Take that, Insurance denying fuckers

**Note: I have a small Fibro fog issue today, so please excuse any typos as I don’t feel like waiting to write this.**

Wanna hear read a funny? Remember when they were trying to decide if I had cancer1? Well, last week I got a letter from my insurance company. It reads, in part:

We are in receipt of a claim for the above referenced patient. In order to determine if a pre-existing exclusion applies to these services, we require additional information.
[...]Date Span: 11/07/2008-5/07/2009
1. Did the patient have medical coverage for the date span above?
YES ____ NO ____
2. If yes, please submit evidence of coverage (a certificate of prior coverage from the prior insurance carrier or a letter from the prior carrier with dates and types of coverage held.)
3. If no, please complete the attached questionnaire.

[Stuff that's unimportant to this post.]

When I got the letter, I called the insurance company to see what I should check. I had insurance until March 20, 2009. Since I was only uncovered for a little over a month I wasn’t sure how to proceed. I was told to check option #1 and fill out the questionnaire. Crap. I didn’t know what claim was being potentially denied nor could I remember all of my doctor’s appointments. I knew, since this was the period where my marital status was up in the air, that I hadn’t seen my rheumy, but what about the others?

So, I called all my doctors. You’d think they’d want me to pay them for the dates of service, but they were pretty understanding. I had only been to the doctor for my ganglion cyst (did I even mention that on my blog?). I couldn’t get a hold of my Gyn until today and guess what? Hadn’t been there during that time period either!! Woo-hoo! Take that, coverage denying fuckers.

Of course, they’ll probably deny it anyway. Even though I didn’t go without coverage for a full 63 days, this particular insurance company is so sucky they’ve reportedly told one patient they hoped they didn’t die when they denied cancer treatments for that patient2. Meh.

  1. I don’t, thank all that’s good and holy. And, yes, I will repeat that every time I bring it up. []
  2. Which is the fault of both the insurance company AND the doctor, if you ask me. Why couldn’t the doctor lower the costs and take payments for something that dire? HUH? []
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Because I Have a Pre-Existing Condition

I was working on a post laughing at people contacting me (via my contact page) asking me to put links up for them1, but then I see yet again idiot progressives bitching and moaning about one of the Health Care Reform bills. These folks, in case you’re not watching, have been dubbed the “bill-killers” because they’d rather see us get nothing — which leaves us exactly where we are — than to see us get something.

They don’t care about the people who will benefit from the ban on pre-existing condition exclusions or annual limits, of course. They wave away stories from real people about how either one of these bills would be helpful. It’s not helpful to them (they claim) and so they don’t want it. That’s not progressive, Jim Bob, that’s picking a goddamned scab over the pain of a 2008 loss. Or just a way to follow the piper, who is playing that tune to get page views and up her advertising dollars2. Someone who is so desperate for Obama to fail is jumping into bed with that uber-liberal Norquist (hahaha!!) and feeding hapless followers lies and distortion.

A lie, for instance, claiming this MSNBC article is saying that Obama is going to exclude the employer mandate– though they claim any mandate is bad, but are outraged because of this– and the fucking article doesn’t say any such thing. I triple dog dare you to read that article and come back to tell me where it says Obama is going to eliminate the employer mandate.

I’d also like to add that Jon Walker has since changed the link in the article to point to a more favorable Yahoo! article. Oops. But, let’s examine the Yahoo! article– especially the part which says:

Instead of requiring employers to offer health coverage, the Senate bill penalized businesses if any of their workers obtained government-subsidized health care.

Do you know how the federal has convinced states to pass speed limits, seat belt laws, automobile insurance mandates and drunk driving laws? They’ve penalized the states by refusing to award them highway funding. No, the federal government didn’t say “You’d better do this now!” Instead they said “No, you don’t have to do this, but if you don’t do this you get no money from us.”

Holy shitballs! Only the most hard-headed of libertarian (or contrarian) legislatures refused. They didn’t get their highway money. You know what?

This is the same sort of thing.

Federal government: You don’t have to buy insurance for your employees, but if you don’t you’ll have to pay a penalty for your employees who get federal money to help buy their own.

Employer: Fine. I’m not gonna buy it. Bite me.

Federal government: 75 of your employees get subsidies and/or qualify for Medicaid– fork over the money, bumble wad.

Employer: Fuck. Might as well get them something.

Same fucking thing. See how that works? It’s called strong arming. Happens all the time. But don’t let that fact get in the way of your attempt to derail all things Obama (Hail, Grover Norquist!!!).

But wait! There’s more! These are the same people that were pissed that there was any mandate and now their throwing a collective fit because there might be less of a employer mandate– or at least employer mandate with different language. The cognitive dissonance is clogging up my brain. Help!

Of course, they’re pissed because there will be an excise tax on insurance policies that are worth so much a year– but only over that certain amount ($23k as of right now). Those are the ones, apparently, negotiated by the labor unions for their members. I don’t know what is covered by these plans, or any of their benefits. I don’t even know how I feel about it. But someone on Daily Kos made a point (in one of the posts by someone pissed off that Obama was elected, no doubt).

What would have happened were the union able to forgo the negotiations for health insurance and, instead, negotiated for higher wages? The argument being that with more restrictions on health care, there wouldn’t have been a need for the higher-cost plans as they’re benefits would’ve been excessive (or some such nonsense) and something cheaper would have been just as good. The argument went that the unions would have negotiated for pay raises instead which would have been taxed as income. Would that have been just as bad?

Guess if it was implemented under Obama it would have been. For some of these people Obama is just as bad as Bush. HE LEFT HIS LIBERAL ROOTS!!!!extra, triple super-duper exclamation point with a side of eleventy!!3

I hate moving of the goal posts just as much as I hate hypocrites. No lie. I mean, if you’re pissed that there’s an individual mandate (that would be subsidized by the government for people who aren’t wealthy) then you should be dancing in the streets and declaring victory if there’s no obvious employer mandate. Right? Of course. Not for the bill-killers.

Besides the fact that is not yet a real bill to oppose (except if you’re opposing both bills), either of them will provide multiple benefits to the people who need them most. Both of them offer immediate relief on the ban on pre-existing conditions and annual/lifetime caps. Bernie Sanders’ proposal of Community Health Centers is the bomb-diggity and will most likely make it through conference. That’s a huge win for people who need health care and can’t afford it under the status quo. But since it’s not the public option– which would only cover at most 7 million people– and/or it’s happening under Obama’s administration as opposed to the Other Clinton’s administration, well, KILL THE BILL. Idiots.

Now, let’s talk about me again4.

You’ll remember that TheMan lost our insurance when the randy fucker got laid off from his job last spring5. Then I was able to get shit insurance from my job waiting tables6. You’ll remember that my shit insurance only covers a total of 5 doctors visits a year (which is an annual cap, if you’re keeping up on that sort of thing). Remember that my shit insurance only pays up to $50 for medications a month (not much really). You’ll also remember that a few years ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and, recently, I was tested for uterine cancer (I’m cancer-free). I actually consider myself lucky with my shit insurance because a lot of people don’t even have that. They can’t get a check up and they can’t afford their pain meds.

Well, a couple of days ago I get a letter from my insurance company. They want to know if I was treated for anything between November 2008 and May 2009. Dur, of course I was. They want proof that I had coverage. Well, I went one month and one week without coverage– which was between when TheMan’s coverage lapsed and mine went into effect. I actually hadn’t seen anyone for my FMS during that time, but I did take medication for it. You know what that means? They’re going to deny payment to my new FMS doctor on the basis of my pre-existing conditon. And I won’t be able to see him again under that insurance plan (unless we get a health care bill).

So, TheMan became eligible for his employer insurance again, which made me all kinds of happy. Fuck my crappy insurance, I thought. FUCK them straight up the ass with a red-hot poker. Then I read the coverage information of this new insurance.

No coverage for pre-existing conditions unless there was 1 year of aggregate coverage prior to the first date of coverage (or some such shit). There isn’t even a “credit” for the time I’ve had my crappy insurance. Nope, I’ll have to wait until May to get treatment for my condition– if they don’t count my medications as treatment. If they do, well, who knows if they’ll pay for my new doctor?

I’m still fucking screwed.

I can’t go to my new doctor on my own plan until April (or May because they’re moving my active coverage date, apparently) because of annual caps and I can’t get there on my husband’s new plan because of pre-existing condition exclusions. See how that works?

But the fucking bill-killers are happy about that. They want it to stay like that. They’d rather see me go on disability and try to qualify for Medicaid for my condition (which can be debilitating under the right conditions…oh yes…wobbly JJ here!) and give up my measely job and stop being productive. All so they can declare themselves the winner! And, probably, continue to enjoy their own good health and/or health insurance.

Isn’t that nice? And folks wonder why I’m so angry. Honestly, I might feel differently if I wasn’t in so much goddamned pain all the time or I was able to pay my fucking doctors straight out of my pocket. I might be able to stand on principle and ignore the fact that this is an Incremental Change country (and always has been). But that’s not the case with me.

I was so sick yesterday that my mother-in-law took my daughter to school and I slept until 2:30pm. I slept for 15 fucking hours. But that’s all good. People like me should be glad of…something. We shouldn’t want the little bit of change that is offered in either of these bills. We should stand on principle. What happens, though, when the pain in your legs and back is so bad that you can’t stand at all?

Oh! Another story, because you need these stories of my own personal life. My new doctor prescribed me Cymbalta and gave me two weeks worth of samples to try it. Cymbalta is approved for FMS treatment as well as depression (being sidelined by pain can be extremely depressing, I’ll tell ya). Anyway, I took this shit for 2 weeks and went to pick up my prescription. It would cost me $99 with my insurance. Not only that, if I would have been able to scrape that money together I wouldn’t have been able to get my meds refilled this month because that prescription drug cap. So I told the girl to put it back on the shelf. I wasn’t buying it.

Since I was on it for 2 weeks, my body became slightly acclimated to it and I’ve finally started to get the SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome symptoms. Not really bad, mind you, because I wasn’t on it that long. But enough to make my lips feel like I was kissing a cattle prod. Still, it sucks major donkey balls7.

The point, of course, is the my FMS expert doctor wanted to start a treatment plan for me, but I couldn’t afford it. Now we’ll have to figure out something else– after I can see him again in April (or May). He wanted me to start physical therapy to learn some very specific exercises (he’s the expert, remember), but I can’t do that either. Annual limits and all that jazz.

You see where I’m going with this? You see why I’m some goddamned invested? Do you see why the bill-killers make me want to gouge my own eyeballs out? Fuck. I’d tell you what it would cost out-of-pocket for me to see my new doctor, but I haven’t even asked his office. I’ve given up hope for that and these motherfucking bill-killers couldn’t care less about what I’m going through (Did I mention crying like a baby when I found out I couldn’t afford my medication?).

And don’t even try to share your story with them. They don’t give two flying fucks. They’re nasty and mean and consider you to be a paid shill for the insurance or pharmaceutical lobby. There’s no way that real people would support this legislation for free of course. None of us are personally invested because our lives suck gigantic dinosaur turds. Nope. We’re all paid.

If I’m getting paid, I want a raise goddamn it. Fuck this not being able to afford the $99 for the meds. If I’m getting money from big insurance to support this shit, then they better pony up some more money. Mama needs some new clothes!! Oh, and if George Soros is still paying pro-Obama bloggers, I want that money too. I’m thinking a sleep number bed would be awesome.

P.S.
I’ll get back to that other post later. I’m waiting to see if I get any new offers to sell my links (money, motherfuckers, makes the world go ’round… or something). If I get some extra traffic I can demand more money, right? Controversy attracts eyeballs, people, don’t forget that and eyeballs equal traffic which equals bigger advertising dollars which equals more and better shoes. Just sayin’.

  1. And no one mentioned payment by the way. WTF? []
  2. Pageviews equal money and, here’s the secret, controversy drives pageviews []
  3. Except for the whole fact of Obama not being liberal ever in his whole Senate career. Hello! He voted to expand FISA. Dur. []
  4. I know you’re shocked that I’d do such a thing on my own damned blog, but you’ll get over it. []
  5. I call that Karma, but whatever. []
  6. I IZ RICH!! []
  7. I won’t be going back on that shit even if I can afford it in the future. Fuck that noise. []
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I Have Way Too Much Time

Since school let out for the semester I’ve had way too much time on my hands to worry about this damned health insurance reform “debate”. You know, the one where supposed Progressives are tearing other supposed Progressives to shreds? Yeah, that one.

Now, I’ve learned that because I’m for the bill, I :

have never been poor.

They can’t have been.

Either that or they’ve simply forgotten that money only stretches so far.

They make six-figure salaries doing god-knows-what, and they can’t even begin to relate to those of us who are in that $20K to $40K range. They just can’t.

They are like the Congressional Democrats. THEY aren’t hurting, so why in the world should YOU be?

Well, isn’t that spayshul. I’m for this bill because I’m living high off the hog in my castle, my life right as rain. Everything is honky flippin’ dory in my little world.

Except wouldn’t that go the other way? If I were so well-off and able to make these kinds of decisions with a flip of my ever-flowing (and impeccable) hair, then wouldn’t I stand on principle and demand to kill this fucking thing because it’s not exactly, to the smallest detail, what I’ve been told I want?

Kind of like the person who made the above comment. I mean, obviously, Brooke in wherethefuckever, is so well off that she (or he) can throw it all to the wind and ride this fucking train wreck to the end. This person can obviously stand firm in her belief that “It’s either perfect or KILL IT!” Apparently, the above commenter, so sad that her idol and the most bomb-diggity (paid) activist1 on all of the GOS2 and Twitter, isn’t worshipped by all, can’t fathom that the good parts of this motherfucking bill are worth fighting for– even by people who are making less than $250k a year (Good fucking grief, I wish!)– because some of us need this shit.

I’ve also run across an analysis that says, surprise!, that the penalty for refusing to pay for the mandated insurance is without teeth. There is no penalty. And this was provided by someone who, surprise!, is reading the bill. Not some goddamned twit who’s getting her talking points from a paid lackey of a woman who just wants to see her fucking face on the teevee.

  1. At $400 a week, which is twice what I make. []
  2. The Great Orange Satan aka DailyKos []
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Riding My Pink Pony

I have learned (or maybe I already did know but forgot about it) that my insurance only pays for 5 doctors visits a year. That’s it. In the last two months I’ve been three times because of my uterine “issues”– for which I’m due another visit. Tuesday I go for a fourth visit as I’ve found a Fibromyalgia specialist to see here in town. New Years eve will be the fifth because I’m to go back to the doctor for my biopsy results.

So, I was wondering what would happen if this insurance bill passes (I imagine something between the House and Senate versions). According to the Kaiser Family Foundation subsidy calculator I would be eligible for Medicaid. Not only that, but I could drop my employer’s plan to get it. And if I didn’t want Medicaid (because Medicaid doctors generally suck) I could look online for a better plan than I have and be able to purchase it. Because of that simple ability I would have a more affordable choice– at least if history and current trends are any factor. The provider with the best benefits for the least amount of money would get the most customers, right? At least that’s what I’ve been reading and hearing. When I’m not reading the manufactured outrage from the Purists who think we should have it all– or nothing.

They were pissed off that the public option wasn’t good enough. Their goal was to get us all to call our Democratic representatives (because us Democrats eat our own) and tell them how much they suck. This was after they did the stories and letters and reading the names of the dead– which seemed to be working, especially among the public at large (those people in the “middle” who seem to get all the attention). Except some of the louder voices on our side wanted on t.v. So we were told to be pissed at every fucking body and get our every demand met. Well, we see how well that worked out don’t we?

We’ve got women dying at alarming rates due to heart disease but these purists would rather focus on the “compromise” provided to Ben Nelson to secure his vote. They scream that women are going to die because some states and some insurance plans will be able to opt-out of providing abortion coverage. Do they give a flying fuck about the number one killer of women in America? Apparently those lives just don’t matter.

Nearly twice as many women in the United States die of heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases as from all forms of cancer, including breast cancer.

Or what about the women, particularly women of color1, who die each year because of complications from something as treatable as diabetes? There are women who are dying right now that could have benefited from this bill. But the purists say “NO! There’s not enough abortion coverage! Fuck those women!”

What about the women who go without going to the doctor and getting screened early for such diseases as cervical, breast and/or uterine cancers– all of which have higher survival rates when the disease is caught on time? Well, say the Purists, these women would then have to pay for their treatments and then BANKRUPTCY!! But which is better? A dead woman or a bankrupt woman?

What about the women who suffer, I as do, from Fibromyalgia? Or those with chronic depression? What about the multitudes of other diseases that primarily affect women, which are under diagnosed, that would be treated had these women had access to a fucking doctor? Those women don’t matter because they’re not trying to get an abortion? Give me a fucking break.

As far as I’m concerned, this is just as bad as those fuckers on the other side who scream “Every child is precious!” as long as that child is safely ensconced in the womb– once it takes it’s first breath they don’t care anymore. These screamers2 on our side are doing so to protect a woman’s right to her own womb– without regard to her heart or pancreas or immune system or mental health. They call those of us who support this bill “paid shills” or “insurance lackeys” or “uninformed” or “dim-witted”. And yet they discount the lives of millions of women who may very well benefit from this damned health insurance bill. You want to save my womb so I can die from a heart attack? Gee, thanks.

Of course, we’re also supposed to forget the fact that Medicaid/Medicare in some states right this very minute doesn’t pay for elective abortions3. Nothing in this bill changes that. Nothing. They say that middle class women are going to suffer. Guess what? In some states, women right now can’t find a doctor to perform an elective abortion procedure for them– thanks to conscience clauses. OMG! Those aren’t addressed in either bill either! KILL THE BILL!! But we’re worried about middle class women when poor women in Ohio have to shell out $300 or more of money that could be better spent elsewhere. These are fights within the states because no one in the federal government is going to take them up. No one. And taking this bill away from the millions of people it will help isn’t making the case stronger.

Still, this bill (either of them) does a lot to address of problems that women and their fellow men have with regard to health insurance. And if I wasn’t sick right now, I’d dig up the links that support my argument (though these are from “former” Progressives– those that have “sold out” and are no longer credible, apparently). But you can start at the Kaiser Family Foundation for a PDF of their analysis on Women’s health issues with this reform. I don’t expect any purists to read the linked pages, of course, because it doesn’t prescribe a magic pill for the single issue on their mind. I add it here because I wanted to show that this is something that I’m not exactly ignorant of (though I admittedly am not as learned as some of the newest class of “sell outs” to the Progressive cause).

The status quo, to me, is no longer acceptable– for obvious reasons. Doing nothing is not better than doing something. I’m sorry. Waiting for the insurance industry to police itself– or better yet, waiting for that magical president who will fix the whole system in one fell swoop– doesn’t do anyone any good. At least it doesn’t do anyone any good who really needs the help. Doing nothing, killing the bill, leaves them exactly where they were before this debate even began. I thought we were trying to improve that situation. I didn’t get my pony either, goddamn it, but that doesn’t mean I want shit to stay exactly the same as it is. Something has got to start changing and guess what? This is a start.

  1. “For African American women, the diabetes death rates are the highest in terms of both underlying cause (49.6 per 100,000) and multiple causes (156.5 per 100,000)” []
  2. A title bestowed upon the Purists by someone whose name escapes me. []
  3. I’ve been told this term is offensive to the Purists. How sad. []
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