We all know there's going to be a lot of crap from the Republicans and con.serv.ative li.bert.arians in the coming months and years regarding healthcare, whichever way the vote goes tomorrow (fingers crossed, guys).
One of the things they'll try to do (if we DO get reform) is show a single person's example of not being covered, or waiting for an appointment, or any other thing that isn't unicorn farts, and try and pass it off as failure. So I thought I would tell you of everything that is leading up to a simple annual eye exam that I will be getting. All covered by private insurance through work. And how it will nullify their future talking points. Because it's how the system is right now.
More on the other side of the hyperlink...
A few months ago, I was covered by my employer by ...you know what? I'll change the names of the companies so it doesn't seem so regional. I'll call Insurance Company #1 "Premiums Priority", and I had the HMO policy (the cheapest one).
I'm a healthy man in my very early forties. Non smoker, don't do any drugs, just take an inhaler for asthma and I buy OTC hayfever medication for a part of the year (loratadine, mainly). I recently played in a Sunday soccer league, a friend wants me to play in a kickball league ...I'm not Maxim Model fit, but I could probably handle myself in a hypothetical Zombieland.
Rule 1: Cardio.
One of the things I was covered for with Premiums Priority was an annual eye test, and there's a place in my local mall that does eye exams and sells glasses too. As an aside: I get the glasses cheaper with my AAA Card than through my insurance. Thanks for nothing, insurance premiums. So there's GOP talking point #1 busted: my Free Market health coverage did not save me the most money for the coverage I wanted.
Against my will, Premiums Priority is no longer my insurer as from the beginning of the new year. I am now covered by an insurer we'll call BrySinger.
No, not THAT Bry Singer. Although they do all get free healthcare in the Star Trek world. But I digress...
I am now covered by a different company, purely because of a work decision. The only choice I had was whether I pay for BrySinger HMO or a bit more for BrySinger PPO. So there's GOP talking point #2 busted: you know how they say people will have the government decide their healthcare coverage for them? That happened to me, with no input from myself, because the Free Market company I work for needed to save money because the Bootstrappy bean-counters at Premiums Priority had jacked up the costs beyond what my employer could handle.
As a result of this change, I received what can best be described as a metric shit-load of new paperwork. Thankfully, my asthma inhaler repeat prescriptions were transfered to the new online pharmacy and that didn't go up in cost... but looking through the Provider Network for BrySinger, I noticed one thing missing.
The name of my Primary Care Physician.
I called the office of my PCP, and asked if they were considering accepting BrySinger. No dice. I had to get a new doc. So there's GOP talking point #3 busted: for all the scare talk from the [f]right[ened] wing about how I will lose my doctor if health reform passes... that already happened to me. Directly because of the Free Market, Bootstrappy, Why-Change-Things-Now? system we have already.
So finally to the eye test. I went to the place in the mall for my eye test.
I really should have done this sooner...
Talked to the woman there, and here's the kicker. The most I would get with BrySinger (HMO or PPO, didn't matter) would be a $5 off the eye exam. Damn it, I get a free one per year from BrySinger. So I got out another tome of the rainforest they (BrySinger) sent me, and discovered my choices of locations for optometry delight in the county had been reduced. From around three dozen to two.
No, that's not two dozen. Two. A pair. That's it.
I called the nearest location and asked for the earliest possible appointment, considering I work for a living and need to obey the physical laws of the Universe (or, at the very least, traffic laws) in order to get there. This call was made two weeks ago. And as only one of two places that are in 'Network', they are probably very much in demand.
In Network: yes. Stressed: yes. Giving eye exams: not so much. Mad as hell: quite possibly.
The earliest I could be given an appointment was for April 19th. So there's GOP talking point #4 busted: these long waiting lists people will have to endure because of Super Evil ObamaCare? I'm just glad it's just an annual eye exam and nothing life-threatening. Because I'm waiting six weeks to read a chart and have air blown into my eyeballs. I'm guessing here, but I doubt many French citizens are waiting six weeks for an eye exam.
"Mon Dieu. Est-ce que ce là la tour Eiffel?" (This rarely happens)
So that's my story. How this lovely Free Market system resulted in a lost doctor, a lowering of coverage, and an inordinately long wait for a routine procedure. And all against my will as a consumer. Think of this diary entry as a form of insurance. I've made posts before where I told people to get out of the Markets in December 2007, or when I forecast the Republicans would try to own some of the economic recovery when they were previously saying nothing but "it's Obama's economy now" (well before the hypocrisy photos of GOP slime holding checks from ARRA while saying it created no jobs in the same week). It's insurance against the talking points concerning the doom and gloom forecasted by the GOP. Because as I said in the intro: I'm writing this one day before the vote in the House. And all those things the GOP will say are proof that government in healthcare is a failure? They're happening right now. If they're a failure, it's not because of ObamaCare because it's happening in the current private system I belong to.
Thanks for reading.