A series of serious posts #3

Healthcare/Insurance Sucks

I don't care what side of the Obama Healthcare reform you're on and frankly I don't want to get into a debate about it, but regardless of all of that, you have to agree the current state of our healthcare system sucks. 

I got in all my paperwork to start filling out my itemized deductions worksheet for my taxes and started getting excited that would be able to write off all these medical expenses from last year (which didn't even include my most recent stay at the hospital).  I have an FSA (flexible spending account) that allows me to pay most medical expenses with pre-tax dollars.  Sounds good, right?  Well, not really... you have to get everything to check out just perfectly at the end of the year and if you don't put enough on it, it's not worth it and if you put too much, you lose money.  Regardless, I had $1000 on this account last year, which I easily consumed in copays, scans, and prescription costs.  I think that ended up saving me like $15 or something in taxes.  Woohoo. :\  In addition to that, with Jake and my medical bills and my travel to/from doctor appointments (at 24 cents per mile), I calculated we spent over another $4000 on medical expenses in 2009.  So good.  I can write that off my taxes, right?  Wrong!  For one, you can only write off anything above 7.5% of your income.  So, in order to claim any of the $4000 of expenses, we would have to make under $50,000.  That isn't so ridiculous, but that's just to start claiming a few dollars of that amount.  You have to either have really low income or have a ridiculous amount of expenses in order to start declaring anything.  But, if you make over $80K, you pretty much aren't allowed to declare any expenses at all.  Lesson learned:  Trying to right off medical expenses on our taxes is worthless.

Secondly, I have a GREAT healthcare plan.  I work for an amazing company with great benefits (one of the reasons I applied there and I am so thankful for that now).  However, the insurance still sucks!  Even with the great plan I have, the Mayo Clinic where I had my surgery was counted as an "out-of-network cost".  Supposedly, I could have had any head and neck surgeon do my neck dissection this past November.  There was no need to see a guy who does 2 or 3 of these things a week.  The guy who does 2 or 3 a year is just as good.  I had my ENT send a letter weeks in advance of the surgery requesting it be counted in network.  I got the denial letter the day I got home from the hospital.  I appealed and got a second rejection letter in the mail yesterday.  It basically said 'not knowing that you had an in-network option is not an excuse'.  That's not even what I said in my appeal letter!  I said my ENT told me there was only one place to go for head and neck cancer surgery and that was Mayo.  I didn't realize an in-network place was even an option, nor do I think it is!  Stupid insurance.  Lesson Learned:  Insurance companies suck and will try to get every little dollar out of you.

So now I'm trying to decide if I appeal again or not.  At this point I'm tired of dealing with them.  Of course, that's what they want, right?  That's how they get me to pay out-of-network costs.  I should just be thankful that my plan caps out-of-network costs at $6000.  My bill came in last week at over $8000 (which was only a tiny fraction of the cost, even my out-of-network benefits covered 70%).  So now I have to deal with the insurance company trying to rip me off for the other $2000 plus of out-of-pocket expenses they're trying to get me to pay that I'm not supposed to.  Also, once I get that figured out, I will haggle with Mayo and see if I can't pay less.  I hear you can negotiate a good 10-15% off large bills if you tell them you'll pay in full.  I hate haggling, but it's worth it to save a few hundred dollars.  Lesson Learned:  Insurance companies still suck.

Anyway....sorry for my rant, but I just needed to vent about my crappy insurance...and I have a GOOD insurance plan!  I can only imagine if I had to pay the entire tens of thousands of dollars of medical expenses.  I should be thankful. :\