Bamboozled by Health Care

Bamboozled:  
–verb (used with object) 1. to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink (often fol. by into)
—Synonyms
1.  gyp, dupe, trick, cheat, swindle.  
 
It's so easy for all you people out there with good jobs and cheap health insurance to hate on the idea of universal health care. Well let me tell you, have a little empathy!

We don't have employee health insurance so we pay almost $500 each a quarter for Aetna Student health. Since I finally paid for it I thought it was far time to have a physical. I just got a "this is not a bill" bill that says I owe almost $400!!! Excuse me? Apparently there is a $300 deductible and routine tests, immunizations or exams are not covered. Why the beep do I have this insurance then?

What really gets me is that doctors never give you an itemized list of what they're going to do to you and how much it is going to cost with your health insurance before they do it. If they told me getting blood drawn and lab work was going to be $150 out of pocket would I have stuck my arm out for them to put a needle in me? Heck no!

How is the medical field the one place where it is acceptable to deliver services to someone without telling them how much it is going to cost and giving the choice to opt out? How is that ok? How is there not legislation about that? When you go out to eat you order off a menu and can see the price and pick accordingly. At the end they don't bring you a bill for $150 for the bread and water they assumed you wanted and put on the table without asking.

I was trying to do the right thing by buying the student health insurance instead of going to a community health clinic and leaching off social services. I am pretty sure I could have gotten a physical and pap smear at a women health clinic for less than $900!!!! I am pretty highly educated compared to the rest of the US population. If I can't navigate insurance, doctors, bills, etc. how can those with a middle school education? How can those who aren't employed, have families, and poor health access health care? If they don't have the personal resources to receive proper care until it's an emergency how can we blame them for driving up the cost of health care for everyone. Why isn't preventative care covered by my $1,800/year policy?!

I'm not asking for anything for free. I'm not saying poor people should have free health care. I do think that health care should be transparent. Health care should be accessible. The system should not be so confusing, frustrating, such a hostile place that even a person with a near masters degree feels completely bamboozled. 

To top off the whole thing, I was told I needed a physical for the new job and when I went to have my paperwork processed I didn't need it after all. Now I have real health insurance and won't need another physical til next year, right about when I'm not working for CPS anymore and will be right back in the same place. One thing is for sure, I will not be purchasing the worthless Aetna Student Health. You can find me at Chicago Women's Health Center.

If, heaven forbid, I lose rolling the dice and get deathly ill, let me die and when I die put this blog post in the paper instead of an obituary.