Cross-posted at MotherTalkers.
My apologies in advance for the bitchy tone of this tome. I recently got an obnoxious phone call from a bill collector on behalf of Children's Hospital of Oakland. As it turns out -- surprise, surprise! -- Blue Shield of California does not want to pay in full a visit we made with Ari this past summer.
Honestly, I do not remember the visit and even wondered aloud if "this story is made up." But the person on the other line rattled off my social security number and health insurance information to prove that we indeed had used Children's Hospital's services. She also let me know that our phone call was recorded and she would report me to the credit bureau if I did not pay for the services in question, a tab of $199 and some cents.
I am proud to report that we just purchased a group health plan with Kaiser Permanente and will soon be leaving Blue Cross Blue Shield. We are SO done with them. We are done with the nickle-and-diming. We are done with the spike in health care costs for less services. We are done with random non-itemized bills months after given services. We are done with the threatening phone calls from bill collectors. We are done with wondering whether a doctor is in network or out of network. We. Are. Done.
It wasn't always like this. At my former job, I was part of a group plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the services were superb. Affordable. Great doctors. Low co-pays. My son literally cost me one $10 co-pay. In fact, I was reluctant to leave my job because of the health benefits.
Unable to keep up with the demands of a long commute plus a full-day's worth of work and baby, I quit and we purchased an individual plan from BCBS. In five years, our premiums have spiked from around $360 a month to $1,000 a month. Yet, our services were reduced and we find ourselves paying out of pocket for a lot of things, including emergency room visits.
The disparity in services could be due to the fact we have an individual plan and not a group plan. But then I have also witnessed how my sister, considered a dependent of my dad's, has been treated by BCBS.
My father works in Massachusetts and has Blue Shield of New England, which is apparently not a trusted insurance by California doctors. Every time she has gone to the doctor's here, the receptionist has demanded payment up front, letting her know she would have to submit the receipt to Blue Shield of New England for reimbursement. Being a cash-strapped college student, this is not feasible. I have paid for doctor visits for her to never receive payment despite my dad's visits to his HR department. My sister has used the emergency room for primary care and now relies on a local (overwhelmed) clinic that will treat her pro-bono.
People against nationalized health care like to talk about the bureaucracy and inefficiencies of the system. But you can't tell me this privatized system of ours is much better.
Hopefully, Kaiser will treat us better. Hasta la vista, Blue Shield. You can kiss my bootey.