Well my wife and I have been "terminated" from our HMO a second time now in a year for non-payment and it never ceases to amaze me just how heartless the financial and bean counting bastards are in this world. It was bad enough having cancer - then the devastating treatment and prolonged recovery (and believe me, I am grateful that I even HAVE a recovery) but then the banks and credit cards companies roll in with their $33 overdraft charges, overlimit fees, late fees, higher interest due to terms hidden in small print. Then there is the endless phone calls from the collection agencies morning, noon and night, 7 days a week - thank God for caller ID.

This is the dirty little side of cancer that very few anticipate. The institutions are evil -there is no kind way of putting this. I have exhausted my home equity, retirement plan and any other resource not nailed down and they would take my blood too (if I didn't have Hep C on top of everything else). We have already met with the lawyer about filing for bankruptcy.

I would love to let this go but it's like stepping in a hornets nest in the middle of a large field with no where to hide - they attack relentlessly, ruthlessly. The condescending methodology of the collection agencies is startling - the questioning of charges on credit card bills, item by item, threats by "psuedo attornies". The total lack of ethics in general. "Ming the Merciless" had higher ethics than this.

My doctor tells me that stress is the leading cause of disease. They can't get the money so they they are trying to kill me. I wouldn't have been any worse borrowing money from the mob.

Thanks for letting me vent...