Medical Expenses-ARGH

Today I got to try to contact our health insurance company to straighten some things out, but this didn't really work out. Does that surprise you?

It really frustrates me that even with good coverage, we have so much money that we have to spend just on medical care. Both of us had issues that needed to be addressed within the past few months, so we were grown-ups and went to the doctor. References were made, prescriptions written, therapies attended, and bills were sent.

Shall we add in the dentist? Let's just say that there's a lot to be spent there. I feel that I really do need to find a job soon, and that is basically so that we can pay our doctor and dentist bills. How much does that suck?

I had forgotten about this little diatribe that I wrote while sitting in the dentist's office in September:

So, I've been pondering & wishing for socialized medicine. Even with good insurance, anything that requires more than one doctor's visit ends up becoming a hurdle. Follow-up, specialists, prescriptions, x-rays- it all adds up. And our dental insurance only covers one office in town. ONE. This office is so crowded that grown men are sitting in chairs with their knees practically touching. The sounds of cries and drilling are coming over the wall, and it's almost as if the whole place is specifically designed to wear down the spirit. It feels like we're all being punished. But I am grateful for the dentists and for the insurance that I do have.

Sometimes I have fantasies of running off to an island or some backwoods country where the tentacles of bureaucracy and western capitalism haven't reached, but I would miss the medical care. The movies. The toilet paper.