I've discovered clear and incontrovertible proof that anyone who works in the health insurance or pharmaceutical industries is a soulless rat bastard who deserves to burn in hell for all eternity.
The background: Because I'm not officially enrolled in college currently, I do not qualify as a dependent on my parents' health insurance plan. Therefore, my insurance was terminated on December 31. I'm currently in the process of applying for the COBRA extension plan, which will give me retroactive coverate to the beginning of the year, but the paperwork hasn't gone through yet. In the meantime, I needed to get a refill on two of my monthly prescriptions. I went to pick them up this morning at my usual pharmacy. The usual price for these two prescriptions is $22 ($15 for one, and $7 for the other).
The amount I had to pay this morning: $481.35.
Yes, you read that correctly. $481.35.
Fuckers, the whole lot of them. (Not the lady at the pharmacy counter, it's not her fault, of course. She just had the misfortune to relay the bad news and stand on the receiving end of a blistering string of invective when I saw the price.) I'm born with a hereditary condition (manifested as recurring clinical depression) for which I must take prescriptions every day for the rest of my life. And if I don't pay some company a big wad of money every month for the right to carry some lousy plastic card, I have to pay 21.88 times as much money to get the medicine I need just to live a normal life? Fuckers, I say. Complete and total fuckers.
Maybe I need to move to Canada. I'm told that the government up there actually takes care of its citizens...
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
But with this retroactive coverage, you will get that money back at some time in the future?
Over here, being in college or not has no effect on your health insurance. Of course, I probably don't have to remind you that American health insurance is shit.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Actually, here in Canada you do still have to pay for prescription drugs. If you have a health insurance plan with a third party you don't have to pay at all or just a bit. But visits to the hospital, surgeries, ambulance rides, etc at free.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
COBRA extension plan. I've got a bad feeling about this.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
It's better than the GAMILON plan, but not much better.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It could be something really great, like an Extended DVD Director's Cut of Sylvester Stallone's classic film Cobra.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
You know, I watched that last weekend on TBS.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
TBS - is that a drug of some sort? Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It'll certainly kill you in high concentrations.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Kills brain cells but is somehow not addictive.
I too, have had my share of Insurance Company fuckovers: I have to pay over $1000 in bills that Aetna just decided not to cover when my company informed them that they were going with Blue Cross. Basically, Aetna just refuses to pay for that final month of coverage (though I sure paid them via automatic deduction from my paycheck!).
Not a hope in hell of my sueing them either: they could wait me out literally forever.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
quote:It could be something really great, like an Extended DVD Director's Cut of Sylvester Stallone's classic film Cobra.
I was thinking more "mind control rays & dinosaur islands" type of COBRA. Posing as a pharmacy savings affiliate might be their most successful venture yet, though. It might last longer than 25 minutes, anyway.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Add my mother to the list of people fighting insurance companies. Late 2003 into early 2004, she spent time in the hospital for an staph infection in her left lung. It developed an abscess in her lung. She was in the hospital for ten days, and she had two weeks of intensive follow-up and therapy. Her insurance decided to up and not pay for certain parts of her treatment.
I've been without insurance since last April. When I turned 25, I was dropped from my parents' insurance even though I was still in school. I got a nasty throat infection that got better and then got much, much worse around Thanksgiving. Even with the campus discounts on prescriptions and doctors visits, I spent close to $300.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
quote:Originally posted by Topher: But visits to the hospital, surgeries, ambulance rides, etc at free.
If there ever was a reason to move to Canada.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)