My Healthcare Horror Story

For those not familiar, a few months back the Beautiful Boy was diagnosed with ADHD. No big deal--working with his doctor, and to an extent, his school, we started him on medication. It has gone very well (though certainly not perfectly)--his condition has improved markedly. Also for those not familiar, like many medications, one can eventually plateau with ADHD medication and need to switch to another prescription to reignite the brain. This is what happened to the Beautiful Boy. Like any good parents, we noticed he was slipping, took him to his doctor, who also noticed and wrote a new prescription. Off to the pharmacy, and voila, he'd be on the road to stability again. Not so fast, bucko.... I dropped the prescription at the pharmacy that my company requires me to use or else pay exorbitant prices at 11:00 am on a Tuesday. By five o'clock I was told that it had yet to be authorized. By six-thirty, I was told I'd have to wait until tomorrow because the woman who had to authorize it was off at five. Keep in mind, we're dealing with the health of a five year old here. We went through the same rigamarole on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Beautiful Girl got a call from our doctor's office (but not the insurance company who had to authorize it) telling us the claim had been denied. So she made a trip to the doctor, got a new prescription, and it was finally filled on Thursday, more than 48 hours after we originally had dropped off the prescription. The reason it was denied? Well, we didn't find that out until the Tuesday after the original drop off when we received a letter from the company telling us that the medication wasn't approved for children under six years of age. Of note: neither was the last medication he was on, and they approved that one. Also of note: he turns six in a month. The reason I mention this is because there are people fighting tooth and nail against National Health Insurance by claiming that the government would fuck it up. Really? Worse than the insurance company handled our claim? At no time did we have access to the insurance company, at no time were we notified of the current status of our claim, and even worse, they have banker's hours...who the fuck lives in a five o'clock world anymore? I can guarantee you that if the government ran it we would, at the very least, have a helpline to call to expedite our claims and can absolutely guarantee that people would be on the job past five o'clock. So for all those who claim the government would fuck up our healthcare, I have but one retort: Fuck you, next idiot please! We need National Health Insurance, and we need it now. Still don't think so? Check out this piece: health insurance companies are stopping offering coverage to children because of the law that goes into effect tomorrow requiring them to cover children with pre-existing conditions. May all insurance companies and their executives rot in hell. Peace, emaycee