As I see it: Having health insurance not always a plus

By Sharon Young

Commentary

I live in Corvallis. I am a 63-year old widow in reasonably good health. For more than 10 years, I have carried Blue Cross major medical health insurance. My monthly payments are $400. My deductible is $1,000 a year. I have never reached my deductible. Blue Cross does pay $5 or $10 for an office visit if that physician is in its program.

I went to my physician assistant and had my yearly pap test. The office visit lasted about 10 minutes for a Pap test and breast examine. The assistant also ordered a blood test to see how my cholesterol was. She asked me how my insomnia was. I told her it was no better.

Three days later, the doctor's staff called me and said that the physicians's assistant wanted to see me. I went in, and she told me that I needed to be on cholesterol medication. I told her that I was taking the cholesterol medication she'd put me on a year ago. She said that for some reason, that information had not been put into the computer. She asked how I was feeling. I said that except for indigestion, I was fine. She said that I could have a gull bladder problem and I should have it looked at.

A few weeks after I had gone in for that routine yearly Pap test, I got a bill for $475. My Blue Cross had paid about $25 of it, or it would have been $500. I called the billing department. They explained that "the Pap was $198 but then I had asked about my insomnia, and that was $98 more. Then when I went back three days later for my gull bladder, it cost another $198" I told them that I didn't go in for my gull bladder; that the PA had called me in to discuss a prescription that she didn't even remember prescribing for me. They told me I could file a complaint.

The problem I have with all of this is:

1. It was a simple Pap test

2. I know that I got all these charges because I have insurance. My adult daughter who goes to the same PA and had no insurance was charged only $69 for the same visit with a notation that on the bill that she had no insurance.

I am on a fixed income. I get $675 a month from my late husband's Supplemental Security Income. I don't like paying $400 a month for health insurance, but if I don't carry it and some major illness hits, me I could lose my home. Then what would I do?

The point is, I pay five times as much for medical treatment because I have insurance, even though my insurance doesn't pay but a few dollars on my bill. The health care professionals charge whatever they think the insurance companies will pay.

I never thought I would look forward to the day when I turned 65 and could get on Medicare. But it is the only light at the end of this dark tunnel of the way our heath care system works.

It's great to be an American, but gosh sometimes I think this is the most mixed up country on the face of earth when it comes to the rights and needs of our citizens.

I wrote the check and paid the $475. But I have decided that I am finished with going to the doctor for check ups or even health issues that might concern me. I'll wait until I turn 65 and hope that if I get sick before then, my major medical insurance will take care of it - but it will have to be something life-threatening.

Sharon Young is a Corvallis resident.