The official letter of complaint went in the mail to the insurance company yesterday, in the hope that they might agree to pay some of the outstanding charges. I've been fortunate; this is the first big medical situation I've had to deal with. I guess this is just the way they do business; right? They deny, deny, deny, then only pay after you put up a fight. The gamble is that most of us won't fight. Silly me, I thought the business model was about pooling risk so that we got the coverage we paid for. Some people pay in and need little care, taking out less than they've put in. And some of us, pay in and take out more than our share. But I left out the profit-making piece.
I know, I know that I should be grateful that the insurance covers any of it. The meds alone were a huge chunk that we didn't pay for. But the frustration stems from the fact that I am paying the entire premium out of pocket. That $9000 would nearly have covered a complete IVF cycle without any of this hassle. So now it feels like I am double-paying.
I'm also waiting for my cycle to rev up again. More than once over the last month I've thought we were just about ready. But I've been temping and using OPKs in vain ... no sign of ovulation, much less my period. If nothing's happened by the end of next week, I'll put a call in to the doc, and see if they'll do an ultrasound and bloodwork to figure out what's happening in there.
In the meantime, the pool is open, and I am going swimming this morning!
Thoughts on Enshittification
17 hours ago
4 comments:
Um. I don't think you should be grateful to the insurance companies. If the damn expensive research and development hadn't come up with all of these sophisticated medical interventions (in every realm), you wouldn't face these choices in the first place. Once the companies create the goods and market them, they've also created a need for them. It is justifiable for you to expect that you would be provided these interventions, for the very reason you mention: pooling risk. You're not trying to get breast implants, for pete's sake.
Bless you, friend.
Don't back down! Use your lawyerly skills, my dear! Ken's best friend is able to make his insurance cave when they tried to bill him $15,000 for their baby's delivery by wearing them down. Go to the top. Don't take no for an answer.
As you know, the game is persistance...and I know you know persistance.
Go get 'em tiger!
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