Clean bill of health now. Well sorta. Their condition, a type of cardiomyopathy, sometimes comes back during puberty. At that point they’ll be able to recognize prodromal symptoms like rapid heart rate or murmurs, and they’d receive surgical treatment. But a 4-month-old doesn’t know anything is wrong until they go into shock.

One of the horrors upon horrors I experienced was the hours of waiting on phone calls talking to claims adjusters while feeding my child through an NG tube. My partner and I are lucky enough be able to withstand the brunt of the financial blow. But we essentially had to pay twice for our child’s hospital stay. We are also lucky enough to have the time and knowledge to sift through claims, checking for duplicates or misdated procedures. The vast majority of people do not have that luxury. You try to pay what they tell you because what else are you gonna do? Fight it? Take hours and hours of the limited time you have after work away from your loved one to argue with people on the phone and write emails to your health care company? You either pay up, fight charges, or (allegedly) do a bada bing.

I understand insurance won't discharge to your provider until you've paid your copay, so I'd at least make sure that base is covered. Not sure of the ins and outs of that though.