So, in September I signed up for health insurance with a high deductible health plan (hdhp), because I’m basically a healthy guy, and if it turns out that I acquire a chronic, expensive condition, I can always switch plans in a year. All well and good. I may or may not have received something from them in the mail among the rain-forest-denuding deluge of credit card offers.
So, I get my current sinus plague. I decided at last that I really can’t tough it out. Mom says I need antibiotics. To be precise, she says I’m going to need _expensive_ antibiotics (over $100 to treat what I have), because the affordable stuff won’t help what I’ve got. I call up my insurance company (which I recently paid a fee to make sure they’d accept me) to find out how I would access my coverage. They say, yup, you have coverage, but that’s odd, your hsa (health savings account, goes with hdhp’s) isn’t showing up. We can’t help you until you get that set up. You should contact chase, who manages that. Chase gives me a very polite “Who the hell are you? We have no idea. Talk to your employer.” Office of Personnel Management (OPM, who manages the federal employee health benefit program) says “talk to your agency’s HR people.” I did that this morning. And two other times today. By the end of today, they seem to finally understand my situation. They’re talking to OPM people to get it straightened out.
Single Payer Universal Health coverage, anyone? =)
Americans abroad always seem to sneer about how their health system is the best in the world, yet I’m always hearing stories like yours of people having to wait and suffer while their insurance may or may not be sorted out. If I have a problem I just go to the doctor, get a prescription and that’s that. Admittedly we have sometimes longer hospital waiting lists but I thinks its worth it for a need-based system which is surely better than just reserving the best treatmen for the wealthy.
If you can fins a nice doc, ask for Samples of Augmentin. I’ve also heard that there’s now a generic equivalent, which is substancially cheaper.
Do the numbers actually work out for a hdhp? The last time I had a chance to change plans, I wasn’t actually saving any money because the monthly on the hdhp was more than I was already paying. (Like, $100 more a month to switch to a hdhp)