Ill-gotten Gains

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 05/22/2008 4:38 PM | Said & Done

“Sure, I invested in health insurance, as if it was some trusty umbrella to shield me on a rainy day. How wrong I was...For they were only offering insurance, not a foolproof policy for health.”

Sick is a word that was once unfamiliar, even alien to me. My biggest health problems growing up were catching a chill, a slight cough or runny nose. I had never been hospitalized, did not have a regular physician and had only stepped into a drugstore once or twice in my life.

I lived my life untroubled and carefree, unlike some of my friends who had been plagued by allergies and other health issues since they were kids. I was unconcerned and unthinking until, at the age of 40, I lay bed-ridden and very sick, in desperate need of a kidney transplant.

I won’t get into the details of my illness, which I have written about at length in other publications. Suffice to say that I learned at that point that health really is something not to be taken lightly. It’s an investment; just as we invest in land, a home and mutual funds, we also need to take care of our health. Or face our own very costly health crisis.

But that had never crossed my mind. Sure, I invested in health insurance, as if it was some trusty umbrella to shield me on a rainy day. How wrong I was. Instead of paying those premiums, I should have been doing the hard work – watching what I ate, exercising, avoiding the vices of life – to keep fit. For they were only offering life insurance, not a foolproof policy for health.

Stupid is as stupid does. More saddening still was that I did not feel I was being foolish, simply because I could say a few choice phrases in a foreign language, I was well educated and still able to mix well with all levels of society. That was until the events of three years ago brought home how stupid I had been.

Now I am paying the price, and in many ways it is much higher than those premiums. I have to be on guard, like the nurses who watched over me at death’s door a few years ago, all the time. I cannot let myself get too tired; I have to rigidly monitor my diet and must adhere to a strict schedule for taking my medicines. The drugs that keep me going have some very bad side effects, and I recently had eye surgery to remove cataracts.

That is not my only health-related expense. Each month, I pay a sizable amount – almost the equivalent of a month’s salary for many people – for the medicines that I need. God forbid that I could not work to earn my keep.

Do you feel some similarities with the unconcerned me of the past? So you don’t think that you are stupid every time you enjoy a puff on a cigarette, or push yourself away from the table after stuffing yourself with a heaping plate or two of succulent lamb stewed in coconut milk (I can feel my heart trembling at the thought of it).

And you don’t think you are stupid every time you drive by a giant cigarette billboard, with warnings in big, bold, black letters of the dangers associated with tobacco use. It’s only your lungs, after all – there are plenty of other organs to keep you going.

Now, finally, I have gotten my ill-gotten gains. Hopefully, you will not have to learn the hard way that health really is wealth.

+Samuel Mulia

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