In the past decade, I've waged a battle for my health care in what I've come to think of as The Health Insurance Wars.
Although I haven't been hospitalized since 1958:
I have been denied insurance by Blue Cross because I had the audacity to admit I -- horrors! -- required a drug prescribed by a doctor (which retailed for $20 a month, by the way.)
Was dropped from Writers Guild insurance plan when I parted ways with scriptwriting (the show went off the air), and then couldn't manage the $1,200 per month Cobra plan.
Joined the National Writers Union, which involved it's members in what turned out to be a fraudulent plan. Although these insurers had been indicted at least once before for a similar scheme, we were enrolled in a jackpot which included sucking up our payments every month (mine over $400 a month) and then both denying major procedures and neglecting to reimburse doctors for any medical services which had been rendered.
From that morass, I enrolled in a plan through another writer's organization, only to have that insurance company pull out of insuring anyone in California, because they'd decided there wasn't enough profit for 'em in our state.
At that point, I joined the Authors Guild, for no other reason than the health insurance plan they offered their members: Cigna and Teigit, although they siphon a monthly divot out of my bank account to the tune of over $600 a month.
And then ... well, I'll let another writer take over, who somehow manages to be more amusing than I can force myself to be about our new. shared health insurance mess:
Why I'm happy my health insurance costs $12,268/yr
by Jenny Price
On December 31, 2006, my health insurance cost $4715/year. On January 1, it rose to $12,268, when CIGNA hiked the premiums up to 254% for the writers, actors, and artists who buy insurance through the Entertainment Industry Group.
In fact, Ms. Price is an optimist, who has come up with ten reasons why she's hap-hap-happy our insurance has been raised to twelve Gs a year, including:
- CIGNA could have raised the rate to $50,000/year--or $500,000/year or $5 million/hour or $50 million/minute, since right now, there is no federal or state law in California that would have prevented it.
Yes, we've both learned from the school of hard knocks that an insurance company could be even more venal:
- I like CIGNA. At least they pay my claims rather than deny them, unlike my prior insurer Blue Shield. As far as I know, they're not denying coverage to people with acne or roofing jobs (that'd be HealthNet, Blue Shield, PacifiCare), and unlike Blue Cross and Kaiser Foundation, they're not under investigation for canceling the policies of sick people.
CIGNA drives people away perfectly legally, with astronomical premiums--which is just good old-fashioned market-driven economics.
Ah, but there's more, so much more to be thankful for (such as the acupuncture treatments I require, which Cigna refuses to cover, that cost me another $400 a month, over and above my insurance payment.)
But I suggest you read the whole of Ms. Price's piece, for the full extent of our health insurance happyness:
http://www.laobserved.com/...