medical costs

Here we are with family. We were warned about the one sick child so we knew what we were getting into. So far my boys are fine.
Of their three cousins two are sick. The first to get sick is 4, he is on antibiotics. He went to urgent care- $40 for that visit plus the prescription. He has health insurance.
Those costs are not part of the weekly budget for this family. So when child #2 starts to get a runny nose and feel warm- the first thought is not to call the doctor but to wait and see. This child is 6 months old.
This same child was sick at our house at Christmas when he was 3 months. The answer for this family was to wait and see, even with health insurance because the cost is still prohibitive.

I am a mom. I worry, not obsessively, when my children get a fever or otherwise are sick. I call the nurse at the pediatrician and ask whether we should come in (usually no). But my kids are 3 and 4, my judgment is better and my kids can communicate with me so I don't worry as much and the co-pay would not break our budget (unlike my donations to Obama).

I don't want anyone ever to have to choose not to take his or her baby to the doctor because of $40. The worry is corrosive, just to get a prescription should not burst the family weekly budget.