Health Care Reform

I will be honest, I haven't found the time to read the details of the health care reform bill that will likely be passed or shot down by Congress this weekend. I know generally what it's about but I also know there are a lot of rumors flying around the web. I don't know exactly how this bill will affect me but I doubt anyone really knows. I do not know if this bill is the right move or if it's a step back. This is what I know.

I have health insurance through my employer. A portion of my pay is taken from my paycheck each month and is put toward my insurance coverage. I drag my butt to work every day through all of the symptoms listed on the Pepto-Bismol commercials as well as some bonus symptoms. I pay 20%, and sometimes more, of all my medical bills in a timely manner. Yet my insurance company continues to fail me time and time again.

I spent several hours each day this week on the phone with my insurance company, the caseworker who was assigned to me by my insurance company and a new pharmacy. Each time I spoke with someone I got a different story. I was told that my medicine would be cheaper if I used a pharmacy that was in network. I was then given the number of an "in network" pharmacy by someone at the insurance company. I then called said number only to hear back from the pharmacy that my insurance company told them they were not in my network. The next person I spoke to then told me they were in my network. And on and on and on. "Call the pharmacist." "Have the pharmacist call us." "We don't deal with pharmacists." I was then informed that PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICES DOES NOT HAVE A PHONE! They can give me a fax number and an email address but they don't have a phone. I am not able to speak with someone at my insurance company's pharmaceutical services department.

I had to call the most helpful pharmacy employee on earth about a hundred times to apologize profusely for wasting his time and ask him to call another 800 number just so someone could tell him that they couldn't help him.

This week I literally WASTED at least eight hours of my life just getting a prescription filled. In the end, I paid exactly what I would have paid had I not made one single phone call. I paid the same price I would have paid had I gone to the far more convenient out-of-network pharmacy in my office building. That price? $1700.00. AND I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE!

You cannot convince me that we do not need health care reform.