My mother, God Rest Her Soul, passed away this January in peace with both her children at her side. It was a very emotional time for the whole family. Then afterward, we had to deal with her medical expenses. And that became an emotional trauma in and of itself.
It was hard enough to deal with the lost of my mother and dearest friend. But I was not prepared for the overwhelming government bureacratic nightmare that followed.
My mother had been treated for cancer, before it finally began to overtake her. She had to be admitted to one hospital, then transferred to another, after she had spent a wonderful Christmas with her children and grandchildren. After three weeks in the hospital, she passed away.
And for the last 6 months, I've been receiving the Medicare summary. And I've been horrified at what I've seen.
Medicare has covered all of her necessary medical expenses. They have not denied one of her claims. Ok, there was one ambulance ride fro one hospital to the other one that wasn't covered, but that was expected, since it was not medically necessary. Besides that one ambulance ride, I keep seeing on all their paperwork, 'Approved'.
What is wrong with this system? Health insurance in this counrty is supposed to deny coverage, not approve it. Insureres are supposed to make you haggle and argue with them over pre-existing conditions and in-network vs. out of network providers. They're supposed to make you angry until you're blue in the face. When my daughter was born, I must have spent a whole month haggling with the insurance company over claim denials. It turned out to be the most joyous experience I ever had, as spent all my lunch hours for weeks shouting at United Healthcare reps.
But Medicare refuses to get in a fight with me and my sister over my mother's bills. They covered the hospital stay. They covered the oncologist, all the medications, the chemo, the infectious disease specialist, the GI specialist and the hospice care.
This is just terrible. I was all prepped to spend hours on the phone and on the computer writing letters to the state insurance regulator. But now Medicare has taken that joy away from me. Thanks to Medicare, I now have to find better uses for my time.
I guess I'll just have to write in my journal what my mother meant to me, or perhaps spend time in organizing old photos and making a scrapbook dedicated to mom. Or maybe I'll splice together some home movies and make DVD copies for my mom's grandkids.
The people at Medicare just don't understand what idle time they've put in my hands; they don't know how to run an insurance program. And now my family is paying the price.