Yesterday the bills from Stuart's hospital visit started flowing in. We have major medical insurance through Premera Blue Cross/Blue Shield so a major portion of everything is covered, thank heavens. One of the bills yesterday was for 2 ambulance rides, 1 was $10,000 and 1 was $5,000. I was thinking, "1 is for the Ambulance ride in Anchorage, 1 for the ambulance ride in Kodiak..."
As I read further, I saw that $5,000 of these rides was covered. In the AMOUNT YOU OWE line, it said, $10,000. I was in disbelief and promptly called up the Alaska Premera office. The gal on the phone was friendly, but quite apologetic as she broke the bad news to me.
According to my plan (and many of Premera's plans, as I later discovered) ambulance costs are capped for coverage at $5,000 per year per person. The Med Flight from Kodiak to Anchorage is considered an "ambulance" and therefore we have to pay the $10,000 differnce. Ouch.
I am going to appeal. Insurance really milks people for every dime, I tell ya. The reason we got a high-deductible-major-medical-plan is so that in the course of a major medivcal event, we would be covered. Airplane rides included!!
There is no moral to the story except that insurance in our country needs a major overhaul. Enough playing games with peoples lives, finances and health. (ZAS)
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I am so with you on this.
Insurance companies need a MAJOR overhaul. And I don't mean just some feel-good tinkering. They need to be dissolved and new insurance laws need to be built from the ground up to protect individuals.
Sure, let them make money, but they can make money without having to toy with people's lives OR be slaves to their stock market price on Wall Street.
Shakespear once wrote the first thing we need to do is kill half the lawyers; I would amend that, if the Bard is so willing, to include half the insurance agents.
Look what they did and are doing to the poor people in New Orleans. "Oh the water that destroyed your homes was flood damage, not storm damage, so it's not covered. Argh!
Can you tell you hit a sore spot with me? Let's tear them down. We've got Democrats 1/3 in power now, let's put them to work.
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