(UN)HEALTH INSURANCE FOR WRITERS
I had dinner with my mother last night and we talked about health insurance. Between Medicare, extended care, and standard insurance for the kind of necessities required by a woman in her late eighties, her monthly costs exceed my monthly mortgage payment. There were several very knowledgable people in this conversation and they agreed that she has no alternative. As for me, I'm engaged in my yearly (and always futile) search for more affordable insurance, hopeful that someone's figured out a way to ease the financial burden. Silly me. It makes me want to hurry and reach age 65...imagine. Or move to a state that gives its residents a break. Sure isn't happening in CA, no matter what Arnie promises.
Ideas...anyone?
Essayist, anthologist, novelist.”
—This gem of an anthology about what we fear, avoid, would rather not mention, let alone read about---death----is the funniest book I've read in years. (Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars with Boys and Looking for Mary)
About Victoria
VICTORIA ZACKHEIM is the author of The Bone Weaver and editor of five anthologies: He Said What?, The Other Woman; For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance, The Face in the Mirror:Writers Reflect on Their Dreams of...
Connections
Causes Victoria Zackheim Supports
Delancey Street Foundation Move-on Emily's List Susan G. Komen for the Cure Heifer International
Well, I don't know exactly
Well, I don't know exactly how much your monthly premium is, but, here in scenic (HAH!) New Jersey, my wife and I are forced to pay almost $13,000 a year for a miserable HMO run by a nefariously cheap Robber-Baron outfit by the name of "Horizon Blue Cross, Blue Shield". Of course, when I say "forced to pay" I don't mean that they literally "make" us do this by putting a gun to our heads (though the only reason they probably don't resort to the threat of brute force is because it might be frowned upon by the Law, and might earn them a reprimand of the finger-wagging variety). No, the reason we succumb to their brand of extortion is because the alternative would mean total financial devastation should either my wife or I fall ill enough to land in a (gasp!) hospital- where it now costs more (blood-)money per day than an all-expense-paid stay at any 5 Star Presidential Hotel Suite on the planet.
On the other hand, maybe it's unkind of me to bitch & moan about that near-$13,000 premium, for our "co-pay" is only $30 every single time we go to our GP or specialist. And seeing as how Horizon thoughtfully provides a (highly-limited) register of physicians whom we must use, this saves us the considerable trouble and aggravation of having to consult health-care providers of our choice. What's more, that's not the only way they look out for our best interest. When my wife sorely needed a fairly minor operation on her leg because of a painful vein, and the specialist said he would fix the problem by using a new and much less invasive laser-technique- our guardians at Horizon declined to pay for that option, and forced him to employ a cheaper "old-fashioned" techique which was not only much more painful, but ultimately proved to be ineffective. But I'm sure their hearts were in the right place, and that they simply didn't want my wife to be exposed to such an "experimental" procedure- no matter how much that surgeon implored them, and assured them of its efficacy in what turned out to be a futile series of letters...
So, should you ever decide to move to scenic (HAH!) New Jersey, then be sure to look me up, and I'll be happy to hook you up with my thoughtful, caring and always-sympathetic Horizon rep!
Oh, yeah, be sure to bring your checkbook...
I just had to purchase my
I just had to purchase my 24-year-old son insurance for the first time since he was one-month old and we had a two-year gap before we had insurance through an employer.
It isn't even very good in terms of protection, but it will save me from going completely bankrupt.
Obama needs to step in and up ASAP, for the young and the old and just plain us.
J
Jessica Barksdale Inclan www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
From your lips to God's
From your lips to God's ears, Jessica- but somehow I doubt that Obama will be either savvy or ruthless enough to outwit both the Medical and Pharmaceutical Lobbyists who have us all by our collective short & curlies.
Although many of you have probably, by now, become resigned to this disgraceful state of affairs- the abysmally appalling state of our American health-care system was the single greatest shock to my wife and me when we moved back here after 31 years in the Netherlands. Not that life in Holland doesn't have its own drawbacks- for the tax rate there is frightening. However, for a nominal fee of about $200 a month, their citizens are totally insured- and don't lie awake at night worrying about having to sell their home, and perhaps even their first-born child to white-slavers, should they fall seriously ill and eventually exceed the ceiling on their outrageously expensive and pathetically INcomprehensive health insurance.
In fact, that same $200 monthy premium includes unlimited prescription pharmaceuticals, and dental (except for purely cosmetic dental work)!
Just to give you one example of how we're being TOTALLY screwed-over in America by the Medical/Pharmaceutical Lobby: my wife was taking a pill in Holland which cost (the insurance) .9 (nine cents) apiece. When we moved here six years ago, she asked our GP for a presription for the exact same pill. When we went to CVS to pick up the prescription, we saw, to our horror, that the very same pills cost us $1.10 apiece here in America! And now, here comes the punchline: as it happens, this particular pill is manufactured right here in America (by Pfizer)- and the ones we bought in Holland for nine cents apiece were shipped from this country, where they were made, all the way to the Netherlands- where they were subsequently being sold for less than 1/100th the price of what they cost here.
I wish Obama all the best with his noble efforts to overhaul our disgustingly corrupt health-care system- and sincerely hope he doesn't fall ill before achieving this goal. Because, should that happen, then I'm afraid he'll be forced to sell the White House in order to cover his hospital bills...
Some info the insurance cos. would rather you didn't have
In the spring, I contacted Blue Cross and upped my deductible to $5000. I'm on no prescription meds and never get hurt, so why not pay less every month, right? And then I fell down my stairs and the bills (ambulance, fire truck...don't ask me why they came, too!...emergency room, CAT scans, etc.) were...yep, you guessed it...around $5,000. I was screwed. One day, beset by annoyance (at myself, but still...), I called Blue X and got a Customer Service rep. I said something like, "I've been pouring money into your company for thirty years...and for what! A thousand dollars for the firemen? Twelve hundred for the ambulance? And why another three thousand for the hospital?" She very sweetly said, "You know, you can lodge a protest." When I moaned, she added, "I'll do it for you." And she did. That's when I learned that Blue X, Blue Shield, and most insurers EXPECT us to challenge a bill...and often back down. If we don't challenge it, all the better for them. The upshot? I paid $200 for the ambulance, a bit less for the firemen, and the hospital refunded nearly $2000 dollars...all because one woman told me I could challenge those charges.
Now tell me...did you know that was possible?
Since then, I've spoken to a few people who saved up to $20,000 in hospital bills because they knew about this. Those who did not were royally enraged.
The whole system is vile and
The whole system is vile and corrupt: rotten to the core. In fact, if our health-care system were to enter a hospital as a patient- I've no doubt that the attending physicians would pronounce it D.O.A. (before proceding to send one of those outrageously inflated bills you describe to the next of kin!).
I don't know if Blue Cross is a particularly insidious firm, or merely a "typical" example of the profession. A profession that makes that of prostitution look rather noble by comparison!
Like you, I'm on no prescription meds and never get hurt, but when I mentioned in passing to someone at the gym that I was uninsured for that very reason, they did a double-take, gasped, and backed away from me in horror as if I was some kind of lunatic. "Are you crazy?!", said the otherwise polite and genteel lady, "Have you any idea what will happen to you if you get sick?! You'll lose everything you own, and be totally wiped out by the hospital bills!!". Seeing as how I'm not a gambling man, I decided to heed her advice/warning, and joined Blue Cross HMO the following week. So far, I've run up a yearly tab of about $400 for my bi-annual blood tests which my GP insists I must have (do those guys own stock in these labs?)- and for this I pay Blue Cross about $6400. The reason why I say "about", is because their rates go up so often than I'm never quite sure how much the next bill will be. I find this a bit odd, because when I signed up, the rep I spoke to (after first having to endure about 10 minutes of sheer Robot Hell before I was finally connected to a "live" person) assured me that, although the yearly rate was "subject to fluctuations in price", there was just as good a chance that my premium would get lower as it would get higher. It all depended, she assured me, on how many other folks belonged to the same plan. However, seeing as how my rate has only gone up year after year (actually twice a year on average!), this must mean that entire legions of other Blue Cross members are dying off like flies, while not enough...suckers...are signing up to replace them. Although this is quite an unusual statistical anomaly, I'm sure it must be so- for the only other explanation is quite unthinkable: that my Blue Cross rep...misspoke...when she assured me that the price fluctuation for my policy could go "either way"...
As for your account of how haggling about the hospital bill as if one were at a rug-merchant's souk in Morocco actually bore fruit- well, my daughter had the same experience. She was initially presented with an almost $5000 tab for her daughter's 3-day hospital stay (no operation- just for simple observation). But when she went to the chief bean-counter, he offered to lower it to $2000 if she paid in full right away.
Like I said before, it makes the profession of prostitution seem quite noble by comparison- for, at least with a hooker, you expect to get screwed...