My friend Barbara, who was there, can tell you that last Saturday night as I was sprawled like an upturned arachnid in a public restroom, with the doctor hovering over me calling my condition “life-threatening,” I was not thinking about my Maker or my eternal destination. I was thinking about the ambulance bill. When the words 9-1-1 were bandied around, Barbara heard as I managed to eek out a “no.” The vertical people prevailed.

The next day at home I phoned my insurance company and sure enough it doesn’t cover the 4-mile ride in a glorified truck with flashing lights. I asked the EMT en route to Abington Hospital how much the pleasure of his company will set me back if I happen to not be covered for it. He said about $1,000.

The company representative couldn’t say for sure, but thought I’ll only be responsible for a co-pay of $150 for the 2 hours I spent in the Emergency Room (If she’s wrong, the bill will be $3,011.) If I had tarried a few more hours, the incident would have been transferred to a different category, and my $10,000 annual deductible would have kicked in, leaving me with personal costs in the thousands of dollars.

And I’m one of the lucky ones; I have insurance.

I’m thinking Michael Moore is a national treasure, and we’d better fix the system somehow — or a Bastille Day reenactment may be in our future.

A unique health center crossed a threshold last week. Zarephath Health Center provided prenatal care and covered delivery costs for a family who just welcomed a healthy boy, the first child to benefit from the health center’s services.

In 2005, WORLD told the story of Zarephath Health Center, a community-supported clinic set on the Zarephath Christian Church campus in central New Jersey. Founders Alieta and John Eck, private family practitioners and church members, read Marvin Olasky’s book, The Tragedy of American Compassion, and decided to provide the poor with free health care.

When Fred and Rachel Cole of Union realized they couldn’t pay for prenatal care and hospital delivery bills, they were terrified, Alieta Eck told WoW: “The husband even checked out the cost of an abortion because he was so scared.” A hospital delivery cost $24,000 to $40,000 without insurance, and the couple’s insurance would only pay $5,700. When a pastor from the church told the Ecks about the situation, volunteer doctors and nurses agreed to perform prenatal care up to Rachel’s last month of pregnancy, and the health center funded the delivery at Somerset Medical Center.

Eck said Fred Cole told her after his son Michael’s delivery, “I could be looking at him and saying, ‘I’m going to go bankrupt because of you,’ but I’m not.” She said financial strain is a huge factor in many couple’s decisions to get abortions: “If the church could look at babies as God looks at them . . . and even help fund their delivery, we’d have more people choosing life instead of an abortion.” Eck said the health center hopes to continue to be able to offer these kinds of services in the future.

Correction: The Coles did not have health insurance. Blue Cross/Blue Shield pays $5700 for a hospital delivery, much less than hospitals charge uninsured patients. ZHC negotiated to pay the hospital $5,000, about what BC/BC would have paid.