I spent a significant portion of my working life paying for medical insurance that I only used once a year to get a checkup. Before that I was on my husbands’ group policies and mostly only used them when I was pregnant. I’ve just not ever been a go-to-the-doctor type person. When I turned sixty-five and became eligible for medicare, the government required me to get some kind of prescription drug coverage and I decided to take out a policy that would also pay for checkups and so forth. I didn’t understand that it would replace my medicare.
I chose a major company that everyone should have accepted. Unfortunately, the policy I had was not one that everyone accepts. They only had one doctor here that I could go to. Even the local hospital wasn’t on their list. I was worse off than I would have been with no insurance because I was having to pay for something I couldn’t use even if I needed it. The way the rules are set up, I couldn’t change companies until the end of the year. That’s a crock. If I’m paying for something I should be able to change it whenever I want.
It took me from January until now to figure out how to cancel that policy (The deadline is March 31st, otherwise I’d be stuck with it for another year.) and get back on regular medicare with a prescription drug policy. Of course, I don’t use any prescription drugs, but I guess I have to admit there’s a possibility that may change some day. At least, the drug policy doesn’t cost quite as much and I can go to whatever doctor I want (as long as they take regular medicare). Oh well, maybe I’ll manage to die without ever getting sick first.
