Don't Get Sicko Today-O
I was happy to get the checks, but honestly. I didn't understand why they were coming.
I SMSed my insurance agent three times to get to the bottom of it and, voila, got an sms back four days later saying he was sick and he really wanted to be left alone and he was going to turn the lights down now, so pls. SMS with a quiet whisper next time, because, really, he's sick.
We settled for a meeting on Monday.
Monday he wasn't in.
Tuesday. 830am. Jackpot.
Turns out, I'm getting these checks because I no longer have health insurance and they are therefore reimbursing my monthly payments. I signed a one year contract and, baby, that contract was up two months ago, and no, we don't send out warning letters here.
I have private insurance here, since I don't qualify for free medical care under my residency terms.
Or, wait. I HAD private insurance here. Now I have nothing.
Sicko calls a main office to find out about a new contract.
A lot of doodling numbers on the desk blotter, lots of listening to Hold muzak, and then this question for me: Haben Sie Sozial Versicherung in den USA?
Well, there's a loaded question: Do I have socialized medical care in the USA that covers me?
I scan my German vocabulary to see if I can come up with any of the following: biggest scam against the American people, the welfare state is highly debated in the US, Medicare is broken and corrupt and Medicaid is useless, and anyway, I don't qualify for either, and it wouldn't matter anyway since both are useless.
I think maybe I should ask sicko if he saw Sicko, and then think again about asking me such a stupid question. Europe: Socialized medicine. America: Hamburgers.
I settle on "Nein."
And the real thing that makes me sick? The monthly payment under the new contract is double the cost of the original one.
2 comments:
Now that we are on the subject of large insurance coverage payments: my middle daughter was trying to figure out if she could live at home for one semester taking a small class load while she works toward a transfer to another college in the Fall of 2008 (this was her fall-back plan, just in case it was too late to transfer for the Spring semester).
I walked up to Human resources to get the facts, ma'am, and she said . . . hmm-m-m . . . that would be $465 per month in the COBRA rider the entire time she qualified as part-time student: January until August! Now that sucks.
yikes!! sounds like your daughter will have to take a full load of classes if she stays at home...
the insurance at home is just a crock... it costs a fortune and covers nothing. My father pays an extra 400 a month for supplemental coverage. Had he not signed up for this plan, he would have had to pay an extra 22,000 dollars in expenses for a heart procedure he had done two years ago. He looks at it as "thank goodness I bought the extra coverage." I look at it as: you're just getting robbed more slowly with this plan--under this plan, he's already paid 10,000 dollars over two years.
I mean, medicare should be comprehensive-- no one should have to pay supplemental anything just to not risk having to pay 22,000 dollars extra. Unbelievable. Argh!!
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