Health Insurance Rant
Mr. President, can you *retroactively* reform health insurance?
I'm so bloody angry right now.
Okay, so, I got a couple of bills from the hospital. This, I have to say, is a new experience for me. I've *never* paid for my health care. And I thought that I had a pretty crappy HMO, but it turns out I was spoiled, and BlueCross BlueShield is actually the pretty crappy HMO.
My first daughter, who was delivered by c-section under full anesthesia, after three failed rounds of cervidel and pitocin in the midst of a ten-day hospital say, "cost" me $15.00 in medical bills. One $15 copay at my first visit, and then nothing. Not. A. Dime. I think my insurance company paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $23,000 for my prenatal and operative care. Thank you, MVP. I thought you were just obeying the law, but it turns out you were actually a good company.
I've been billed so far for blood tests and an ultrasound (the first of at least three I will receive over then next seven months). The bills so far total $523. I called the insurance company, and explained to them that there must be some mistake. You see, this is *prenatal* care. I'm fully covered for *prenatal* care.
Sure you're covered, they said. After your $500 deductible and your $2500 out-of-pocket.
*blink, blink*
My Fucking WHAT?
My MVP insurance expired on December 31, and the United Methodist Church decided not to renew the contract with them. So MVP members were rolled over into BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. We had insurance election in November. We could, allegedly, choose between the BCBS PPO and the BCBS EPO. There was one meeting, scheduled with about a week and a half's notice, three and a half hours away, that explained some of the new/changed benefits. No, I didn't go. Yes, that's my own damn fault. But no one at the meeting even knew the full details of the policies. No one knew, for example, that the PPO covers 85% of prenatal/maternity after a $500 deductible and the EPO covers 100% of prenatal/maternity after a $15 copay. Nowhere was this spelled out on paper to compare the two plans. We were in the midst of trying to conceive. I'd have looked at that.
Also, it was November, as in almost-advent. Yeah, I looked at a lot of pieces of paper. I went to a lot of meetings.
So, not having specified a preference, I was enrolled by default in the PPO with the deductible and the 15% coinsurance out of pocket, up to $2500 annually. Oh. Per person. Does a pregnant lady count as one person or two? I think by September, I'll definitely count as two.
So, now, I owe the hospital $500. And I'll probably owe another $2500 before all is said and done. Not that a baby isn't priceless. That's not the point. The point is this is stupid. It could have been avoided if I was more informed, which I can only really partially blame myself for, or if the freaking United Methodist Church made it their policy to only buy health insurance that fully covers, you know, women and children. Why a church should care about such things, I don't know.
And it is, of course, too late to change my election because the church's premium rates are already set for the year. Unless I had a major change in employment status or was a new hire or something, but I think resigning and then being rehired a day later might constitute insurance fraud.
So hurry up with that bloody stimulus check, Mr. Obama, because you're going to stimulate my prenatal care savings account. Rather than pay off my credit card.
In a few months, my Bishop will ask me (presuming I pass my ordination interview), if I am "in debt so as to embarrass myself." Yes, I'm in quite a lot of debt, but until now, I've not been embarrassed. I'm actually proud that my husband and I have made it through two masters degrees and times of unemployment and underemployment and major relocations and have the debt we do have and are on track to be fully paid off in a couple of years. That is, before we had to spend $3000 on health care. Now I am embarrassed. But I haven't shamed myself. I'm ashamed of my church, and my country, and any society where bankers get bonuses and pregnant women--many of them far, far, poorer and less insured than I--pay for the chance to have a healthy child.
I'm so bloody angry right now.
Okay, so, I got a couple of bills from the hospital. This, I have to say, is a new experience for me. I've *never* paid for my health care. And I thought that I had a pretty crappy HMO, but it turns out I was spoiled, and BlueCross BlueShield is actually the pretty crappy HMO.
My first daughter, who was delivered by c-section under full anesthesia, after three failed rounds of cervidel and pitocin in the midst of a ten-day hospital say, "cost" me $15.00 in medical bills. One $15 copay at my first visit, and then nothing. Not. A. Dime. I think my insurance company paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $23,000 for my prenatal and operative care. Thank you, MVP. I thought you were just obeying the law, but it turns out you were actually a good company.
I've been billed so far for blood tests and an ultrasound (the first of at least three I will receive over then next seven months). The bills so far total $523. I called the insurance company, and explained to them that there must be some mistake. You see, this is *prenatal* care. I'm fully covered for *prenatal* care.
Sure you're covered, they said. After your $500 deductible and your $2500 out-of-pocket.
*blink, blink*
My Fucking WHAT?
My MVP insurance expired on December 31, and the United Methodist Church decided not to renew the contract with them. So MVP members were rolled over into BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. We had insurance election in November. We could, allegedly, choose between the BCBS PPO and the BCBS EPO. There was one meeting, scheduled with about a week and a half's notice, three and a half hours away, that explained some of the new/changed benefits. No, I didn't go. Yes, that's my own damn fault. But no one at the meeting even knew the full details of the policies. No one knew, for example, that the PPO covers 85% of prenatal/maternity after a $500 deductible and the EPO covers 100% of prenatal/maternity after a $15 copay. Nowhere was this spelled out on paper to compare the two plans. We were in the midst of trying to conceive. I'd have looked at that.
Also, it was November, as in almost-advent. Yeah, I looked at a lot of pieces of paper. I went to a lot of meetings.
So, not having specified a preference, I was enrolled by default in the PPO with the deductible and the 15% coinsurance out of pocket, up to $2500 annually. Oh. Per person. Does a pregnant lady count as one person or two? I think by September, I'll definitely count as two.
So, now, I owe the hospital $500. And I'll probably owe another $2500 before all is said and done. Not that a baby isn't priceless. That's not the point. The point is this is stupid. It could have been avoided if I was more informed, which I can only really partially blame myself for, or if the freaking United Methodist Church made it their policy to only buy health insurance that fully covers, you know, women and children. Why a church should care about such things, I don't know.
And it is, of course, too late to change my election because the church's premium rates are already set for the year. Unless I had a major change in employment status or was a new hire or something, but I think resigning and then being rehired a day later might constitute insurance fraud.
So hurry up with that bloody stimulus check, Mr. Obama, because you're going to stimulate my prenatal care savings account. Rather than pay off my credit card.
In a few months, my Bishop will ask me (presuming I pass my ordination interview), if I am "in debt so as to embarrass myself." Yes, I'm in quite a lot of debt, but until now, I've not been embarrassed. I'm actually proud that my husband and I have made it through two masters degrees and times of unemployment and underemployment and major relocations and have the debt we do have and are on track to be fully paid off in a couple of years. That is, before we had to spend $3000 on health care. Now I am embarrassed. But I haven't shamed myself. I'm ashamed of my church, and my country, and any society where bankers get bonuses and pregnant women--many of them far, far, poorer and less insured than I--pay for the chance to have a healthy child.