Friday, July 11, 2008

Health Care

Some of the problems with health care in this country became very clear at our house yesterday for this self-employed person who is married to a contract tech worker. I took CP to the doc for a shot and a checkup and they told me that I needed to pay them right there. Well, the LW and I have high deductible insurance, but usually our stuff still runs through the insurance for system for the discount that they've negotiated - well baby isn't covered. The lady at the front desk made sure that I heard this and didn't really want to hear anything else. "Well baby isn't covered, you'll have to pay today." On we went. I tried to explain that it goes through the insurance and then we pay the discounted rate.......nothing. So, we get called in and all is well with the doc. Her nurse comes in and gives CP the shot and we're on our way to the billing desk. The nurse, by the way, was the quickest with a syringe that I've ever seen. It was over in a blink and CP didn't even have time to react before the brightly cartooned bandage came out. Well, we got to the desk and all that the lady there wanted to tell me was that I needed to pay and that well baby visits weren't covered by my insurance. She called another girl over and that's what she said too. I argued that it should be run through the insurance and she eventually realized that too, but she said that she didn't have the authority to allow that. Well baby visits aren't covered. Well, I was at the point where I was going to bitch slap the whole lot of them, so I paid the bill and left, only to find a new Acura TL parked so close to CP's door that I couldn't open it. So we walked around to the other side, cleared the seat and I put her inside. This wouldn't have been a problem regularly, but it was raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock outside. After I cleared the front of the car, soaking wet by this time, I yelled at the lady sitting in the car and asked her whether "she always parked like a dumbass!?". Then we left.

$300/month for insurance with a $5000 family deductible and well baby care isn't covered. It's time to bail out of this country because it's going to $hit. All the lame-ass fox news types (my parents included) want to do is bitch about how bad socialized health care would be and how high taxes would be. Just let one of them fall off of a company payroll with a heart condition and see how much they like life after their cobra coverage wears out. The rat bastards will be crying for socialized health care when they have to tap a 401k just to afford Blue Cross. They might just get a taste of being treated like the rest of us.

4 comments:

Katie said...

People are morons. Makes me want to go live in the woods sometimes, I'm sorry you had a shitty day.

Cheers to hitting the nail square on the head.

AMorris said...

We're seriously considering moving somewhere different. It's just silly. I don't know if my brother is up for the task of taking care of my folks, but he may have to be when the time comes.

I talked to the office manager at the doctor's office and she said that they've had some serious problems with certain insurance companies stretching their reimbursement/claim/payment time out to 90 days because of some medicare stuff floating around in congress. She also mentioned that some insurance companies are in the red already. We spoke about HSA plans and she mentioned that they've had a lot of folks using their HSA $$ for living costs and then sticking the doc's office for $10/month payments on a $300 bill. It's getting pretty ugly and she said that she's even looked at moving to Canada.

Chile said...

Wow, what an awful doctor's visit. Due to gas prices, I'm sticking close to home more often. A pleasant result is less exposure to idiot drivers.

We looked at the Canada option but ultimately decided we couldn't afford it even if we could qualify in all the categories they require for entry.

Bitty said...

I'm glad you have this (and I have insurance, so I have it, too), but the "negotiated discount" is part of the problem. Different rates for people in different statuses stinks! The person paying cash probably can least afford to pay full price.

When we "allowed" (not you & I, of course) the corporations to run every damn thing -- health care, tv news, everything -- is when we lost our national soul. Nothing is done for the benefit of people -- just the bottom line.

I feel your rage.