I have become a chubby bastard. One of the side effects of this is that my fat fleshy neck collapses my already small airway at night, causing me to stop breathing repeatedly while I sleep. This keeps me from reaching REM and deep sleep almost every night. That is of course, unless I sleep hooked up to my darth vader CPAP machine which keeps my airway open enough at night to keep my breathing constant which allows me to achieve every sleep cycle known to man, even those reserved for non-fatties (Oh how I hates you non-fatties).
ANYWAY, because I am stupid and lazy and occasionally depressed I missed a few payments on CPAP machine (not because I didn't have money, purely because of stupid and lazy and depressed, hooray for me). How it works is insurance and I pay off machine for 6 months until the machine is mine, as in I own it. So a few weeks back, the company that "rents" me the machine calls wanting to take it back (they can't have my magical sleep machine, mine!). So I call the sleep clinic the originally diagnosed me (because they like to help patients, odd, I know). I had just gotten my act together and mailed in all my missing payments that week, and told everyone so. After a few days, it all gets worked out. The company that wants to take the machine back says my payment came in, all is well, I'm their new favorite customer, would I like candy?, etc. I have received no further bills from them since then.
A week after that I get a call from another guy from the same damn company, saying he needs to pick up the machine. I assume this was a hiccup in the bureaucracy and ignore it. Today, I get some damn guy at my goddamn house trying to pick the damn machine up. I asked him why and he said I was being "transitioned" to another company, which is the same damn thing they told me back when the problems started. I'm fairly sure "transitioned" means "we're trying to drop you and take the machine back and resell it" because they haven't told me why they're dropping me nor are they "transitioning" me to another company. They're "transitioning" me from covered to screwed. I told him the story in miniature, that last I heard they were completely happy with me, and that I need them to call me again to see what's going on. If necessary, I'm sure my sleep clinic will back me up again (they tell me the machine is nearly mine so under no circumstances give it back to them).
What I think is going on is said company is engaged in bureaucratic douchebaggery, and is attempting to take the machine back and resell it using some crap excuse purely in an effort to screw me over to save themselves money. For once in my life I am standing up for myself and they seem to back down quickly which makes me think they don't have a particularly good excuse for taking it.
To sum up: I'm getting pretty goddamn tired of the fact that the companies and people that are supposedly supplying me with medical equipment are intentionally looking for ways to screw me over to save money. I've read several articles about how most insurance companies do the same thing. Try to deny service whenever possible to save money. I"m not saying these are evil people, I'm saying how messed up is it when half the medical establishment is actively looking for an opportunity NOT to help you when you need it? The only angel in all this has been the doctors at my sleep clinic who are 100% on my side in all of this.
To sum up the sum up: The next person that patronizingly tells me we have the best healthcare in the world gets a kick to the crotch.
I think that the problem is that there are certain unspoken first principles involved whenever anyone says that. To whit: If you can afford to pay cash for it, we have some of the best health care in the world. And even saying that, it all depends on which hospital or clinic you go to, and who your caretakers are. When Ava was born, the difference between our day shift and night shift nurses was astounding. The day shift nurse was OK, but forgetful. The night shift nurses were incredible.
ReplyDeleteNow step that up and compare the differences between a municipal hospital and a university medical center. Or going to an emergency room with anything less than a sucking chest wound vs. going to see a primary care physician that you have established a relationship with.
I don't know how, exactly, it could be done, but I'd like to see some sort of truly international study using solid metrics that compares the health care of various developed nations. Let's see some data to back up the assertion that "we have the best health care in the world."
By the way. . . I looked at the posts on the blog from way back in April 2005. How them gazoline prices lookin' now, Sport?
ReplyDeletehehe, I had thought of bringing the gas price feature back. maybe I'll do that.
ReplyDeleteAs for health care, there actually are several comprehensive studies comparing health care between the major western countries. Short answer if I recall was basically: we have the best health care if you're very rich, but we are beaten in all other metrics by other western countries (france, etc) who have higher customer satisfaction while spending half the money we do per capita.