You will get a referral for infertility. To the worst doctor in the area. Luckily, you'll end up pregnant before you have the appointment for the infertility.
You find a better OB, schedule an appointment for WELL after the required processing time.
The day before your appointment, you'll wonder why you haven't gotten the paperwork in the mail, so you'll call your insurance company. Turns out your insurance company turned DOWN the pregnancy referral, because they had approved one for infertility. I guess I'm not pregnant after all. Even though several pee tests and a blood draw from my primary doctor beg to differ.
Yes, folks, socialized health care will look a LOT like what I have for insurance-- the system the military people use. You will be using an HMO. You will NOT be able to see just any doctor unless you see your primary care doctor first. And if for some reason you have a change in your situation and have to go BACK to your primary doctor to get a different referral to a different doctor you're at the mercy of some schmuck pushing papers. In their rush to get the paperwork done in time, they'll scan it quickly and NOT SEE that the INFERTILITY referral will NOT work for a PREGNANCY appointment.
Instead, the insurance company wants me to go to the ER. For something that could cost the government SO MUCH LESS if they'd just get off their butts and READ the paperwork properly. That's where all your hard earned tax dollars are going. To junk like that.
Yes, I'm upset. I'm upset because I don't want to go to the hospital to get an ultrasound when I already have an appointment for tomorrow. I don't want to wait another several weeks to be seen, when I already had an appointment. Seems to me, that if I were you guys, I'd want tax breaks to pay for my health care, rather than having the government mandate who you can see and when. That hasn't worked for me.
(I'm not going into the troubles I had when I got pregnant with Little Monster and was being seen at the military hospital. I'm not going to tell you about the time they told me I had breast cancer, when really I have "lumpy breasts." I'm not going to tell you about all of the mistakes that have been made and the way I've been treated by the same health care people you will be dealing with if socialized health care is set up. I'm not. I just want you to think about how much money it will cost. And how many people will go to the ER for a sniffy nose or a toothache. And how much that will cost you.)
I'm praying someone at that office building will have a heart, and get this paperwork put through today. So that I don't have to go see my doctor, have stuff ordered, and have to go to the HOSPITAL --where it costs forty times as much -- to get it taken care of.
Note to family and friends who are reading: Nothing is wrong. I am fine. Teeny Bean is fine so far. Do. Not. Worry. I just need to get some stuff done that my doctors office can't do. And my insurance company -- they're idiots.
Note to insurance company: Please don't 'accidentally' delete my SSN from your files, thereby deleting my insurance and making my life even more difficult because I complained. Just give a gal a hand for once, and help me out. Don't make me wait over a month to get this stuff taken care of! :)
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
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3 comments:
How frustrating!!
I have been sort of anti-government healthcare, but I could never vocalize why. (it might be because I have healthcare through my dh's job, and if I didn't have it I might think differently). But you really explained my own feelings for me! I mean, we already have a bunch of people who are on medicaid who go to the ER whenever they have the sniffles and clog up the place for the real emergencies. Too much potential for error with the paper shufflers, like in your situation. It could make people who need to see a physician wait to have the insurance's OK and that could be costly.
Anyway, thanks for vocalizing how I feel, and I hope you will see the doctor that you need to see!!!
Having lived in England, and seeing firsthand the way health care works there, I am against govt. health care. I love the insurance I have now (both policies), or at least when the actually pay my claims I do. My mom on the other hand, has to see the Dr's on the military base, and the system to get an appointment is so screwed up that she has to call EVERY DAY to see if a new schedule has been posted, because if you don't, you can't get an appointment for that three month period. And they won't tell you WHEN the schedule will be posted. She recently had something happen to her thumb, where it will occasionally stop functioning, and she got in the see the dr, had it looked at, and now she has to have surgery on it to fix the tendon or whatever is wrong with it, but she has to wait for the schedule to be posted, and hope that they have a time left that she can work with. It's just screwy. I'm sorry you have to deal with that.
But I guess for the people who don't have any health insurance, something is better than nothing. I think the Gov't would be better off just paying premiums on existing plans, or having an assistance program for those who can't afford it, and letting insurance stay as it is. That would at least give people the ability to be insured.
Frustrating.
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