OK, I'm going to be a little harsh here because I'm just fed up with these clowns.
Can someone please.....fucking explain to me.......why I pay bigger and bigger health insurance premiums each year but get less and less coverage!?!?!? Seriously, anyone with a full time job that has health benefits gets the obligatory rate hike which eats up your measly raise and never do we get an explanation why.
Are they improving services? NO!
Are they expanding the network of doctors and specialists to choose from? NO!
Are they giving more of a discount on your prescription drugs? NO!
In fact, they likely limited their services, cut back on the doctors you can select, and thrown up so much extra red tape that your odds of getting proper medical care are pie in the sky dreams.
Average customer: Prescription drugs? Surgery? I don't think I can get that now with the new rules.
And that brings me to the latest in the linty of stupid moves done my health insurance company, United Health Care. I don't need surgery, I'm not dying.....it's just the little things they do that fucking set me off!
I received a letter in the mail recently:
Dear Member:
Your Prescription Drug List (PDL) consits of three tiers - Tier 1 is the lowest copayment tier and teir 3 is the highest copayment tier. Our records show that you are taking Fexofenadine, which is a medication that moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 effective May 1, 2008.
Nice of them to tell me now since it's FUCKING JULY!!!!! By the way, Fexofenadine is also known as Allegra. I get some nasty allergies in the summer and I'm hitting these pills big time.
But wait, there's more!!!!!
Possible Alternatives
You have the option of continuing to take Fexofenadine and paying the higher (which mean HIGHEST) copayment. Or, you may want to consider an alternative medication listed in the table below that will result in the same copayment or lower copayment than what you are paying now. Be sure to save this letter so you can share a list of these alternatives with your doctor.
Oh gosh, thanks United Healthcare, what options have you given me that will have a lower copay or similar one?
- Claritin Over The Counter
- Zyrtec Over The Counter
And there there's another jab from United Healthcare (cocksuckers) that describes their thought process.
We placed fexofenadine in Tier 3 because it is priced at a premium compared to over the counter options.Could that be because the prescription strength of the drug is more powerful than what's available over the counter and thus works at settling down my allergies!?!? Aren't prescription drugs often more powerful than their over the counter brethren hence the need for a prescription!?!? The over the counter shit doesn't work for me!!!! I need the strong stuff. Damn you!!!
Concerned reader: But Ricardo, they will still pay for some of it. It's tier 3.
Me: Doesn't matter! It's the principle of it all. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Back to the letter:
We understand that the change in the cost can be a concern. That is why we conduct a thorough review of medications.......
I think you pin up a bunch of drug names to a board and throw darts at them. Whichever one the dart hits, you cut. Lots of fun I bet!
We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and are committed to helping you make the best use of your Pharmacy benefit.
Sincerely,
Brian K.
Chief Pharmacist
You are not a chief pharmacist Brian K, YOU ARE A CORPORATE STOOGE!! You are a pawn and have insulted the very industry you claim to represent! You have the nerve to look at yourself in the mirror!!?!?! YOU FRAUD!!!!
(long pause of silence as I scan the room and look at you all)
If I were in Canada, this stuff would be next to nothing. I could get the meds I need and be done with it.
Right Wing Reader: But Ricardo Canada is a socialist place like Europe and they don't have good healthcare and people wait and wait in the emergency rooms and die. And the hospitals close on Sunday and they make you swear an oath to a bust of Stalin before an operation. You'll be sorry if you go up there!!!
Me: Hey....what about the woman who died in an emergency room RIGHT HERE in the good old US of A? What? Those were all Canadian doctors? Please.....please.
Now my issue is a far cry from what happened to that woman or people who are suffering from much more dire illnesses than I. But United Healthcare is hitting the very ill too. Go to Google and type in United Healthcare sucks and watch the complaints fill your screen. While this poor excuse for a company did not play a role in the woman's death, it does show us one thing that we all hate to admit; the healthcare system in the United States is not bastion of miracles that it claims to be.....unless you're rich.
The internet is a great place. The consumer can bite back. And I will gladly bite back and draw blood.
It's good to be the king......
Coming up....
A thanks to blogger Urban Thought.
Also....
Why is Ricardo a source of insecurity for some people in relationships? Am I a home wrecker?
And....
Flower Power: Feel force of the Schezwan button.
