I love it when folks say: “I want my doctor making treatment decisions, not the government,” as if an insurance company never set treatment terms.
I loved it even more when our insurance company said they wouldn’t cover treatment for Beth’s Aspergers. Why? “Because Florida Law only requires us to cover treatment for Aspergers if it’s diagnosed before a child turns eight.”
Translation: “We wouldn’t cover you losers at all if it weren’t for those meddling, socialist pigs in government.”
If you don’t like your insurance, you can just switch, right? I mean, that’s the beauty of the free market. How many of you have a job that offers a wide selection of insurance providers? No? Well, you could just switch jobs, right? Yeah, that’s the ticket. In this economy, finding another job should be no problem. Oh crap! That’s right. There will probably be a temporary exclusion of pre-existing conditions if you switch jobs and insurance (temporary – not permanent – because of those meddling socialists again).
Regulation isn’t sexy and it’s easy to pick on. The problem is, you never know when it’s working. There are few eureka moments where you learn a regulation kept you safe, healthy, or alive. Too often you don’t know they’re there until someone finds a bad one, a business ignores one (aided and abetted by a willingly blind, often Republican administration), or one doesn’t go far enough.
But isn’t regulation the opposite of freedom? Yeah, isn’t it grand when your insurance company is free to screw you over?
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I wanted to say something really crude about protesting taxation with representation today… but I’ll hold off for now. I’m angry enough about the insurance thing. I could get myself in some real trouble with a double rant.
It’s when I hear things like this that I am greatful for the Canadian medical system. For all its weaknesses, and there are many, people get treatment, don’t go bankrupt doing so, and insurance companies don’t get a say in which doctor you have to see. I don’t know how you guys south of the border do it. All the best to you and your family. I hope you find great support from the many Aspy families around.
I haven’t had anything like that kind of pain. I’ve lurked around just enough to read some of your stories… I don’t have the words to describe how happy I am to know you’ve been in remission (and pray it stays that way). I had a rare but easy to treat form of Leukemia, with a few complications thrown in to spice things up. For the most part, western medicine has been there for me (although we’re still waiting on a favorable outcome for Cheryl, but things are looking up). I struggle at times with depression and anxiety, but I muddle through (though I probably have Cheryl to thank more than medicine).
It’s the rest of the system that abandons us at times. I can relate to the great doctors strangled by the system. In the span of four years I had two doctors I really liked throw in the towel. The one I have now goes to war with my insurance company so often I wonder if the only thing keeping her going is unpaid student loans. I’m glad she hasn’t given up. She’s been a godsend at times.
About half of my family is in medicine. Insurance is a four letter word at family gatherings.
I could publish a novel on my odyssey through the healthcare system when I was at my sickest with Crohn’s disease. Useless doctors, worse policies, and the really GREAT doctors strangled by the system. The kicker was when I woke up two weeks after giving birth to my fourth child and discovered I had no feeling left in my legs–an M.S.-like syndrome from one of the meds they give Crohn’s patients. Well . . . that’s not accurate entirely. I had no feeling and what I did have was wracking nerve pain that made me want to jump off the roof–only I lived in a one-story building. It lasted a year . . . and THAT was pretty much the end of my relationship with Western medicine. I started seeing an acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner (not covered by insurance, of course). I have been in remission for almost 3 years.
E