Carol Bergman

 

 

When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don't see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.

 

― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

 

  

A pun on eyes to begin my blog post today as I am having cataract surgery on Tuesday. Eye #1 gets an update. And I am relieved; it's blurry. Now comes the hard part: the cost of "laser assisted" surgery which is required in my case. I figure the surgeon knows of what she recommends. I do not doubt her. But my insurance company does. There is only a code for ultrasound, they say, not laser.  Are you sure she is in network?  And so on and so forth, as the conversation spins off into outer space.

 

Who will take responsibility? Who is in charge? Who will untangle the patient from the tentacles of worry about surgery, payment for the surgery, and the unending phone calls to the provider and the insurance company until she is so exhausted she gives up and pays out of pocket, which is exactly what the insurance company, who is not exactly insuring her, wants her to do.

 

I have a letter I wrote to United Health Care after my husband's cataract surgery. It's addressed to the former CEO of the company who has since been killed on the streets of New York City. That letter is now a collectible. I suppose the company has had a lot of meetings since then re: how do we save our customer base and grow it? I was not surprised to receive three phone calls in the past three weeks from 1) customer service (Taylor) and 2) the grievance department (Jan). Nice people, both of them. Polite, affable, friendly, interesting, seemingly concerned. Jan grew up in my neighborhood and misses it, Taylor is in South Carolina as he speaks and wishes me well with the surgery. But I still have to pay up front and then apply for reimbursement.

 

I asked Taylor and Jan if they'd heard of Catch-22, if they know what it is: a world in which no one takes responsibility. My question was a conversation stopper.

 

So, in a country without the safety net of universal health care, what does health insurance mean exactly? Not enough. It's not a "system" that works, and it is not sustainable.

 

I reflect often these days on the decade I lived in the UK where everyone is the beneficiary of universal health care and where my daughter was born. Before her birth we received delivery of a "layette," the basic necessities for the first few weeks of life. Our primary care physician made house calls. There was no charge for medications. I could go on.

I am sure much has changed since we left the UK re: problems with funding and waiting lists for life-saving procedures. But the intent is there, and  no matter the government in power, medical care is considered a human right. The populace, meaning everyone,  is spared the indignity and stress of begging an "insurance" company for coverage.