Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Blue Cross Blue Shield; they finally called.


I applied for BCBS Catastrophic. They told me they'd call back in a few weeks. It was a few months.

Understand that in the past five years or so I (inhaling deeply to get it all out in on sentence) got super sick, saw doctors, spent two years undergoing tests and treatments for whatever they thought I might have - backtracked to the tick, got IV antibiotics for Lyme Disease, dumped all my prescription meds because they didn't seem like they were doing anything, started feeling a little better, moved where it was warm, made myself engage in regular physical activity, started doing yoga, started eating right and taking really good care of myself and got my FULL health back WITHOUT doctors.

So of course I do not deserve health insurance.

I was in the last mile of a four mile walk when I got the call. I was not huffing and puffing. My pulse rate was perfect.

The woman from BCBS proceeded to tell me why I cannot have health insurance.

Basically, because of test results from four years ago when I was very ill. She rattled it off ... mitral valve prolapse (mitral valve prolapse is uncomfortable but it's not life threatening), Epstein Barr Virus (which was no longer testing positive after two years), all the ailments that were part and parcel of Lyme Disease. In fact, "Lyme Disease" was the one term she DID NOT use in explaining why I had been denied.

She said my records show that I was on disability. I said I had applied for it while sick, but never got it. I did not say that two years of illness without disability insurance cost me everything I worked a lifetime to earn - my commercial property and my house.
What I did say was that I got well down here and was working full-time until March of this year. Somehow she assumed I must have lost my job here due to illness, and I said "no, because of the ECONOMY." I nearly SPELLED it for her so she would UNDERSTAND.

She sounded surprised.

She said well maybe if I go back to the doctor from four years ago and redo the special tests, maybe I could qualify. (Ask yourself - how much would THAT COST without health insurance?!) I said I DON'T LIVE IN MICHIGAN ANY MORE.
She sounded surprised.

Well how long have you lived there? THREE YEARS IN MAY.

She sounded confused. She sounded like she felt sorry for me. It has to suck to be the one making life-changing calls based on bullshit, erroneous files.

UNITED STATES HEALTH CARE AS IT STANDS IS A JOKE, A CLUSTER FUCK THAT IS ALLOWING PEOPLE TO DIE.

Angry? Oh FUCK yes.

Does this CHANGE anything? Yeah, one thing.

If I DO have a medical emergency of catastrophic proportions I will NOT hesitate to get my sorry ass to E.R. and let them pull out their extreme measures to save my life because there is NOTHING LEFT TO TAKE.

The lying, cheating, blood-sucking money monger health care and disability insurance industries can't ruin me any more than they already have.

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