Being sick while in college is truly like playing a game of chicken with yourself to see how long you can go ignoring your symptoms before you actually have to go to a doctor. Most of the times it works out in my favor to ignore it till it goes away, but I am seriously concerned for the day that I lose that game, and that leads me to my point that the healthcare system is fucked. I don’t have insurance while I am at school because I am only insured in my home state of California and not in New York, so taking a trip to even my shitty on-campus clinic will cost me an arm and a leg just for them to tell me it’s probably just the flu and that I’ll be fine. The first time I got seriously sick at school I actually did go to the campus clinic and it was essentially $200 for them to tell me they didn’t know what I had but it was probably just a common cold, sending me on my way with a gatorade and a jell-o cup. Since then, I have learned to just suck it up because as much as I like gatorade, I can get it for a lot cheaper than $200 at Wegmans. It especially sucks that my school already charges students over $80,000 a year in tuition, so adding $200 onto the bill for shitty healthcare services is really just insult to injury. We are, tragically, far from free healthcare at a countrywide level, but I don’t think it is much to ask from private educational institutions that charge students outrageous amounts for tuition to offer free and decent health care to their students, right?
Monday, Apr 6, 2026
