A new little wrinkle in the health insurance industry:
Early in June, this year, I threw my back out. Just one of those things. You reach for something, something in your back goes "POP!" and you wind up feeling like you have a nail in your back. Bothered the hell out of me for several days.
Then, in the wee small hours of June 12, I woke up really feeling rotten. My lower back hurt like hell and I felt like a truck had driven across my lower abdomen—several times! Extremely painful!
My wife called Medic One (tax supported—part of the Seattle Fire Department), the EMTs checked me out, couldn't find anything obviously wrong (not a heart attack, no bullet wounds, etc.), but I was obviously in great pain, so they heaved my keister onto a gurney and hauled it to the nearby Swedish Hospital emergency room.
The question was, did I possibly have a compression fracture of the spine, a herniated disk, or something else. And why the pain in the lower abdomen. Appendicitis? After much questioning, poking, taking samples of various bodily fluids, and both an MRI and a CAT scan, they determined that, in addition to a spinal subluxation (fixable by either surgery—pricy and painful—or a few sessions with my neighborhood chiropractor for far less money and not that much discomfort—I opted for the latter), I had a bladder infection, the beginnings of an intestinal blockage, and a lot of referred pain from this unholy combination.
They prescribed an antibiotic for the bladder infection, something akin to several sticks of dynamite for the intestinal blockage (I won't dwell on the lurid details), and enough pain killer to keep Rush Limbaugh smiling for weeks.
Mostly better now. The bladder infection and the intestinal problem have cleared up and my chiropractor makes house calls. The back is much better.
Now—
Any time you go to an emergency room and have things like MRIs and CAT scans, it's gonna be pricy! How much this little fandango is costing my insurance company (I'm covered under my wife's policy, which is an employee benefit she gets from the Seattle Public Library), I haven't heard yet. I haven't yet receive a summary from the insurance company, nor a bill from the hospital (there will probably be a substantial co-pay).
But—
I did get a letter from the insurance company, complete with a detailed questionnaire. Where did the accident take place? Was it in a automobile? Who was at fault? Do they have insurance? Or was it at work? Or in a place of business? Or someone else's residence? Do they have liability insurance? Was it an assault? Has my assailant been captured? Have I hired an attorney?
You get the picture.
Underlying message: We don't want to have to pay this! Who can we sue!??
I called their 800 number and after drilling down through several layers of recorded messages, explained to the first live person I encountered that the reason for my visit to the emergency room was NOT an accident. I woke up that morning in great pain and sicker that Hector's pup, and my wife and I decided that I needed to get to a hospital for immediate attention.
They accepted this, but the disappointed tone in the person's voice was heart-rending!! Unless they could find some other out, they were actually going to have to ante up.
Somehow, I don't see this kind of weasel-like ducking and dodging happening in a government run single payer health care system.