Dirty rotten c..k_suckin' bottom-feeding trumpet monkeys! (sorry, major rant)

Bunch'a money hungry rat bastards!

As you know, Covid put Lynn out of her job of 15 years, so it's been a bit of a financial burden, especially since they screwed her out of 4-5 weeks (or more? can't even remember now) of vacation pay. Once the Covid dust settled, she had a job lined up at the Sheriff's Dept. (she previously worked for LAPD before we left California) She cleared the original testing, passed a couple other qualifications, passed the polygraph exam and all she had left was her physical, which was scheduled. A few days before her physical, she woke up and couldn't get out of bed! Major pain from her butt to her foot. Finally got her into the doc and they diagnosed sciatica and suggested Tylenol. No improvement and she was basically crippled. If we went to the grocery store, I'd have to park, go in, get an electric scooter, bring it back out, get her loaded up, etc. etc. etc.

Now, since she's been unemployed and bringing in zero income, we've had to pay through the nose for private medical insurance. Whether he has anything to do with it or not, ever since the day Mr. Biden took office, our IRA (our only retirement) has been going into the toilet. Since the first of this year, it's been RAPIDLY going even deeper into the toilet with no end in sight. To add insult to injury, Sleepy Joe also put an end to my eBay business and I'm stuck sitting on a bazillion $$$ of inventory I can't move. Needless to say, it's been a bit rough, but we're making the most of it. But screw the politics, back to the bottom-feeding trumpet monkeys!

When the Sheriff's Dep't. job fell through, we had to work on finding some relief for Lynn. Now the fun really starts and I can see how these mf'ing doctors play the insurance game. Now, mind you, we are paying for insurance, but office visits run us $100 each (anything else is covered once that co-pay is made). Now, if there are special type procedures, there's another co-pay with a cap of $9500.00. I'm now feeling like these f'ing doctors form a good ol' boy network and run their own personal insurance scam based on referrals. Once they see we have insurance, the bullshit begins!

Per insurance requirements, we have to first see her primary care physician. We did and paid our $100 co-pay. BUT, the ONLY thing the doc did at that required appointment was to suggest Tylenol and refer us to (her cohort buddy?) the Rheumatologist. Ok, we head off to the suggested Rheumatologist and pay ANOTHER $100! What does he do? Not a f'ing thing, but refers us to a Pain Management Specialist! You guessed it, ANOTHER $100! What does he do? Gives her a steroid injection, which did nothing. We go back in, pay another $100 and what does he do? As usual, not a F'ING thing other than give Lynn a RX for (don't remember what, I'd have to ask her), but it barely did anything and she's still in a ton of pain, but can at least manage to walk short distances. We called the pain management doc and said it's not helping much, so .... BINGO! He refers us to cohort number 4 ... a Neurosurgeon. We plop down ANOTHER G..damned $100 and listen to his b/s. He's a surgeon, so of course, he suggests surgery. We ask what that will cost us and what a surprise, our cap, $9500! Before signing on the dotted line, I ask if that will fix her problem. His answer? Maybe, maybe not! HUH? "What does that mean", I ask. He tells us it may do nothing at all, it may help a little, or it may help a lot. Then again, it may go away and come back 6-months later. By now, I'd had enough and told him to stick his surgery up his rosie red ass and we walked out.

Now in the meantime, Murphey's Law kicks in and one morning I went to get out of bed and went straight to the floor. I had a shooting pain from my right butt cheek to my foot ... the EXACT same thing Lynn has been complaining about. I suffered with it for a week (hoping it would go away, it didn't) and finally called the VA, talked to my doc, he said it sounded exactly like sciatica and sent an emergency Rx straight to the grocery store 2 blocks from our house! We picked it up that same afternoon. I took one dose as soon as we got home and another before I went to bed. The next day, not even a HINT of pain. In fact, I've ridden my bicycle every day and have not had even a hint of pain. I quit taking the pills and all is fine. Out of desperation, Lynn took one of my leftover meds and had almost immediate relief! The Rx is for 3/day (as needed) and she's been taking ONE like every other day. NO PAIN. She stopped them, went back to her meds and the pain returned. Back to my meds, the pain is gone. Ok. it's now a no-brainer ... MY med works, hers does not.

Yesterday, we called her Pain Doctor and told him what was going on and asked if he could please change her Rx to the same med I'm taking. He said no, he could not do that and we'd have to come in for an office visit to get a new Rx. WTF???? Appointment for WHAT? At the initial visit, he didn't do so much as take her temperature, she just told him of how the pain felt and he prescribed the med! The ONLY reason I see that he wants her back in is for ... surprise, surprise ... another $100 office visit. I'm so sick of these money-grubbing assholes I could spit! I'm tempted to not even tell the VA my pain is gone completely and simply refill my Rx and give it to her ... but I'm just not like that and will pass. I'm beginning to hate these greedy m'fers and can't help but wonder why our medical insurance costs are so high in this country? :banghead

Sorry you and Lynn are having pain - back pain of any kind sucks! Insurance are the devil and our medical system is pretty F'd up. I've watched my medical bills come back and the back and forth between the Dr. office, and the insurance company. The bill will generally said you had X and we're charing you $10,000, and the insurance company will say no that treatment should only cost $500....then the Dr office will accept that. That, imo, should be fraud! Sorry again Thump.

It's just not right!

I’m not happy y’all are going through this, but its been this fucked up for at least twenty years.
Hopefully, Lynn will hit medicare age soon and y’all can get some affordable health care.


BKB

When the sciatica kicked in and killed her job opportunity, I insisted she apply for disability. There are good days and bad days, but some days she can't even walk. Her initial plan was to retire at 67, but that idea pretty much tanked. She hits 65 next year, so Medicare will at least be available, but we'll still need to foot the bill for plan B and a drug plan. It's been MONTHS since she applied for Disability. We sent in all the tests, doctor reports, x-rays, CT Scan ... everything they asked for to document the problem, but have heard nothing. We call every month and are only told "it's in process" and that's all they can say. If it follows the normal course, it'll be denied like 90% of all disability claims, then we'll start over ... or have to foot the bill to hire an attorney. I think they're simply stalling until she hits Medicare age. Who knows? This has been dragging on for a year now. It appears the rat bastards have permeated the whole system! This is b/s.

I have a pretty solid supplement and its very affordable. So once she gets on Medicare you guys will be good. We’ve been paying market rates for insurance for Julie since she retired but we were lucky to have been able to plan for most of it. Still, when she hits Medicare in Sept we’ll breathe a sigh of relief.
You’re right. Its a fucking racket.
But the resistance to doing anything about it has been real enough to get us to the half assed point we are now with ObamaCare.

BKB

She’s on Obamacare right now actually, plus cancer coverage. It’s pretty reasonable in the overall scheme of things, but still tough with zero income. We’ve planned for retirement all our lives actually, but those plans were dashed with medical issues, so MY plans didn’t work out. The double whammy was the fact I lost my business and it’s sale was “planned” to supplement my retirement. Lynn “planned” to work until 67 and retire with full SS benefits, but Covid and now this issue has screwed that up. Our fall-back in case of these sort of failures was our IRA. Now even that is in the toilet. We had some decent savings set up, but that’s been draining rapidly to compensate for her lack of income. We’ve tried to do the right thing all our lives and it’s all backfired to no fault of our own. I guess the only thing that worked out as planned is that the house is paid off, another goal set many years ago … and met.

You've certainly had some bad breaks....I'm a firm believer that things workout as long as you are doing the right things... This will too.

Fingers crossed that things work out for the two of you Jim.