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KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) Katharine O'Moore Klopf
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Friday, March 11, 2005

Why I Hate April, or Why America Needs Health Care Reform Now

I just have to share the joy.

I just got the monthly bill for my health-insurance premium: It's jumped from $802.29 to $920.80! This is the bill for April's coverage; April is the month when a lot of policies increase their rates. Increases used to be $30 a year, $50 a year. I guess now it's time to hit the double digits. If the increases keep getting bigger and bigger, what will I give up? Insurance coverage? Home ownership? Food?

As a self-employed person, I pay the full premium for coverage for my entire family. In the United States, this is a tax write-off, but only at the end of the tax year. Meanwhile, I have to come up with that money each month.

And this is the insurance company that insists that its subscribers get their "maintenance" meds through a mail-order company—and that company just "lost" my older son's prescription for Ritalin, a controlled substance! Lost?! I sent it by express air courier, recipient signature required, rather than through the postal service. How in *#$(% can a pharmacy lose a prescription? Maybe some pharmacist is intending to fill it and sell the Ritalin on the black market. And I'm paying for it.

#*$(%~*! I was having a nice Friday.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're on private insurance too because my husband is the sole US employee for a British company. It makes my stomach churn that our monthly premium could pay a second mortgage.

Anonymous said...

Dont send mail to esi with signature required it wont matter one way or the other save your money there is no one there to sign and the delivery driver will take the security guys signature and that is where your rx was lost he probably just didnt know who to give it to. Im sorry that that happened to you. Have the dr. write the rx for 3x the amount and just give the regular amount that way you dont have to order so often.

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog while researching Express Scripts complaints to see if I was the only one. I guess not! I am on my second lost prescription for ritalin in the last year and a half. We are stationed overseas and our insurance (Tricare) requires us to use Express Scripts for mail order prescriptions. When the prescription is actually received and filled, it is a 90 day supply. I have sent in only about 5 scripts and 2 of them were lost and mailed again. The most recent of the two is the best. On 12/23 I was sent an email saying they are processing the prescription. After not hearing from them, I logged onto the website to check the status. It's gone. Poof, just like that. GONE? Call in and they can't explain it. Can't find it and don't know how I received an email if they don't have the prescription. Nevermind maybe THEY are the ones that lost it. The "customer service" is terrible. The girl on the phone made it seem like I hadn't sent it in and was trying to get that controlled substance anyway. AAHHH!

I'm glad I have a few extra pills to help cover their mistakes. If I don't get something in soon, my 10 year old will be in school without his meds.....Lord help his teacher and his grades will suffer.

Highly ADD said...

I know this post is older. But has this changed. My insurance is pushing for me to fill my (generic) adderall XR (20mg) through express scripts. I'm terrified that ill be without it during the work week. I really need my ADHD to not impare my work, I mean I could actually be fired for screwing up too many times because I'm not on my meds.

My Dr. Hand writes the script every time. He won't fax it or email it because of the control level it is on and my insurance wants me to use express scripts. It'll be half the cost but could it cost me my job? Could it cost me my control because the Dr. Wouldn't trust me not abusing it because I tell him express scripts lost the script he wrote? I mean I've never had to deal with these questions before.

Have they gotten any better?

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

Dear Highly ADD:

I don't know whether Express Scripts has gotten better. At one point I got frustrated enough to stop using Express Scripts and fill our prescriptions at a local pharmacy even though the cost was higher. And we are currently without health insurance because it is completely unaffordable for us. It's less expensive to pay the full costs of our medications out of our own pockets.

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