Let me be the first to extend my condolences over the x-ray fiasco. I personally think any form of insurance is a complete scam, and the scam has been going on for years. Back in the 70s, I broke my left wrist on New Year’s Day and went to Stanford Hospital in California. The doctor at the emergency room put a fiberglass cast on my arm and told me to come back in five days. I came back, and the doctor took the fiber glass cast off and put another cast on. Blue Cross refused to pay for the first cast because it was “temporary” and they didn’t pay for temporary casts! I don’t remember if they paid for the second cast. But my memory is bitter, and I switched from Blue Cross at the first opportunity and have never used them again.Then there is Aetna dental insurance. When I got the statement for routine annual x-rays, Aetna dental didn’t pay the full amount for the x-rays that they should have paid, so I called them. It was because I had a crown! Even though there was absolutely no difference in the way the x-rays were taken or in the cost of the x-rays per “bite wing,” they simply did not pay as much for this one particular x-ray just because the tooth had a crown on it.Then there’s the car accident my husband got in. Damage was minor, no one was hurt. The other driver hit us but because my husband was making a U-turn, he was automatically judged to be at fault by our insurance company. When we pointed out that the angle of impact and the way the other driver rode up on our bumper indicated that the other driver had made a right turn on a red light while we were making our U-turn, the insurance claims adjustor said, “We don’t do angles.”Health insurance has had a huge role in driving up the cost of health care for everyone, most of all for the uninsured. It’s criminal that if you don’t have health insurance, you can’t even deduct the cost of providing for your own health care from your federal income taxes (unless you are so sick or so poor that you meet an extremely high percentage of income spent on health care test) and itemize your return. Not to mention that it’s almost impossible to find a doctor or dentist that will give you a discount when you pay cash.Kathleen WallacePeyton
