The Po Show

The Blessings of Health Insurance

I read a few years ago that the real difference between haves and have-nots has become quality health insurance. That's become abundantly clear to me lately.

Matthew's psychiatrist changed his meds. He's weaning off Seroquel and going on Abilify and Topamax. I don't know about Abilify at all (it being a new drug that came on the market after my psychopharmacology incarnation ended), so I've been doing the requisite web research.

So I picked up the prescriptions yesterday morning and was bummed to see that they are both off-formulary, which means they are $50 apiece. Sigh, I thought, another $100 a month. Add it all to the list, and there's no way I'm ever getting a new dining table to replace the piece of shit Ikea set we've had since 1994. (I don't know why the dining table has become a symbol of all the stuff I wish I had, but can't afford. You'd think I'd be more focused on having to live in a crappy rental house with one bathroom, instead of a house of our own, but I guess it's my mind's way of dealing. Anyway, I digress as usual.)

Then I got home and looked at the part of the prescription receipt that shows how much our insurance is paying for each prescription. On top of the co-payment, the insurance is paying ****$638.72**** for the Abilify! For one freaking month!! Big Pharma makes me want to puke.

So tally it up: just for Matthew, insurance is paying $490 per month for his therapist (now that we've shelled out $2000 and are on schedule for them to pay 70% of the visits), $140 for the psychiatrist (that's all they'll pay of her $250 fee), and $750 for his meds. $1,380 a month, for one kid. And we're paying $420 a month on top of that ourselves.

This is the reason we can't just ditch everything here and move to L.A. in the hopes that Ross'll find a job. This is the reason he has to be somewhat selective about the types of jobs he seeks out. High-level insurance coverage is just not an elective.