There have been so many things over the last year that I have worried about as we prepared for Ian to leave corporate America. Health insurance was probably always at the top of my list and now I know why.
How the hell does anyone navigate the medical world without a medical degree!?
I have taken on many roles as we navigate this endeavor but I never wanted to be a benefits specialist, but now I seem to be one.
I don’t want this post to get political at all, but it may take a turn that way since it seems our country is still on struggle street about healthcare options for people. I also don’t want this post to just be me venting over the frustrating reality that is our healthcare system, but I can’t promise anything; it has been extremely frustrating and we have only just begun on this journey of being a full-time self-employed household.
Let me begin by saying that we are two very healthy people. We only go to the doctors for our yearly exams and they are always fine. We eat a very clean diet and we work out almost every single day. We make sure we get checked regularly for the things that concern us, mine being my skin and my husband’s being his prostate, since we both are in the high-risk category for these items due to the family history of cancer we both have.
I have obsessed over my skin for as long as I can remember. Never in a million years did I think that my preventative measures would be the thing that the health insurance industry questioned, but at last, they did.
You would think that when someone wants to pay you monthly just on the off chance that they need to use insurance to go to the doctor that they wouldn’t put up a fight, they wouldn’t question anything about your health history – I want to pay you, I want you to take my money monthly, but that didn’t happen easily.
After completing the application, which is not written for the common person to understand, so that is downside numero uno with our healthcare system. I have a masters degree so I am used to simple thoughts being written so they take up paragraphs upon paragraphs, it’s what we do in higher education, but when you have to sit and read multiple times the same paragraph just to take away what won’t be covered under one option but is under another – is absurd and not something we should expect of people when they just want to prevent going bankrupt in case of a major medical issue.
Fast forward to getting through the application, we agreed to what the estimated monthly cost would be for the two of us to be covered from our head to our toes. We then were notified that we had to contact them to answer further questions. However, those questions were not about the policyholder – my husband. Those questions were directed towards me and claims that I had made in the last few years.
Side note – I did not file ANY claims, when they say that I filed claims it actually meant the doctors I saw who wanted to be paid for seeing them and so they file the claim, many times without us even knowing. But they need to be paid and I 100% agree they need to file claims, but by wording it as if I did such a thing is numero dos that is wrong with our healthcare industry – words are a struggle for them it seems.
When asked about a particular visit that I saw my dermatologist for, stay with me on this one because again, I see him to make sure I DON’T have skin cancer, the health insurance rep questioned a BENIGN spot that he filed the claim about. Let’s go back to medical school, oh wait, the people who handle these applications probably have never been to medical school, but any logical person would know the word BENIGN means non-cancerous and nothing was actually removed from me during that visit, he was making a note describing a skin tag. I was questioned so much about a skin tag that I started to question if they were going to deny me coverage because of a mark I just don’t like on my skull, but that no one even knows I have, except for my doctor and I and now some random lady on the phone.
Numero tres of things wrong with our healthcare system – don’t have non-medical degree people seek out answers for claims that medical doctors submitted without the patient knowing they submitted them. Read that ten times over.
If I want to take out health insurance I should have to complete an application and then you should make me have a physical exam by a doctor, similar to life insurance policies. That should be all that you can base coverage on, not being questioned by someone who sits in a cubicle with no medical knowledge whatsoever. A funny moment was when I had to explain the procedure for my second IUD and she thought I had been seen for a urinary tract infection, no sweetheart that’s a UTI.
The funniest thing with this whole situation is that we were given our dental and eye insurance with no questions asked and those are the two things that we both spend a ton of money on each year.
In the end, we have health insurance that we will gladly pay for each month as a “just in case” policy on staying healthy.
If my very short condensed story on a small business owner and his wife wanting to pay for health insurance doesn’t make you think twice about the things that are wrong with our healthcare, maybe nothing will. It is just so strange to me that we willingly give insurance to those who have no job, no income, constantly ask for handouts, etc. but when a couple with no kids and no major medical issues EVER wants to pay you monthly, that’s when they question a risk? That is just wrong in my mind and has definitely made me question my silence on so many other issues that our country is currently facing.
C’est la vie! We will get through this, and if not, maybe we will just move to the UK and enjoy tea and crumpets on the regular while being provided with universal healthcare.
I do not want to open a can of worms when it comes to universal coverage, so please don’t be that person who does, please don’t make it weird. We are all entitled to our opinions on these subjects and what one person may see as a bad thing another can see the benefits. At the moment we still live in a country that allows us that basic right – thoughts and opinions.
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