Thursday, April 26, 2012
Death by Insurance
So Megan and I have been trying to conceive for over a year and a half. It's been really hard, both emotionally and spiritually. We have been given a lot of hope by working with a doctor down in Peoria who practices Napro Technology. It is a way of looking at infertility from a woman's whole health standpoint - like having surgery to fix a problem instead of just putting a band-aid on the problem, like IVF tries to do. So part of treating the couple is looking at the men as well (which is something no other reproductive endocrinologists will do), and that means doing some testing and analyzing. But the frustrating thing for us now is that after I have my tests I'm supposed to go to a urologist for a consultation. The problem with that is that the urologist can't look at my tests and give me any advice or support because that is considered "infertility treatment" and insurance doesn't cover "infertility treatment". To my insurance: Yes it is treating our infertility but more importantly, it's treat my health!!! But that's not the worst part. Yeah it stinks that I need answers but no one can help me because it's not covered. No, the worst part is that my insurance will, at least partially cover if not completely pay for contraceptives and abortions. That's the kind of pessimistic society we have become. Rather than promoting life and health, the insurance companies will pay for death and pills which can actually cause infertility and other health problems. (Sounds like a really bad business move if I give you a pill and it causes you to have more serious health problems in the future so then I have to give out more money to pay for those hospital bills of yours...but I'm not in the insurance business.) It's all just...frustrating!!! There really is no denying that the cultural of death is at the forefront of America. And oh how we need to pray for change.
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Kev, a couple thoughts.
ReplyDelete1. Have you ever contacted the specialists directly to negotiate with them. If you tell them that your visit or visits will not be covered by insurance, you may be able to negotiate the rate down. Just say, I will be paying out of pocket, and I can pay X, is that acceptable?
2. Have you ever called your provider to negotiate with them directly? Sometimes you can talk them into covering things.
3. Have you ever heard of Samaritan Ministries? It's a Christian alternative to insurance. We've had some friends that have had great success with them. Check it out.
Praying for you two, as always,
andy