And Around We Go

So I got a nice call from my oncology team today. Seems that the Idiot Intelligent Insurance Company will cover 100% of the cost of my new drugs, and I don't even have to use a mail order pharmacy to get them. I can just pick them up from the SCCA pharmacy after I meet with my doctor or PA. 

Finally, something goes my way.

But I feel bad. I was talking with some fellow cancer patients the other day and the conversation turned to these appalling tales of conflict between health care providers on the one hand and insurance providers on the other. None of it was unfamiliar to those who pay attention to this sort of thing: a patient not receiving care because a given provider is "out of network"; treatment options being determined not by what's best for the patient, but rather what's easiest to get approved by the insurance company since the patient can't afford the delays in treatment an insurance denial would create; zero transparency over the reasons behind the decisions that were being made, leaving the patient to guess as what's going on with their care. I'm sure most of us could narrate very similar stories.

It all just makes me angry (hey! the second stage...) and sad. Despite what Donald Trump says, America is one of the richest nations on the planet, and yet this is how we take care of our people? Uninsured and unable to afford care. Insured, but marginally so, and thus locked into a continuous battle with an insurance company over what's covered versus what's not. These are not categories of being that any of us should tolerate.

And yet we do. We even tell ourselves that this is the best of all possible options -- well, some of us with gold-plated coverage plans do. 

As occasionally frustrating as it can be, I am consistently grateful for the health insurance I have. It annoys the crap out of me that others should have very good reason to be jealous of that coverage. 

We can, and we should, do better.