I hate health insurance

After seeing that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois hadn't paid dime one of our last three doctor's appointments (the kids' well child visits and Josh's laceration follow-up), I called them to ask what was up.

After 15 minutes of hold music, this is the answer I'm given:

"Do you have any other health insurance policies? Okay then. We're withholding payment in case you had another policy. But since you don't we'll take care of those bills now."

WTF? I have to prove once a year that I haven't bought an additional policy?!? I can't think of any reason I would want to shell out more for coverage when the good-enough BCBS EPO policy that I have through my company is already costing me $300 a month.

Please hold, your money is very important to us

I’ve spent far too much time on the phone this week, dealing with incompetent people and clearing up screw-ups. In addition to dealing with the morons at the Professional Eye Center, I called the Social Security Administration to find out why we haven’t received Baby A’s card yet. Even though I’d filled out an application for her number while still in the hospital, the SSA had no record of her existence and Wednesday we trooped over to Hillside to apply in person.

And then there was the two hours I spent on the phone with the billing department for the hospital where I gave birth and my insurance company. Since today is Health Care Issues day on the Chicago Moms Blog (and our sister sites the DC Area Moms Blog and Silicon Valley Moms Blog), I wrote about how dealing with billing department and insurance company nonsense makes me long for universal, single-payer health care.