Fucking Health Care

My doctor, who is conveniently located below my apartment, recently joined another medical company. Same location, etc. just new management or whatever.

My visit when I was sick a month ago came to $236!!!! I have a high deductible HSA with Blue Cross and they paid a whopping $19. I owe the difference because I haven't yet met my deductible.

Right. I get it - that's how deductible's work. But...in the past, the most I ever paid at my doctor's office was $91 (and even that was a lot). I really think that their prices must have increased when they switched companies.

And of course they don't tell you up front how much the cost is - even if you ask - because it's a HDHP. "We'll have to call and look into it - it depends on how much Blue Cross will pay." But you need to be seen, so you go through with the visit and suffer the consequences after. I just didn't think the consequences would be this expensive.

So here's the kicker. If you recall, when I had that visit, my Dr. was on vacation so I saw the other Dr. on the team. He is the one who restarted my Zoloft prescription. But because I stopped taking it, he had to do a whole new evaluation (meaning, asking a few questions). Well, he didn't offer refills, he required that I reschedule a follow-up.

I have one pill left. I called my Dr.'s office. That's when they told me "we cannot refill it until you are seen for a follow-up, and you owe us $217 from your prior visit." So, with Zoloft, you can't simply stop taking it. You have to slowly reduce the dosage over a period of time. I asked if they could just refill it and then I'd reschedule with the Dr. another time. No. So I booked an appointment (prior to speaking with the lady in billing to discover why in the hell I owe so much money). I asked "how much is it for the follow up visit?" "Well, we won't know - it's up to your insurance company."

The anger boiled up inside of me. Our fucking healthcare system in this country is a fucking joke. I told the lady I'm canceling the follow-up appointment, and even though it's not safe to discontinue the Zoloft (which obviously I need!), I'll just stop taking the medication because I can't afford your doctor's office visits - even though I've been a patient of Dr. Adeyina for a very long time."

She said, "I totally understand. I'll remove your appointment. Thank you." And that was it!!! Are you kidding me? Are they not concerned for my health? I called back and asked for the Dr. to call me directly. She's the one who initially prescribed me the medication a while back and it was just a continuous refill. But because I had to see the other stupid Dr., everything changed. Can't she just refill the fucking prescription without having me come in and spend a fortune? This is insane!

On top of this ...I had a biometric screening at work. I've recently lost 20 pounds because I've been on a low carb, high fat (and vegetarian!) diet (hard but worth it). Just like they said, my cholesterol is finally down! My HDL is finally up! But.... totally wasn't expecting this, my fasting blood sugar was high. They ran a separate blood sugar test and that, too, showed that I was officially pre-diabetic.

Diabetes, types 1 and 2, run in both sides of my family. I've just never had a problem with blood sugar. To add to that, they asked "did you eat pasta last night?" I don't eat carbs or sugar AT ALL! (Ok only the ones in vegetables but even those I eat non-starchy veggies, like peppers, broccoli, etc.). So why is my blood sugar high?

They told me I need to schedule an appointment with my doctor....

Ugh.

Looks like I need to start Dr. shopping.