change in insurance blog # 4

when i was a kid my mother worked as a nurse at Shands Hospital in Gainesville Florida. I remember going to the doctor and they would ask her if she had insurance. She would pull out this card that read Blue Cross and Blue Sheild. Because I was born with asthma I had breathing problems as a child. I remember going back and fourth to the hospital. My mother would some times get my medicine from the hospital's pharmacy or she would go to the nearest place by our house. The point is she could go any where to get the medication I needed to make me feel better. Now that I am all grown up and have my own insurance through a company named Aetna things haved changed a lot. Now these insurance companies have this thing where they do not cover pre-exsisting conditions. That mean here I am a college student who is struggling and have a health problem and cannot be covered for it. Because I was born with asthma I cannot be covered for it under Aetna this is their policy. They also have this policy if I were go to a pharmacy and get a perscription filled through my insurance then that is the only place I have to use to get my medication. I ask this question to my self, is this ethical? the answer to this question is no, the insurance companies are not acting ethical at all. I feel if I have a condition they should threat it that is the reason for getting insurance right. How I found out that they do not threat pre-exsisting conditions is when I recently went to the emergency room for shortness of breath they billed my insurance carrier they wrote me back and it stated they cannot pick up the bill because of my pre-exsiting condition. We all know how much going to the doctor for asthma can cost. I think this is wrong and something should be done about this. this is a wayof ripping off the American people who think they are being covered for something when they go to the doctor and they are not. The bills come back to them and then go on their credit because they cannot afford it. Things haved changed so much from childhood to an adult and they will get worse as our children grow up.

Getting the run around blog # 3

Today tuesday October 7, 2008 I was standing in line at the CVS counter to pick up a prescription. I over heard a young woman telling the pharmacist about a problem she was having. She was complaining about how her legs had been giving her problems over the past couple of days. She proceeded to ask the pharmacist if there was something that she could do because she kept falling. Her doctor told her that she had Vertigo and that was the reason for mishappenings. She later explained how she had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes but her doctor did not put her any medication despite the fact that she had low or mid-high blood glucose levels every morning. He basically told her she needed to eat less carbohydrates because she was a little over weight. She also expressed that she had concerns with her vision and had trouble seeing which made the pharmacist think that her blood glucose was getting out of control and could be heading in the wrong direction. The pharmacist recommended her to see a specialist and she stated that she have a future appointment to see her primary care physician to receive a referral for an endocrinologist. She also stated her blood pressure had been elevated and the doctor told her she was just having stress. She also had a concern about her thyroids but the doctor refused to do simple blood work just to assure the patient that nothing was wrong with her. I was shocked to hear this conversation and amazed at how much a doctor could lose compassion and care for this patient. I felt really bad for the girl because she was a college student just like me and she was receiving no medical attention from her doctor. She was also having issues with her vision. The pharmacist thought the complications maybe associated with diabetes and she asked the patient if she had recently had an eye exam. She responded saying that her insurance would not cover her to receive an eye exam because she had her lens repaired in 2007. To me this is a sad case of getting the run around from her doctor and insurance company. one would think living in a rich and powerful country like America health care would be better.