I completely feel you on this. I have spent many hours on the phone with insurance companies, being grilled as though on the witness stand about why I happened to be unconscious and where I was unconscious (I don't happen to know - BECAUSE I WAS UNCONSCIOUS!!!) and then there was the $11,000 for "services" performed on me while I was unconscious that were obviously unnecessary but the point was covering the hospital's ass in case I died, which I failed to, much to their surprise! Thanks to having a low income and owning nothing and, with white privilege and an MPH and having briefly run a union benefit fund, I knew how to do the paperwork to get the financial stuff waived. Meanwhile, I made a payment arrangement with the ambulance company that took me somewhere years ago, that after two years my insurance told me it wouldn't pay for, so I could pay a meager $50 that I can afford per month to pay off the $1050 bill. I paid it early every month, then the jerks cancelled it for no reason, hitting me by 44 points on my credit score, which I've carefully built back up over the years to a good one, but through a lot of hard work. I spent my dearly beloved lunch break on the phone with a very nice woman who looked at my record and said, yup, they screwed me over, and advised me on what to do, and I will spend more and more of the breaks that I desperately need to recover my mental and physical health after spending eight solid hours a day tied to a desk and headphones talking to people who were just diagnosed with COVID (usually TODAY) or just lost someone to it, arguing about medical bills that should have been dead for years. And I'm grateful to have a job that at least gives me enough money to pay the bills now... even though I pay $623/month on the healthcare marketplace for insurance that no one will take because my company offers only extremely high deductible, high co-pay insurance, and I am still putting off care because I can't get an appointment for a much needed procedure, and to take the day off for said procedure, I'll lose a day's worth of income. The places where I'd like to get the level of care I need won't take my insurance anyway. And I'm scared to get a procedure until I get my vaccine because of how many infections I'm seeing coming out of hospitals and clinics. I got my masters in public health to tear down the system. Count me in!
The harm reduction community is full of people with similar problems, and frequently care is forced upon us against our will. Then we get to pay for it! Shame and more shame... I'd love to start an advocacy service helping people navigate the system. Gotta get a grant for that one...
I completely feel you on this. I have spent many hours on the phone with insurance companies, being grilled as though on the witness stand about why I happened to be unconscious and where I was unconscious (I don't happen to know - BECAUSE I WAS UNCONSCIOUS!!!) and then there was the $11,000 for "services" performed on me while I was unconscious that were obviously unnecessary but the point was covering the hospital's ass in case I died, which I failed to, much to their surprise! Thanks to having a low income and owning nothing and, with white privilege and an MPH and having briefly run a union benefit fund, I knew how to do the paperwork to get the financial stuff waived. Meanwhile, I made a payment arrangement with the ambulance company that took me somewhere years ago, that after two years my insurance told me it wouldn't pay for, so I could pay a meager $50 that I can afford per month to pay off the $1050 bill. I paid it early every month, then the jerks cancelled it for no reason, hitting me by 44 points on my credit score, which I've carefully built back up over the years to a good one, but through a lot of hard work. I spent my dearly beloved lunch break on the phone with a very nice woman who looked at my record and said, yup, they screwed me over, and advised me on what to do, and I will spend more and more of the breaks that I desperately need to recover my mental and physical health after spending eight solid hours a day tied to a desk and headphones talking to people who were just diagnosed with COVID (usually TODAY) or just lost someone to it, arguing about medical bills that should have been dead for years. And I'm grateful to have a job that at least gives me enough money to pay the bills now... even though I pay $623/month on the healthcare marketplace for insurance that no one will take because my company offers only extremely high deductible, high co-pay insurance, and I am still putting off care because I can't get an appointment for a much needed procedure, and to take the day off for said procedure, I'll lose a day's worth of income. The places where I'd like to get the level of care I need won't take my insurance anyway. And I'm scared to get a procedure until I get my vaccine because of how many infections I'm seeing coming out of hospitals and clinics. I got my masters in public health to tear down the system. Count me in!
all of this is so intense and yet so prevalent! I'm ready to tear it down too.
The harm reduction community is full of people with similar problems, and frequently care is forced upon us against our will. Then we get to pay for it! Shame and more shame... I'd love to start an advocacy service helping people navigate the system. Gotta get a grant for that one...