Bitch, bitch

[nonionay]

Dammit, I wish I understood how health insurance works. I read and I read and then it just doesn't work like I think it will. Just when I think it makes sense, it seems simple, I'm wrong. But hey, 141$ isn't that bad is it? At least they paid 75$ towards me getting my backside poked with a scalpel Another four office visits, and apparently I can start paying off my 500$ deductible. So why did they pay for part of it? If this thing I got in the mail isn't a bill, then where the hell is my bill? Why can't I just understand it?

I live a decent life. I've got a home, eat what I want, go to the occasional convention, and theoretically I have health care. But I just barely make ends meet. I can't save any money, and I sure as hell don't have any retirement stash. I don't want to have to get cancer to make my insurance worthwhile, and I also don't want to have to think, "hey, that cyst will go away on it's own, I don't need to spend 141$ I can't spare on a doctor's visit."

Oh, I can pay it, and I'm grateful I even have the chance. There's good people out there declaring bankruptcy because of health costs, and yes, children in Haiti eating dirt. I'm just pissy at our non-living-wage-paying, non-universal-health-care society, and I'm pissy at myself for being content with my non-living-wage job and putting all my hope-eggs in the I'm-gonna-have-writing-supplementary-income basket. Because seriously, even a couple thousand extra a year would cover my health worries and let me save a little bit. But to do that, I have to write. And I've just gone from finishing two TPBs of Transmetropolitan and getting hyped up and about to write, to opening my mail and seeing all that hyper Warren Ellis-fueled energy channeled into this dumb rant.

EDIT: My co-worker helped me understand the statement, so now I don't feel too ignorant. I was right when I thought my first four office visits were covered-- the surgery, however, I had to pay towards my deductible. Silly me, thinking there shouldn't be a difference. But hey, my tetanus shot wasn't mentioned!
...
I still want universal health care.

Comments

[tlcadence.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the health care thing flat out sucks. I'm still using my Vegas insurance, because I was denied health coverage up here. Why? Because I was diagnosed with ADHD--which gave me some ridiculous 300 points over their "limit". I've also noticed that you pay the co-pay... and then several months later you owe some random amount. That would be what killed my credit a few years ago. I moved so much that these 'last minute six month later' charges would go to the wrong address. Fun. Anyway, I feel for ya.

[criada.livejournal.com]

>>Because I was diagnosed with ADHD

Which sounds crazy to me, since ADHD isn't going to give you cancer or anything, like smoking would.

[nuin.livejournal.com]

No, but ADHD is a life long disorder, and treatment can be hundreds of dollars a month.

When I was on medication it cost $340 per month. That didn't include the visits to the shrink for monitoring. Thus many insurance agencies won't cover, or try to weasel out of it. I'm currently dealing with my insurance which swore it covered ADHD.
Completely. Surprise, surprise they don't.

[hawkdancer.livejournal.com]

That is really, really dumb.

What a fucked-up world!

[csinman.livejournal.com]

The thing that freaks me out the most about our healthcare is that a fat load of the people who vote against making it better are the poor people.

All the completely ignorant rednecks freckling the backwater areas of the country would have much better lives with universal healthcare. Their hospitals, in towns of 5,000 or less, are never going to have those famous "lines at the emergency room." And they're poor, even if they don't think they are because they're not brown, or because they are but they don't live in the buttcrack of a metropolitan hellhole.

Just to let you know, Internet, I'm rolling my eyes really hard right now.

[shadesofmauve]

And this is just another reason I despair of our society. Rich complaining that the poor won't work to help themselves, when they're working their asses off, and what they WON'T do is VOTE to help themselves.

Universal Health Care = so much good sense. Why can't we see that? Hell, it's even good for the economy (to hit the right wing where it hurts) - if health care isn't tied to employment, employers are free to hire more readily and employees are free to switch jobs more easily and start their own business.

End. Rant. Now.

My pet political issue! Let me show you it!

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I've been gradually coming to the realization that what I'd been thinking of as a fairly comfortable living is, in fact, just barely scraping by. The big trigger for this was having to borrow Thousands of dollars from my Mom after my teeth got broken, because I have no Insurance. I'm looking into Washington Basic Health, but even that's going to be tough to fit in.

Health Care is one of the reasons that I will not vote for Hillary Clinton. Her "Health Care Plan" basically just consisted of making it illegal to be without Health Insurance.

Toss in the fact that most of the people who have crunched the numbers have concluded that Nationalized Health Care is cheaper for all involved, and our current system just doesn't make any sense.

I think the billing system is designed to confuse you so they can screw you out of more money as well. I mean hey, it worked for the phone companies, right?

Overall, the fact that people with decent jobs and no dependents are still often barely making ends meet is another sign that something is seriously wrong with how our economic system is set up.

[shadesofmauve]

In this case, it's almost certainly an insurance statment showing what insurance paid, and an actual bill will be forthcoming from the actual medical practitioner later.

That doesn't make it any less confusing/ridiculous, but I'm sure you all know how rabidly I support universal health care, and I don't need to bore you with more.