My omnipresent medical care issues really came to a head this month. Well, last month, to be precise. My 36 months of COBRA health insurance coverage finally sputtered to an ominous end on November first. Thankfully, because of a federal health insurance law called HIPAA (please don't ask me to elaborate on the acronym), as long as I don't let my coverage lapse for more than 63--yes, 63!--days, they are required to give me insurance even though I have scads of "pre-existing" conditions and most insurers would rather stick their tongue in a light socket than have to cover my medical expenses. Unfortunately, the law does not require that they charge me a reasonable fee...they can charge whatever the hell they feel like, and believe me, they do.
The condensed version of all this nonsense is that I am getting [expensive and kinda lousy] health coverage effective December 15th. But I have been feeling really nasty for almost two weeks now. Nasty as in if-I-don't-take-care-of-this-now-it-could-turn-into-hospitalization kind of nasty. So I finally had to resign myself to the potentially crushing expense and go see the doctor today without insurance. Two wonderful things came of this: one, I'm NOT headed for the hospital (merely getting pumped up on steroids, gack), and two, my doctor, knowing about my health insurance woes and being a staunch liberal pro-socialized-medicine yahoo, told me that he wasn't going to charge me for my exam today. Yes, FREE medical care. He's a pulmonary specialist, you know; it would cost me something like $200 if I had to pay for it myself. Wow. I had to look the other way so that I didn't start crying when he told me that he didn't want me to pay.
To top off all the "It's a Wonderful Life" style feel-goodyness, when I left the doctor's office precisely at 5:05 p.m., just in time for crushing Hillcrest traffic jams, a very considerate driver in the looooooong line of cars in front of me actually stopped to let me out into the queue. So there you have it. Doctors who really DO care, and the plain simple fact that there are nice folks in the world. Merry Christmas.
3 comments:
Wow, that's so awesome of your doctor! Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :-)
I'm glad you won't have to be hospitalized. Yuck.
I hope the gacky steroids help and you'll be feeling in tip-top shape in no time! Keep us posted!
Stimpy's very relieved and moved by this story of the GOOD doctor. Faith in people restored!! Oh Happy!!
Yep, warm fuzzy happiment all over. And I'm already feeling better physically. Steroids are not fun, but they sure make my lungs feel better sometimes.
Yay! Happy!
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