10 January 2022
It’s no secret that healthcare in the U.S. is a joke. Actually, healthcare isn’t really the best word choice. We ought to call it broke-care. You can get healthcare, but it will cost you. You can be treated or fill prescriptions, but chances are you’ll go bankrupt in the process. How does this system make any sense? The answer is that it doesn’t.
Technology is reinventing how we treat disease and prevent further disease. It’s fantastic. I’m a proponent of research, but I have to ask, what’s the point if only a handful of people will be able to benefit from it, because only they can afford it?
What I mean is this. I’m using new devices to manage my type 1 diabetes. Back in the old days, I pricked my finger for a blood sample throughout the day. I gave myself an average of five shots per day. Now, I have a small device attached to my arm that tracks my blood sugar for ten days at a time. It sends the readings to my phone every five minutes. I also insert an insulin pump into my stomach every three days. The pump sends a consistent flow of insulin through my body, which I direct through a device that looks like a cellphone.
I never thought living like this would ever be an option for me. My quality of life has exceeded my wildest fantasies. Sure, I’m still diabetic and deal with the same issues day in and out, but it’s so much easier and efficient. I no longer have to carry insulin vials around with me, or keep them on ice, or worry about breaking them. A costly mistake I’ve done more than once. My purse is no longer filled with used syringes. And I was even able to go down in purse sizes because I no longer had to lug a bunch of equipment and ice around with me.
Currently, I’m on the precipice of having to return to the old way of doing diabetes. I’m in the midst of a small gap in insurance. I have prescriptions waiting to be picked up, but the cost of my supplies are so great without insurance, that they will remain on the shelves of Walgreen’s Pharmacy. The medications won’t get to be used or appreciated, at least not by me.
The argument can be made that the old way gets the job done, which it does. Time and research lead to medical advances that change the way people with chronic conditions live and manage their illnesses. It should be priceless. To put it in more basic terms, would you ever go to the trouble of sending a telegram, or a messenger, if with a few taps you could send a text message? I’m going to guess that you’d send the text without even considering the alternative options. Because, why would you? Why should advances in medicine be any different?
In December I bought some health insurance. I was on the open enrollment website for New Mexico. I found a plan that sounded good, but I wanted to be certain the prescriptions I needed would be covered. So I called a 1-800 number. Jeff answered my call, evidently he worked for the national enrollment network. He told me the plan I was considering was no longer available. I had been eligible for a subsidy, but Jeff was smooth. He found a plan with lots of attachments, which he assured me would cover unlimited specialist visits and prescriptions, even my outrageously priced ones. He quoted me numbers. Jeff must have been pulling these prices out of his ass. The prescription quotes sounded too good to be true, and they were.
Yes, I had been hoodwinked. I realized it later, luckily still in time to cancel and get a refund for this magical, nonexistent plan. I tried ringing my pal Jeff at his extension. No answer. I began to wonder if Jeff had been a figment of my imagination. A receptionist, who hadn’t yet admitted to herself that she works in customer service, was so rude when I reached her on the phone instead of Jeff. There was no shame in her rude game. The only logical explanation for her rudeness must have been because I had done something terrible to her in a previous life. A slew of “customer service” representatives with whom I had the pleasure of talking to in lieu of Jeff, proved to be incompetent, unprofessional and lacking in people skills.
Jeff talked a good game for our roughly two hour conversation. The premium was more than I was comfortable paying, but it sounded like I would be completely covered, so maybe it would be worth it in the long run. Jeff confirmed he found me medical, dental and vision coverage. I found out there was no dental or vision, but my monthly premium would remain the same. Again, I’m not sure how this works, but decided not to wait it out and see what else wouldn’t be covered. I canceled the plan.
I took Jeff’s scam hard. How could I not? Health insurance is a vulnerable area in my existence. What hurt the most is that I’m no novice at health insurance coverage. Through the years I had made some headway in navigating the swampy waters of premiums, deductibles and out of pocket maximums. I knew what I needed and learned how to understand a good portion of the system. Granted, I wasn’t thrilled about all the time I had spent on the phone with insurance brokers and insurance companies about why something I needed and had been prescribed wouldn’t be covered. I’m sure the amount of time I wasted will take years off my life.
Furthermore, what kind sick person takes advantage of a woman with a limited income and a chronic disease? That’s pretty pathetic, even for someone like Jeff. Perhaps he took a little pride in how he took advantage of a person desperate for decent coverage and even patted himself on the back for the commission he earned. Well, fuck you Jeff. I sincerely hope that a bird takes a flyby shit all over you.
I was still fuming about Jeff as I as drove home from work the other day. I drove through an intersection where a man and a woman were holding up signs. They were asking for donations because their four year old daughter had been diagnosed with brain cancer. If I was going to ask what’s wrong with this picture? My answer would be everything. It didn’t surprise me to see parents on the street corner asking for help paying for medical bills. I mean, this is America. Go Fund Me accounts are created all the time just for this purpose.
What does this say about us as a society? To me it says, if you have a medical condition you’re basically fucked unless you can afford insurance or have a job which offers it. Too many of us lack a high paying job with health insurance coverage, or coverage that isn’t labeled catastrophic because it covers nothing.
If ever there was a time for socialized medicine, it would be this moment. For starters, we’re in a pandemic, possibly an endemic. One of the two political parties of the nation has gone completely insane, and should probably seek psychological help. Now is not the time for jacked up rates and piss poor coverage. Rather, it’s time for access and affordable care. What a crazy concept.
In all honesty I was excited for the Covid vaccine, but really I was pumped that it was freaking free. It easily could have been wildly expensive in this country. But the government picked up the bill. Finally, I didn’t have a copay or an out of pocket maximum to hit, or was told the vaccine wouldn’t be covered by my insurance. This was like the greatest thing ever. I don’t understand why more people didn’t see this as progress, rather than something being enforced on them by the government. The elderly and people with pre-existing conditions were being treated like VIPs. We were finally showed a little respect, even getting pushed to the front of the vaccine lines.
A few years ago I bonded with an older woman in the locker room at the gym when we both realized we were wearing Dexcom sensors. She had been a type 1 diabetic for over sixty years. She told me she never thought there’d be something like this little device after all the years of poking fingers, and in her early days, peeing on a stick and performing a chemical experiment in order to obtain a blood glucose reading.
She had her device in a place I had never thought to insert, because I couldn’t self administer it. She told me her husband helped her with her sensors, in order to keep their locations from becoming stagnant. She said he was so helpful with her diabetic devices. I remember thinking that was the single most romantic thing I had ever heard. I also thought, now, there’s a reason to get a husband. She told me the good news that our brand was finally being accepted by medicare.
Ahh medicare. It’s like the holy grail after living for sixty-five years, trying to pay for medications and medical costs. I can’t wait to turn 65 and become eligible. Is that sad? Maybe. But I mean come on. Finally, you’re the most taken cared of you’ll ever be in this country. It’s goddamn beautiful.
Having a husband to help rotate those pumps and devices didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Then, I realized that if I could simply find a man with a killer health insurance plan I would be set. What if my requirement for said husband was solely based on his health insurance plan? I guess having one requirement for a husband might be a little hasty. I mean while I’m at it, let’s hope he’s a halfway decent human, doesn’t snore, and was born with a witty sense of humor. But a really phenomenal plan would compensate for a complete dud.
Maybe I should marry for health insurance. That seems logical. I mean people marry for green cards. My woman seeking man post would read something like, “Thirty something woman with lame pancreas and stubborn independent streak seeks man with the greatest health insurance package on the planet. Low copays, small deductible and health savings account are a plus.” I’m not sure what I would bring to the table, but I’m positive I could figure out something if all my needs in a plan could be met.
“You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.” I bet Mick and Keith had no idea how inaccurate this lyric would be in regards for Americans and health insurance coverage. Because, obviously, that’s what they were thinking about as they wrote the song “Satisfaction.” Clearly, I don’t want to buy insulin or a “pancreas” that attaches to my body, but I have no choice. That is if I want to remain amongst the living. Why is it so hard for all of us with health problems to get what we need? I understand we’ll never get any satisfaction, but is it too much to ask to get what we need at affordable prices? I suppose it is.
Health insurance is a necessity in this country, but isn’t it also absolutely absurd? There’s really no need to pay $1,000 for something that costs $10 to make. Insurance companies have very few guidelines to follow and pharmaceutical companies do whatever the fuck they want. How can we let profit and greed dictate how we care for the citizens of this country? It makes me want to throw up in my mouth that some asshole will profit off the fact that my body can’t produce its own insulin. I don’t want to go through this insurance roller coaster with any other organs, but it’s bound to happen. Eventually something else will shut down or blow up and head in the direction my pancreas went. Our collective compromised organs will make a small group of people a fortune. I really don’t want my decrepit body to be the reason someone buys a vacation home. Would you? I know nothing in life is fair, but it feels immensely unfair that while I scour the internet for medical supplies on the black market, someone is sitting in an Adirondack chair looking at the view I helped pay for.
HALF FULL DECK 