Last week I went to Fincon19 it was my first time going and I was soaking up all the knowledge from the sessions and from the new people I was meeting. On the last day of Fincon, Sharon Epperson, CNBC Senior Personal Finance Correspondent, gave the closing address. She urged all of us to make sure we had a solid emergency fund and proper health and disability insurance. A few years ago, Sharon had a brain aneurysm that left her unable to work for a year. She mentioned having insurance and a fully funded emergency savings helped her to avoid financial ruin while she was in recovery.
Hearing her speak was very emotional. I knew she was right. I started to think about my own finances. I have savings, not a fully funded emergency fund but I’m getting there. I work a full-time IT job so I have health insurance and disability insurance. I told myself I was going to continue to work my plan of cutting out my student loan debt as soon as possible so that I could fully fund my emergency fund afterward.
Who knew the next day I would get a personal lesson as to what Sharon was advising.
The following day I went out to lunch at a food spot near the hotel of FinCon19. I ordered my food. I ate about a quarter of it mainly because it didn’t taste that great. About 30 minutes later I started to feel like I was having an allergic reaction. And I was…..
My face was swelling up and my throat was itching. I took a Benadryl and headed back to my hotel. I was a bit nervous because I had never had an allergic reaction while traveling out of state. My symptoms were progressing. I called my friends and family and they suggested that I go to the ER.
I have had allergic reactions before so I was not as worried about my symptoms. I was more worried about navigating DC to get the care that I needed. I just wanted to be okay health wise. I was not worried about the cost that comes with going to the hospital unexpectedly.
I took an Uber to the hospital for $7.79. My copay was $150. One of my prescriptions was covered under insurance it was about $2. The doctor I saw also prescribed me an EpiPen, unfortunately it was not covered under my insurance because the doctor did not formally authorize it so I had to pay for it outright. Luckily CVS had a coupon for it so I paid $350 instead of $750. In total, I spent $509.79 on my unexpected out of state allergic reaction trip to the ER.
Thankfully, I have the money in my emergency fund and it made this very stressful and very scary situation less stressful and scary.
I was not expecting to pay an additional $509.79 on my trip to FinCon on medical costs. But it happened. Thankfully, I have the money in my emergency fund and it made this very stressful and very scary situation less stressful and scary. I’m so happy I had an emergency fund to dip into and I’m happy that I got the care that I needed. I’ll definitely still need to replenish the amount I took from my emergency fund. I’m also going to aim to save about year’s worth of expenses once I am done paying off my student loans.
Sharon also made another point in her talk that I had overlooked prior to my allergic reaction. She mentioned to make sure you have good people in your life to help you when you are in a time of need. I’m lucky that in the grand scheme of things that can go wrong with your health that what happened to me was on the smaller side. I thank God. But it definitely showed me how caring my friends and family are. I feel so much more comfortable in life knowing that not only do I have an emergency fund and insurance but I also have friends and family for support.