Last week, I went to my doctor because of problems I've been having with my current asthma medication Proventil. After examining me, he gave me a prescription for a different asthma medication: Symbicort.
After the appointment with the doctor, I stopped by my local CVS/pharmacy to fill the prescription and handed them my nice little Blue Cross/Blue Shield (which happily paid for my Proventil refills over and over and over and over again) card. And within 15 seconds of entering my info into the computer, the BC/BS notifies CVS that I do not need Symbicort because, suddenly, it has been determined that I no longer have asthma.
The pharmacist contacts my doctor, who is a Blue Cross/Blue Shield licensed care physician, who then contacts Blue Cross/Blue Shield, who then contacts the pharmacist, and once again rejects the prescription. My doctor then faxed a complete medical report and chest x-ray to BC/BS to prove that I in fact needed Symbicort.
Today, I received a call from my BC/BS representative saying something a long the lines of "after reviewing your case, we find you are eligible to receive Symbicort." Woo-hoo! So, I finally got it filled.
Before leaving, I asked the pharmacist what the price for both my new prescription Symbicort and my old prescription Proventil would be if I didn't have insurance.
Symbicort is $289 a refill.
Proventil is $45 a refill.
I can see why BC/BS no longer wanted me to have asthma.
So, thank you, PRIVATE INSURANCE. Thank you for being around so the DECISIONS are between ME and MY DOCTOR and not BUREAUCRATS in WASHINGTON.
I'll quote Bill Maher from his show a few weeks ago.
Yea, I want things to run like the Post Office, which the government runs... they get a piece of paper from New Jersey to California in 2 days flat.
We ELECT our government... they are not the bad guys.
The bad guys are the greedy f *cks who would let our forum friends here die if it meant spending less on ONE prescription plan.
