Medical wonders?

You may all know this and it may not be a surprise to anyone but it was to me.  I generally like the idea of being surprised with the associated tingle that runs through the brain when that spasmodic realization gels with past misconceptions causing the neurons to fire in rapid succession, exploding across mental hemispheres and coalescing in a wondrous and satisfying “ahhhhhh”.

It’s not always a satisfying experience, learning something new that was not known prior and can often be explained as a sickening feeling deep within the gut, wrenching as it were the prior held truths with the new paradigm just then revealed, leaving a person cold and unfulfilled, a pang of wonderment filling the void of past misunderstanding with a healthy version of utter and total confusion.

This is not the first time I’ve had this realization cross my path and that fact actually makes this event so much more poignant, for in the forgetting I allowed my senses to dull, my expectations to rise and my beliefs to be misguided, thinking without cause that what was happening was the way it should be occurring, never considering the deceptive and fraudulent reality of my current existence.

Enough already get to the point.  I’m almost there, I do have to create some anticipation; what good would creativity be if all we did was blurt out the basic facts and fore-go the flowery repartee and jocularity?  Boring, that’s what it would be.  But facts are facts and despite my desire to wax on in eloquence those pesky facts should not be lost or obfuscated in billowing and blusterous wordplay.

Without further ado here is what happened:  A few weeks ago we had to change insurance plans.  That in itself is traumatic, looking for a new doctor, having to repeat all those personal and sometimes embarrassing conditions to a total stranger yet again. (I’m not admitting to any embarrassing conditions or even slightly odd behaviors associated with this blog, this is created purely for the enjoyment and entertainment of the very few readers who happen to come across these posts.)

For the past three weeks I have been asking for and telling my new doctor that an unmentionable prescription would be coming due and that I would need a refill of this purely hypothetical substance.  Three weeks is plenty of time to request a fill order and provide the needed documentation and compulsory bureaucratic requirements, or so I thought, naively I might add.

Well today I took my last dose, (not a real substance, so not a real dose but an imaginary dose of something that I cannot mention sense I don’t really know what it was and would not admit it even if I did, but I don’t…) and with that last dose, no hope in the future of getting a refill.

I called the doctor’s office, they said they were working on it and they had done all they could do. This is the same response I’ve had for the past three week with more than ten calls to the office.   I called the insurance company and they had yet to receive anything from the doctor.  I forced the insurance company to create a conference call to get to the bottom of this ever so deep and chiasmic level of incompetence and was assured that they had all we needed (why they used we I don’t know, it wasn’t my fault they had been so stupid, just trying to share the blame and make everyone feel equally guilty I guess).

The doctor’s solution was very simple and I thought it was ok as well.  She’ll call in the prescription and give me enough, two week at least, just to get me by until they could resolve the issues, (issues of their incomprehensible and unfathomable ineptitude).  By the way I tried to change doctors but that would require at least a month since I availed myself of this doctors services during the current month and would not be allowed to change until the following month, ooh my gosh I have a headache.

Believing the solution to be sound I phoned the pharmacist and made sure it was available, he said it was and then he paused, that laps of speaking that bodes disaster, alters happiness and satisfaction into dread and ruin.  My breath stopped, my heart skipped a beat when he cautiously told me the price on the hypothetical substance, you know the one I’m not taking, that substance that doesn’t really exist?.

“You do know the cost of this prescription Mr. Taylor?” his own voice wavering, clipping the words YOU…DO..KNOW…the …Cost….

With shaken confidence and only a slight resolve I answered “it’s only for two weeks, how much can it be?”

“uuuummmm, it’s $1600.00 dollars without insurance, I just wanted to make you aware of the true cost.”

I was admittedly speechless and faced with the understanding that flooded my mind with that stark reality of what is so obviously wrong with our medical system.  Our insurance companies are paying those exorbitant prices?  I don’t really know, if they are no wonder insurance costs have gone up.  If they get a deal on the price then why would I have to pay the inflated price when paying cash?

$1600.00 dollars, I still can’t understand how we let things get so bad.  It wasn’t that long ago that my father made house calls and accepted a plate of brownies in payment or the patient made a trade for some yard work but 1600 for some imaginary pills or cream or lotion or whatever you want to think I take; that is the problem and not just with the pharmaceuticals, but with the doctors, the hospitals and the insurance companies fighting against the demonic government controlled mandates.  They’re all to blame, except for us; we just pay more and get less.

Maybe I’d do better just not taking anything and seeing what happens, who knows I might get more healthy.  I can’t wait for Obama-Care to take effect; maybe that $1600 isn’t as bad as I think.