BDA – Battle Damage Assessment
It’s been a year and a half since I wrote those letters and it is interesting what has happened since then. My health insurance carrier is still in business, my health care providing organization is still in business, my doctors are still in business and I’m still alive. My insurance rates went up, but they always do because that’s just built into the system. I turn 60 later this year, and the rates will go up even higher with that event; a nice birthday present from my insurance carrier (but, they do have actuarial evidence, etc.). So, the warring parties reached some sort of accommodation with each other and life moves on.
At the time when the war was raging, my lovely bride and I contemplated moving to another hospital and another doctor, but apparently a lot of other people had done the same thing and two doctors that we contacted had both closed their practices to new patients. I don’t know if they were doing this in light of market realities or out of solidarity with the combatant hospital, but the net effect was the same. We felt trapped.
In light of current economic events, the hospital certainly hit the sweet spot for timing of events; if they had tried this sort of thing today, there would have likely been quite an uproar. Was it worth it for them? It all depends upon your perspective. As mentioned in one of the letters, my primary care physician would give me some papers and I would walk to another building to Lab Corp and get my blood drawn for $10.00. Their waiting room had all the charm of a quickie-lube, right down to the television with Jerry Springer blaring. One person handled everything, but the costs were low, which is congruent with my perspective on health costs since I pay for that out of my own pocket. A lab test is a lab test as long as it is accurate and timely.
Of course, with the new negotiated rates, it is different. Now I walk to another building, give my paperwork to one person, then talk with another person and finally a third person draws my blood. In light of current economic events, that’s a winner, with three jobs being created, but I’m paying for it with much higher prices.
I fired the specialty physician after he directed that blood tests be made in his office just two weeks after my primary care physician had directed the very same tests. It was insulting financially and personally, and I realized that this doctor and I were going nowhere with each other. Then the Big War broke out and I ignored my little medical problem while the parties fought it out, and then for another year afterwards. Eventually, my little medical problem could not be ignored any longer and I sought out a new specialist. This time I was more careful in my selection, going through back channels to find the guy. Once I found the right doctor, it took me months to get in with him, but I feel that it was well worth it. That story is for another time, but I’ll do it because it is interesting.
My primary care physician went “boutique”, shaving his practice from 2,200 patients down to 600 patients. I now pay $1,500.00 each year just for the right to sit in his waiting room, but I do feel that it is worth it. Those who think that HSA’s make you into a cheapskate should consider that minor detail. I don’t mind paying for things that I feel are worth it, you just have to make a compelling argument to me.
With the war over, the hospital and the insurance carrier have continued on, but there are interesting vignettes at the hospital. Once agreement was reached, everything quieted down, but in small moments, the staff, the people who actually work there will quietly comment that the hospital bet big and suffered for it. I don’t know one way or another, but I do have one anecdotal bit of evidence.
It now is a lot easier to find a space in the parking decks than it was before.
This item was posted almost two years ago, and I suppose that it would be helpful to update the item.
Since that was posted, my wife and I have moved on to other health care providers. My health insurance carrier jacked my rates up significantly, so the boutique doctor had to go. That was the first step in leaving the health care provider that I had become disenchanted with.
My new doctor was drawn out of a hat; he simply was the second one mentioned by the health care provider’s operator when I set up an appointment. Considering the state of modern medicine in the United States, that made sense. I’m perfectly fine with the new doctor, and he seems to be okay with me.
At this writing, the state of national health care is unresolved. One thing is clear to me. Whoever wrote the plan currently called “Obama-care” understood how private enterprise works and went out of their way to destroy it.
I’m a private capital kind of guy, and I trust private enterprise to get it right, most of the time. Clearly, there is trouble brewing as I edge closer to age 65, but I also trust that an answer will present itself. I also trust that this answer won’t be coming from what was passed last year as “significant legislation”.
I miss my former doctor, on a lot of different levels. We had a good relationship and I trusted him greatly. On the other hand, he was also approaching retirement, so it was just a matter of time before we broke up anyway. I doubt that the kids of today will experience anything like that kind of relationship. In a way, the doctors have only themselves to blame for this state of affairs.
I’m still healthy, and I anticipate that most of my medical spending will be in the last few weeks of my life. We’ll see. One thing is clear to me; I’m happy to have left my previous health care provider. They shot themselves in the foot with their public relations campaign. Medicine has become a commodity, like a lot of other things in this world.
There is a way around that path. Just look at Apple phones and computers.