Happy Independence Day (But We're Still Not Free.......*)

Of course we all hear about things like this but we never think it will actually happen to us. Americans are famous for this and almost always slow to react until something bad happens to them personally. For those of you that read this blog, you know that in February of this year I was hospitalized for 9 days of intense invasive testing to rule out any damage to my internal organs due to my contracting Dermatomyositis which is a 10 on anyone's "Weirdshitometer".

My health insurance is courtesy of Carefirst Blue Cross out of Maryland through a contract with Cassie's company.

When one accesses health care in the US we pay a co-pay and then whichever entity we got service from would submit the claim for insurance reimbursement whereas here in France with American insurance, WE have pay CASH and THEN WE HAVE TO SUBMIT THE INVOICES FOR REIMBURSEMENT. Soon after that with Carefirst, the debasement and begging begins as we try and get reimbursed for the literally thousands of dollars we have out of pocket for my continued healthcare here. Let's just say that Carefirst has outdone themselves in elevating their "process" to the point that even their own customer service reps can't get answers from their various divisions none of which share information with each other to the point that even their own executives are sandbagged. Not sure how many of you have ever had over $6800.00 in doctors fees out all at once without reimbursement for over 120+ days but I'll bet you'd be hurtin if that happened to you. Once a company like Carefirst get's a hold of your claim you can just about kiss that money goodbye. The mistake that I made was to get sick in France.

Personally, I have never been so marginalized and that's after stints in both the Army and Navy.
So, even though it's American Independence Day, the Founding Fathers never could have imagined that they'd founded an entire nation held hostage by the insurance companies.

The longer I'm alive and see single payer systems in other countries first hand (IE: France) I become even more convinced that the words "profit" and "healthcare" = OXYMORON. Any thinking person knows that anytime the word profit is used humans get either hurt or ignored while the bottom line is worshiped.

So, I wish all of you fellow American hostages a happy Independence Day but with the caveat that if you're not living in a country with a single payer healthcare system you're actually enslaved in the grand tradition of the southern plantation owners and worse from our country's long and checkered history courtesy of insurance companies that are not checked at all by our government. Those of you who may disagree haven't yet had to debase yourselves enough but mark my words......your day is coming.........although I wish I could say that it won't.

Love to all everywhere......*

Sid