While I've been for the idea for quite some time now, the idea of national health care is sounding even more appealing. Yes, I know, not something that is normally embraced by our capitalistic and oh so privatized country, but man it would make things so much easier.
For years with my parents insurance we had to deal with the whole in-network, out-of-network crap when it came to finding doctors. Then there was the whole referal mess for specialty doctors. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous perscription policy. I've had my own insurance for a few months now, and I can't say things have been much better or any easier for me.
You're probably wondering why the hell I'm bringing this up right now...since it seems like such a random thing for me to rant about. Today I had my fourth meeting with my counselor. Yeah, I'm still going even though I've been kind of frustrated with it lately. But thats besides the point. Today was my fourth appointment...and all four times I have had to pay a different fee. Every time I go, they tell me I owe something different. I'm getting a little tired of never knowing what I'm going to owe at the end of my session (which never changes in time or length.) The answer: because of my insurance.
Now, the whole reason I signed up with this particular lady with this clinic was because they were in-network for my insurance. I thought because my insurance gave me the go ahead to see this lady, that things would be pretty straight forward from there. I was wrong. It turns out that there is a ridiculous deductable for mental health care. After covering the initial deductable, they cover 30 appointments a year, leaving me with a small co-pay per session. The problem has been in figuring out what, exactly, my co-pay is supposed to be each session. Apparently, even though my insurance considers this clinic to be in-network, the clinic does not have a direct contract with my insurance. Because of that, it has been anyones guess what they want to charge who what each week. And that's exactly what they've done, too... guess how much my co-pay is.
But now...I think they have it figured out. I hope.
I just hope its not like this when I have to go to a regular doctor. Man, I hate dealing with this stuff. Like I said earlier, I really wish we'd just go to a national health care system where everyone was covered and you didn't have to worry about in or out of network crap...because every doctor would be covered under the one health insurance. How does that sound?
ADDENDUM: 11:33 pm
Heather was right...
health care's a stupid zoo and no one's happy with it, whether it's private or national - i can't wait until chelle's a doctor, and i can avoid a lot of the mess - how sad is that??
I suppose she's right...no matter what kind of health care we have, its always going to be a zoo and theres always going to be some snag or another. Its incredibly sad and drepressing that this will always be the case, you always want to hope for something to be better than they are now. Is there any hope at all at an easier alternative to today's health care?