It might trigger a heart attack.

When I was in Italy this winter. I had a medical emergency. A heart issue. I checked in. To the emergency room. At the hospital. In the city of Carbonia. In Sardinia. And left eight days later. With my life. And a bill. Of 5300 euros. Equivalent to a little less than $7,000 in American money. Believe me. I paid every last cent. Out of my pocket. Assuming that I'd be reimbursed by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. One of my health insurance providers. I was given assurance, by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Before leaving for Italy. That I'd be covered. For at least 80 percent of the cost of a medical emergency while abroad. But now I find, there's really no assurance of insurance. Solely because of the medical bureaucracies. In Italy and America. I have no complaints. About the quality of my medical and hospital care. In Italy. Or the follow-up care I received upon my return. In America. It saved my life. And prevented a heart attack. And it's the reason I'm here today. Alive. And healthy. And able to write about it. But I have grave doubts. That I'll be reimbursed. Because I'm expected to navigate the tricky combined medical bureaucracies. Of Italy and the insurance company. A gargantuan and possibly life-threatening task.  The bureaucracies are so labyrinthian. That I may never come out. With a penny. Or even my life. By trying to valiantly navigate the bureaucratic maize. Of dotting every 'i' and crossing every 't.' In Italian and English. I might merely throw up my hands, and say it ain't worth the stress and the risk of life and limb. Merely to collect a few thousand dollars. Anyway, I'm an honorable man. I pay my bills. Because I'm grateful for still being alive. My way of saying thank you. To the medical personnel in Italy. They saved my life. Worth more than all the money in the world. Here's the gist of the major bureaucratic hang up. My insurance company requires an itemized bill. For everything the Italians did.  But the Italian health care bureaucracy provides only a lump sum bill. Without itemization. Once again, believe me. The price of the service/care in Italy was a bargain. I received angioplasty, an angiogram, stress tests. A whole gamut of stuff. Life-saving care equal or better to anything I would have received in an American hospital. Hospital and medical care pricing experts tell me that the same care in America would have cost several times more.  Upward of $40,000. Indeed, I got an incredible bargain. In Italy. A tribute to the Italian health care system. But my insurance company seems to be telling me. Be grateful for having your life. And maybe just forget about collecting a penny from us. I hope that's not true. But I know that a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy. And maybe there's no way of finding one's way out. Maybe I should look at all this philosophically. I have my life. And there's nothing more precious than that. But hey, I'm still crazy enough to try navigating the bureaucratic system. For a while. Without becoming too stressed. Not sure, of course,  if that's a wise move.  Maybe I'd be better off. Merely telling the bureaucrats. Shove it. I ain't even going to try.  For fear that it might trigger a heart attack. --Jim Broede