A Friend Suggested We Move to Canada

Yesterday made that idea feel very plausible. Free healthcare. For everyone. No insurance claims. No bills to sift through. No companies to call. On the other hand, I think I am very close to becoming an insurance claim expert. I mean, it only took me around 3 hours to make all of my calls yesterday to have claims resubmitted, to complete fund reimbursement requests, and to fight with our insurance companies regarding who should pay and what they should pay. Why, after six years, there are still issues with all of our doctors and insurance providers, I will never understand. This isn't rocket science people...same appointments, similar procedures, same billing procedures...yet, something always goes wrong. Yesterday's main issue included a denied claim from a surgery last spring. Apparently, it takes approximately 18 months for someone in billing to realize that the bill was not paid in full by one company or another. And, apparently the most obvious method for getting payment is to send a bill to me so that I can call them (the department sending the bill) and ask them to resubmit the claim with all of our insurance information, which of course they already have on file. Resubmiting without sending me a bill first would probably be entirely too time consuming. Oh, the US medical system is so grand.

To top it off, apparently Pennsylvania has changed the Medicaid system. So, I received information in the mail expressing an urgency for us to pick a carrier for Colin's Medicaid. This required calling the long list of doctor's, according to the person on the line from Enrollment Services, and requesting a list of the plans that they accepted. (Although the letter clearly stated that my Enrollment Specialist could help in providing this information.) I started the calling and on speciaist 3 decided to call it quits after realizing that all 3 accepted different plans. Too many tears (thanks to PMS) to continue calling and carrying on rational conversation. So, I will be working on that today, along with the rest of our insurance issues. Anyone out there who knows how to avoid the touchtone prompts? Feel free to share your tips. I am at this point praying that we are able to find a plan that the "most important" specialists share, so that we don't have to worry about a long list of consults with new doctors over the next month. Pray for that too. We like our doctors.

On a happier note, we visited our neighbors for dinner yesterday and the kids had a blast. Matt is a year younger than Colin and Chloe is a year younger than Karen's twins, Jon and Will. They always play so well together and it was nice for all of us to have company for dinner. And, of course, a little adult conversation is nice as well.

Jon and Will.

Chloe Elaine.

Colin and Matt.