Regardless of the many ways we try to avoid getting ill or injured, with our antibiotic clothing, and our plastic bubble-wrapped lives, sometimes there is just no avoiding it.

It seems that everywhere I look this time of year someone is suffering from colds or flu and it’s been beaten into our brains as Americans that unless we are laid out on a gurney, we must go on. So we try. And sometimes a gurney is just where we end up.

While this may paint us as stoic, it’s also stupid. A serious illness or injury can not only keep you out of work for unforeseen periods of time, it can affect your credit report negatively far beyond your illness or injury.

Here’s 1 scenario- you break your leg skiing with your buddies (alcohol may have been involved). While not an illness, still winter related and emergency room related and perfect for our scenario, this gives you an idea of what I am talking about. The ski resort calls ABC Mt. Rescue to get your stupid butt off of the mountain. You are then transported the the hospital, by 123 Ambulance services. The EMT’s on both vehicles have notated every minute they have spent with you, every band-aid they have used, every doctor on the other end of the radio at the hospital, now waiting on your stupid butt (oh, yes, you are already on the clock at the hospital). You arrive at the Little Country Inn Hospital which has been on the radio with EMT’s for an hour already, trying to determine how best to reattach your leg. The E.R. doc consults with the LCIH surgeon who is not an orthopedic surgeon, who is now being flown in to consult on your case. But wait, alcohol may have been involved, so they have to draw blood, and take urine and make certain that you aren’t intoxicated when wheeled into the o.r. to reattach your leg. Now, in the O.R. we have on anesthesia…WOW!!! You have only been stabilized and how many people are billing you?!?