There are 4 million Americans with hepatitis C, and many will
die because they cannot afford the treatment. Or perhaps their
insurance company signed their death warrant by ignoring their
claim for treatment.
There are 4 million Americans with hepatitis C, and many will die because they cannot afford the treatment. Or perhaps their insurance company signed their death warrant by ignoring their claim for treatment.
Tell me, America, how many of you have been duped by your health insurance provider – given the wrong fax number, misinformation or simply the runaround?
The contradiction with insurance companies is that you have a doctor and a pharmacist who want to help you, but the insurance company cares only about the bottom line. We pay into their programs, but when it comes time to pay out, they avoid us like the plague.
My doctor said I need six months of therapy for hepatitis C, but my insurance company approved only three months because they wanted more proof that I needed the other three.
Rebetol and Peg-Intron were prescribed, but some bean-counter had more authority over my health care needs than my doctor. And now that I need refills for the remaining three months, I’m going through the same runaround I did to get the treatments started.
The problem is, I can’t wait for the insurance company to approve my medication, which took three weeks in the first go-around. Treatment for hepatitis C must be continuous and timely because if there is a pause in the treatment pattern, I’d have to start over.
The cost of Peg-Intron is $1,330, which I had to charge to my credit card. And as of today, my Rebetol refill has not been authorized. This will cost $1,440 that I’ll have to charge on my credit card. I want to know if I can bill the insurance company for the interest that I’ll have to pay.
My prescription refills have to be reviewed by the insurance company’s Republican Guards who will determine if I’m sick enough for the rest of the treatment. People who don’t have a medical degree have no business making this decision.
Also, the insurance companies approve a prescription for Viagra with one phone call, but I can’t get my medication approved after a dozen phone calls, faxes and weeks of follow-up.
Insurance companies are supposed to help us, but they’re in business to make money, and they do a great job – at the expense of the people who need treatment.
The last time I needed authorization to begin treatment, I waited three weeks, which angered me beyond reason. The name of the game is “Hold off long enough and maybe the patient will die.” Then the insurance company will not have to pay.
My insurance representative told me, “We never received the doctor’s fax” – a lie because I saw the doctor send it. It’s kind of like Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi minister of misinformation, who has taken denial to a whole new meaning: “We have retaken the airport. There are no Americans there.”
Insurance companies force good people to be dishonest. Doctors and their assistants have lied to get the proper treatment for their patients, and patients have to lie to their doctor to continue treatment. And if I didn’t have a credit card I’d have been forced to write a check that would probably land me in jail because I don’t make enough money to pay for one prescription, let alone both of them.
We ought to have a revolution – declare war on health insurance companies and their lobbyists, who, by the way, should be banned from having any contact with our legislators because every time they get involved, the rates go up and the service goes down. Declare war against the evil insurance regime that rules with a political chokehold on our lawmakers, who would rather be voted back into office than do the right thing.
To our elected officials, I suggest you listen to the victims of these insurance companies and not the lobbyist who helped you get elected. Why should it take weeks, or days, for that matter, for someone to get medicine? There ought to be a law. Mandate insurance companies to approve medication in a timely manner.
Wouldn’t it be nice if anti-war protesters put the same amount of energy and time into protesting the inadequacies of our health care system, our poorly funded educational system and other human causes we as a nation face daily? This is a shot in the arm worth taking.
