 4 out of 10 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms every year.
* The average hospital stay is 6 days.
* The average hospital stay is over $10,000.
* 43% of Americans report having a difficult time covering medical expenses – even with medical insurance.
There is a way to protect yourself and stay on a budget. Accident and Sick pay policies pay money directly to you, to help with those sudden unexpected expenses that always happen with injury and illness. For less than $20/month you can protect yourself, $50 will protect an entire family. This is valuable protection that pays money directly to you and pays it quickly.
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