Today's fun story of how fucked up the insurance industry is comes from Anon who once upon a time had GREAT insurance. Then she used it, thinking, you know, that's what she had it for-- to help her through some health issues. Alas, this came back to bite her in the ass. Consequently, that ass bite was no longer coverable. In fact, the plan she has now hardly covers anything. But it does remind me-- I need to do a post about planning health emergencies for when you're traveling in countries where you can actually get treatment without it costing an arm and a leg. I'll do that soon. And I'll also reveal the results of my Insurance Rejection Letter, which came the other day. For now, the tale of Anon. Please keep those stories coming: spikegillespie@gmail.com.
Anon's Story
Nine years ago I had some pretty extreme headaches and a weird case of inflamed iris called iritis. I had great Blue Cross health insurance at the time through the tv network I worked for and the doctors gave me EVERY test on earth over a period of three or so months. ALL of them came back completely clean. No auto-immune disease, no lupus, no brain cancer, no MS, no problems.
They ended up calling it viral meningitis - but made it clear that they didn't know which virus it was and that it would right itself eventually, which it did. The headaches went away and I haven't had any trouble since. In fact, I felt BETTER knowing that I had been thoroughly tested and prodded and declared clear of all the random things that my hypochrondic-prone brain could dream up. My doctor thought it was probably stress-related.
And then I left the tv network, and my health coverage went with it.
And when I tried to reapply on my own - I was denied by Blue Cross - and then by everyone else. From 2002 on, up until the last time I applied last year. Because OF ALL THE TESTS.
Apparently exhaustive rounds of tests that give you a completely clean bill of health also signal DANGER! to Blue Cross. I would think they'd WANT me because they have medical PROOF that I'm healthy.
Finally I got a $7k deductible plan from Kaiser, in case of anything MAJOR.
Here's the weird thing - when I travel to places like Liberia and Haiti - dangerous-to-health, poor places - I actually have better health coverage because I can buy TRAVEL health insurance that covers me when while I'm gone.
My advice: if you want good health coverage and can't get it in the US, relocate to another country and buy a policy from a company like LIASION, which covers Americans who live abroad. Better than Blue Cross and actually AVAILABLE.
They ended up calling it viral meningitis - but made it clear that they didn't know which virus it was and that it would right itself eventually, which it did. The headaches went away and I haven't had any trouble since. In fact, I felt BETTER knowing that I had been thoroughly tested and prodded and declared clear of all the random things that my hypochrondic-prone brain could dream up. My doctor thought it was probably stress-related.
And then I left the tv network, and my health coverage went with it.
And when I tried to reapply on my own - I was denied by Blue Cross - and then by everyone else. From 2002 on, up until the last time I applied last year. Because OF ALL THE TESTS.
Apparently exhaustive rounds of tests that give you a completely clean bill of health also signal DANGER! to Blue Cross. I would think they'd WANT me because they have medical PROOF that I'm healthy.
Finally I got a $7k deductible plan from Kaiser, in case of anything MAJOR.
Here's the weird thing - when I travel to places like Liberia and Haiti - dangerous-to-health, poor places - I actually have better health coverage because I can buy TRAVEL health insurance that covers me when while I'm gone.
My advice: if you want good health coverage and can't get it in the US, relocate to another country and buy a policy from a company like LIASION, which covers Americans who live abroad. Better than Blue Cross and actually AVAILABLE.
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