Re[2]: [at-l] The (insurance) weasels strike again

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"...the use of the word catastrophic is very appropriate if something happens
that puts you in the hospital for six months."

 My wife spent six months in the hospital recently. I tried once to add up all
 the bills. I quit when the total reached $800,000. Occasionally, I still find a
 bill I neglected to add in. Luckily we had good insurance. After the first $500
 even the co-pay provision stopped.

  We once told her doctor that we were "lucky" to have such good insurance. He
  replied, "It wouldn't have mattered. Once a bill gets as big as yours we never
  expect to get paid anyway. It's just what we do."

   Even with insurance it wasn't easy, however. The insurance company contested
   virtually every bill. Sometimes they would agree to pay the anesthesiologist
   and not the surgeon. Other times it was the reverse.

   The insurance company finally cut us off half way through a scheduled month
   in rehabilitation to rebuild unused muscles.

   She recovered anyway and is now working as a secretary in the same special
   care unit where she was a patient for three months. I wish her a "good day"
   each morning as she goes off to work, while I stay home putting out
   newsletters, agitating for environmental protection and dreaming of taking a
   break so I can walk home from Georgia once more.

   Weary