Feb 10 2009
The Health Care Crisis In America
Like most Americans, I do not realize the extent of our problems until I am personally affected. So, while I am aware that our health care system is a mess, I did not appreciate that until I just received my latest claim from my crap health care provider. One thing I took for granted at my old law firm was how good the benefits were. We really had the best coverage. Now at my small firm, we have the worst. I see an out of service provider for certain treatments (either Botox or therapy, I will let you guess). With my old plan I would send my receipts to the insurer and they would send me a check for the amount they would cover. Well, with the current ghetto plan, I got a letter asking me for all this information to show them that my treatment is “medically necessary.” Um excuse me crappy insurer, but I do not live in a padded cell so how exactly do you expect me to prove medical necessity. Then, after I called the crappy insurer, I was told to resubmit to the mental health arm of the insurance. I just got a letter from them asking for all this information to prove that I do not have “a pre-existing condition.” WTF - of course it is pre-existing. I have been crazy for as long as I can remember but certainly working with the clowns I currently work with it has exacerbated my condition. I heard those statistics about how millions of Americans are without health insurance. I heard numerous stories from my sister the doctor about her under-served population and all the people turned away because they don’t have insurance. Just today I was talking to my friend about her difficulty getting interim insurance. But, none of it really registered until I got my final letter making it clear that I will be getting no help in paying for my therapy. I called my mom to complain about this problem (see how desperate things have gotten - I have to talk to my mom because I can’t afford the therapist, although the majority of my therapy is spent talking about my mother - OMG I AM DOOMED). My mom said, “FS, health care providers don’t want to pay for anything and the easiest area for them to get away with this is mental health coverage.” ”But mom, it is not fair. Why do I have mental health care coverage anyway? The only thing they would cover is if I lost my mind and was institutionalized.” ”It is a sorry state of affairs, Spinsta. Now do you want to talk about me?? Or your other sister.” Although my mom is evil, she is pretty wise. She helped me come up with a plan to continue to see my therapist. And, I will get some extra time off work. I mean there is no way I will survive without having someone to listen to my work woes and my boy woes (yeah the blog alone doesn’t cut it). I guess I need to go to the loony bin. Hmm, but then my chances for finding love are zero. I mean there is a high likelihood I will find single jews (I mean talk about neurotic) but no relationship I get into has a chance if I am the most sane of the pair. Ok, so if I can’t do that what do I do? I guess I could take a page out of Michael Phelp’s or Brian Bointano (sorry Brian - come back to the Spinsta!!) book and self-medicate. Ugh, but I already have rage issues and I really don’t need ‘roid rage. What is the Spinsta to do? In sum, there is a health care crisis in this country and it has hit the Spinsta.
