Dubious Quality

Outstanding balances, and I've been getting those regularly. Her health insurance company has paid some claims, but not others. Due to a very strange Michigan law, if a motor vehicle is involved in the accident, her auto insurance becomes a secondary payer for her medical bills, which were astronomical. 

This allows both companies to throw claims like footballs back and forth, each denying responsibility. 

It's been exhausting, and my secret fear has always been that somehow the insurance doesn't cover some huge portion of the medical bills, and if the woman who hit her doesn't have significant assets, the costs wouldn't be recoverable. 

So I called the hospital today, and the lady immediately said, "You can disregard that letter." I asked her why, and she said "Her health insurance paid all our outstanding claims. The balance is zero."

That hit me like a wave. 

After that moment of relief, I had the strangest reaction: I got a little shaky. I can't really explain why, but I think it might have been because life changed so significantly for me in an emotional sense in that moment. 

There are still some outstanding medical bills--about 10k that her health insurance only partially paid--but that's a long, long way from what I feared.

My life is going to improve substantially when that 10k is taken care of, too. So much of this tragic process has felt like treading water day after day, and it gets so heavy after a while. 

Now, a little bit of a raft.