Somehow FINALLY completing that dissertation has turned
writing from a lifelong avocation to the source of unhealed trauma. But I choose not to live with that trauma,
and I gotta get back to writing.
So let me tell y’all about my healthcare. In a coupla weeks
I’ll celebrate my 69½ birthday. Yup, I
celebrate my half birthday. At age 60, I
was happy that I had a regular workout routine, was regularly hit upon by
people half my age, and though I took a number of supplements, was on NO prescription
meds. A decade earlier, I’d been on as
many as eight prescription meds, including one or two injectables for diabetes,
so to be on zero scrips was awesome! Now,
at 69½, I’m on a handful of scrips: a
couple to keep my acidic stomach from developing ulcers, one for sleep apnea, a
couple for cholesterol, one for bp, and one to address the inflammation from
the gout in my neck. The stomach ones
are already on an as needed basis, I’ll prolly keep using the sleep apnea one
because I won’t use my CPAP, and my next bloods will determine whether or not
we change the cholesterol meds. I saw my
cardio this week and not only does he want to start weaning me off the bp med,
but he thinks I’m managing my weight well and don’t need to lose any more. I,
of course, noted that I’m 13 lbs heavier than my prime fighting weight (in my
late 20s!). We had a discussion where I
acknowledged that not only do I want to drop 13 lbs, but I want to change my
body composition. My lean muscle mass and
bone density are both above average for women my age, but I want to put on more
lean muscle while dropping fat. My
cardio wants me to understand that, at my age, this will not be as easy as it
was FOUR DECADES ago; nevertheless, that’s what I want to do.
Of course, when I came out of the train today and had to
stop to tighten my belt (once again, my pants were about to fall down), I did remember
his comment that I’ve lost enough weight. So I’mma get back to lifting and
consuming good protein to see if I can start building more muscle.
I’ve been experiencing problems with my eyes since my last
eye exam. There seems to be a bit of
double vision, and they’ve sent me to an ophthalmologist, have referred me to
something called an orthoptist, and I’ve just come from an MRI of my brain and
eye orbits. Now, when I got Medicare, I
took the plan that most closely resembled the plan I’d had when working. I
think they’d call it a gold or platinum plan – I’m a two-time cancer survivor, and
accustomed to buying insurance before the protections of Obamacare, I always selected
the best coverage I could afford. Still
do, even though my PhD degree is no match for deciphering the ins and outs of
Medicare and Medicare-adjacent plans now available to me. I ended up selecting the same plan this year
as last year, only to find a couple of notable changes: the fee for a PCP OV went from $5.00 to $0.00,
which is cool, considering there is now a $54.00 monthly premium for coverage
that was free last year. My cardio did
get approval for the sleep apnea drug, but since it’s also used for weight
loss, the pharmaceutical companies are cashing in – WITH my Medicare coverage, the
first month’s copay for this drug was $600.00 (last year).
I was only responsible for paying drugs costs up to $2,000, so by the
first quarter of the year, the drug was free.
My pharmacist managed to get me this year's January scrip at the end of December '25 so I avoided the New Year Copay, but I’m kinda dreading what I’ll discover when
I head over to pick it up at the beginning of Feb.
Meanwhile, I go to this MRI of brain and eye orbits. Now, my
insurance company sent me two letters advising me that they’d approved the
prior authorization for this MRI. I just
checked, and the two approvals have two different approval numbers. Not sure why, but I suppose that’s something
else I'll have to research. There’s
nothing in these letters about any charges, so silly me assumed that they would
charge me anything from $0 to $45 (which was the max specialist copay under my
old plan). My new plan shows a $0 charge
for PCP, and a $115 charge for ER, but there isn’t even a SPECIALIST category
listed, and I vaguely think I recall reading that specialists had the option to
charge me anything from $0 to $45.00 (which my mind translated as “there’s no
specialist fee on the card, so they’re not spozed to charge me anything"). Plus, I sorta thought that imaging was 100% covered under this policy. I thought.... ANYway, why in the world do I go to this MRI,
check in, and this lady tells me that I have a copay of TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?!?!?
I mean, it’s an exorbitant amount IMO, but could they at least have told me about
it beforehand? And the state of medical bureaucracy is such that it will take several hours on hold and several more hours of being
transferred before I reach a human who tells me they don’t know why I didn’t
get an estimated copay, blah, blah, blah….
Ultimately, I’ll be ok.
The fact they are doing an MRI of my head to understand why I have
double vision reflects how seriously my medical team takes my
care. I’m blessed to be able to pick and
choose physicians, grateful that I grew up poor enough to understand the
importance of always having “a little something for yourself,” and blessed with
medical practitioners who have expressed a willingness to work with me when
insurance behaves badly. I’m blessed
that every significant physical affliction I’ve had has been covered. I do worry about folk who don’t have
adequate (or any) insurance, and God knows I don’t understand how we can go
galivanting around pretending we’re going to govern Venezuela when we can’t
even govern this country. But from what
I’ve read, free healthcare for all is constitutionally guaranteed to all Venezolanos,
and their public healthcare system has a handshake agreement with the Cuban
government. (In propaganda-free countries, Cuba is known
for its excellent healthcare. In 2021,
it had about 84 physicians to 10,000 people and has ranked as high as 94-95 per
10K people, higher even than wealthy enclaves such as Monaco which reported
86-89 physicians per 10K people). The
Venezuelan healthcare system, like much of their government, seems mired in corruption, and I’m not hopeful
that an influx of North American “leadership” in any sector will produce better
outcomes.
In an ideal world, this blurb would have had a theme, maybe
some points, some semblance of structure and at the very least a beginning and
an end. I’m rusty, and for today, the
win is simply showing up to write. I’ve
only cranked out a little over 1K words; as with every other area of my life, only
through understanding, application, and constant, repetitious practice will these efforts produce results.
Let’s Get It!
