The afternoon mail brought an itemized bill for my last eye treatment. The supplemental co-pay had gone from $5.38 for my last one six weeks before to $109.78 for this one.
I wasn’t shocked or even surprised. I wrote out the check and put it in the mail.
Like many Americans my health insurance has come through my employer. When I went on Medicare, the supplemental insurance with a large private corporation was automatically deducted from my pension. Pretty much medical costs have been on automatic pilot without much worry. I wait for a final billing and write a check.
True fact! During cancer treatments there have occasionally been glitches. Not too surprising with the multiplicity of doctors, technicians, clinics and hospitals, labs and different billing systems involved in the several month long treatment. Usually my spreadsheet records and a few patient phone calls or visit with local accountants clears up the glitch. The money side of our health care has not been a major stress point for me.
I’ve had Type 2 Diabetes for 30+ years. I’ve gone to the same primary care doctor about every six weeks for tests and checkup for 20+ years. I’ve taken the same one-a-day pill for 10 years.
Like many supplemental health insurance plans I get my pills from a mail order lab in 90 day increments. Again automatic pilot stress free process. They have my credit card number; my doctor renews my prescription once a year by fax.
Until 2009! In February for my first 90 day renewal of the prescription, my long time co-pay of $12 rose to $16. No big deal. With my second 90 day refill my credit card was charged $66. Whoa Nelly! My third 90 day refill charged me $160 co-pay. I await December and my final pill refill of the year with financial fear and trembling.
The other day I got a robo-call from my senator’s office promising a No vote on the proposed Healthcare Reform. He explained that if it passed I would see a sharp increase in my co-pays. Our local news reported my senator’s campaign fund received north of $400,000 from the Health Insurance Corporation headquartered a couple of blocks from my condo.
Ah Welladay! I certainly don’t want my co-pays to go up more sharply than they have in 2009. It’s nice my senator wants to protect me from a sudden big rise in supplemental co-pays. Somehow keeping the government out of Medicare doesn’t make me smile with relief.
