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Insert Expletive (IE)
By Harry Kirsbaum
hen we were both growing up,
my wife and I were the benefi-
ciaries of a world-class health
system, where reasonable insurance
premiums, obtained in part from the
auto industry, allowed us to visit the
doctor or specialist of our choice with-
out a co-pay. I don't recall my parents
paying more than a few dollars at most
for prescriptions or having to fill out
tedious forms to get what was needed
to keep our family healthy.
As we grew up, the cost of staying
healthy steadily grew until it exploded
into an unrecognizable monster that
allowed insurance companies to bury
doctors'offices in paperwork.
I watched my own health insurance
collapse years ago when I found myself
unemployed and looking for a new
health-care plan. Because I had a very
slight hernia and high cholesterol, I
was declined for most health insurance
plans because of my"pre-existing con-
dition,"even though I was a marathon
runner, worked out daily in the gym
and would probably outlive most of the
vermin who decided I was unfit for their
plan. (1E)
W
When I met my future wife, I had
catastrophic health care because I
couldn't afford the premiums of the
real deal, yet I was still paying about
$300 a month. She had the same type
of health care under a group plan. She
paid about $600 a month, and it took
care of most everything.
Once we married, I joined her plan,
and suddenly, we were paying $1,200
a month. When Obamacare started
rattling its sabers a few months later,
our monthly premium rose to $1,450 a
month. I told my wife it was the insur-
ance companies' last chance to rape
and pillage the populace before the
hammer came down. And when the
hammer came down, so did our premi-
ums, but not without a cost.
I can't count the number of hours
spent calling her insurance agency, call-
ing Blue Cross Blue Shield, calling the
Obannacare"Marketplace"and re-enter-
ing the information on the Marketplace
webpage, when it wasn't crashed. (IE)
Everyone seemed to blame the other
entities for why it was so difficult to
simply fill out a form and pay the first
month's premium online before the
due date, which changed weekly.
We picked the BCBS Gold Premium
PPO plan for about $650 on the Obam-
acare website, but first we had to up-
load my wife's driver's license to the site
to confirm that she was really who she
said she was. When the site wouldn't
upload, I spent the next two hours try-
ing to reach someone to find out what
to do. They told me to scan her license,
write some more information and snail
mail it to them for approval. They said
they would get her approved in a few
weeks, even though the deadline was
in two weeks. (1E)
When she was finally approved, I
tried to pay online, but it wouldn't let
me. When I called the Marketplace,
I was told that payment wasn't in its
wheelhouse, and I should talk to some-
one at BCBS.
After three hours on the phone with
BCBS, getting cut off, I learned that no
one had any record of our application,
even though I was staring at it on my
computer. So I did it over the phone
with a nice lady who took my informa-
tion and told me that they will send me
a bill for the Gold PPO plan.
When the insurance cards came in
the mail before the bill, and the card
said we had picked an HMO plan, I
knew we were in trouble. (1E)
The next day, I spent another three
hours on the phone with BCBS. Another
nice lady said I had signed up for an
HMO plan. I was stuck with it for Janu-
ary, but I could change it to the PPO
Gold Plan in February. I would just need
to pay the $856 a month premium by
Jan. 25. When I told her that the Obam-
acare website quoted $650 for the plan,
she said that they often got the prices
wrong and that I should ignore it. (1E)
So we have been suffering with this
HMO since Jan. 1.We were given an
$1,100 price tag when we ordered
a normally cheap and widely used
prescription last week, so we're going to
wait until next month for that. My wife
can't go to any of her normal doctors
because none of them are in our HMO
plan, so we're going to wait on that, too.
I can understand Obama's intentions
of bringing health-care costs down, but
you know what they say about good
intentions. They're usually filled with
(IE).
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