A Happy Kind of Sick

As the recession saga continues, you can’t help but think, “Maybe I should work more, to earn more. I can’t afford to be sick.”

You think of ways to be superhuman, to juggle deadlines, paperwork that needs to be reviewed, concepts to create with your family, your partner and of course, social life.

But the human body can only take so much – and after all, to be sick is human.

What now?

So you take every vitamin imaginable, you rekindle your gym class and do some exercises for fitness. You ingest every color of fruit that there is in a spectrum but eventually you end up in a hospital bed, wailing like a banshee because you’re sick and the world continues on, just like your bills.

Why do I know so much about being sick, you ask? Because the other day, I was brought to the emergency room of a hospital, the one right smack at busy Ortigas Avenue extension in Pasig because my abdomen and back were aching in perfect sync.

And just like that, I was confined with horrendous mayonnaise-colored walls that speak of sterility and indifference. I wanted to scream and hurl myself into a wheelchair and get the hell out of there. Not only being in a hospital makes me feel absolutely helpless, I had to get back to work because well, the bills keep on piling and chores keep on coming. And being there does nothing, really, for my savings.

After three hellish days of being stuck, I was finally checked out of the hospital. You would expect that I would be jumping for joy, right? I was dreading at looking at my passbook and facing the consequences of the sickness that I had.

On my way out, I bumped into an old friend, Mimi, who seemed to be chipper than Chip and Dale. In a hospital nonetheless. She relayed to me how she was checked in for food poisoning and that she had all these medicines that she needed.

Me: Then, why does that make you so giddy?
Friend: Because, I never have to worry about paying off all my hospital bills with the benefits I'll receive from my Sun First Aid.

Apparently, this product is a hospital income plan wherein benefits are paid directly to me so the money can be used for whatever purpose -- be it medicines or just my day-to-day living expenses, even my Globe bill. It provides even more! Sun First Aid also has a money back feature that returns a portion of all payments that I've paid after ten years.

Not bad, eh?

And so I walked out of the hospital with full resolve, to get myself a Sun First Aid, so I'll never have to feel sick more than I already am worrying about the bills to be paid.