My destiny is in my own hands
From the past two days this is how I have been spending time at work:
- Attended several web seminars on several different medical plans offered by my company.
- Attended seminars on life insurance, flexible spending accounts, medical and dental benefits.
- Attended an on-site “Health and Wellness Fair” and stopped by several different stalls manned by insurance agents. My only goal for attending this was to grab all the goodies such as pen, post-it, toothbrush and a shot at several raffles.
Don’t you see something wrong here ? Do you see that the whole medical system is a joke ? Now, I am supposed to choose the plan which fits me best. Each medical plan has thousand different variables. Add to the complication, the fact that my wife is interning at my company only for one half of the year. Now, math gets further complicated.
I created an excel spreadsheet, came up with hypothetical medical conditions to figure how much I have to pay out of my pocket in each case, for each medical plan. I have 15 more days to decide and I bet I will spend all those days trying to weigh one medical plan over the other. How is it that everyone bitches about this, and yet, the system is actually going from bad to worse as the years go by ?
Is this all confusing to you ? Yeah, that’s deliberate…coz I have no freaking clue what I am writing. The past 48 hours have been spent trying to figure out which medical plan suits me the best. I am supposed to “guess” the number of doctor visits next year. They call it as “you controlling your own health”. I call it BS. Can’t this be any simpler ? Why can’t I just go to my neighbor “doctor uncle”’s house and get a prescription. Well, this is not
Mysore…is it ?
A Paradise for Dreamers 
November 2, 2006 at 12:02 am
d-stud,
lol!
….or simply go to the friendly medical shop fellow and tell, “Sir anything for Stomach pain?” 😉
November 2, 2006 at 9:23 pm
LOL rk…so true…..I really wish !!! But, then as I said, this is not Mysore…ahem…I mean, this is not Mysuru 😉
November 2, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Hey DS.. sounds very “Dilbert” ish…
November 2, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Just to continue.. I have a friend who owns a 3rd party administration company and have explored the US medical insurance sector in detail. I was actually exploring the BPO opportunity in this space… man o man if you could only know half the things they do behind your back…
November 3, 2006 at 11:45 am
Medical insurance is getting more important now, even though we wish that things remain simple. With more diseases being discovered and expensive treatments coming up, without medical insurance could be very expensive.
November 3, 2006 at 2:12 pm
@ Vijay : True, Scott Adams will have a hay day with this subject. talkign of which, did you know that Scott Adams has been temporarily cured from “Spasmodic Dysphonia”, a rare disease which hits your voice.
And, I can definitely imagine what goes behind my back at the desks of insurance clerks and their bosses……no, don’t tell me more, I am scared 😉
@ Ashish : Sure, I definitely agree….Medical insurance is extremely important. But, the “business” behind the medical insurance is what I am fed up with. The cut throat capitalism where your health is for sale, literally….I dislike that. And, thank you for visiting the blog…come more often 😉
November 3, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Sure, and thanks for visiting my blogs. Will come more often, I liked the way that the post was written.
November 4, 2006 at 10:06 pm
very well written,my friend!!
And it’s so nice to see u on my blog..Delayed in reply….as me was on tour for the past few days..
Interesting blog here… 🙂
November 5, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Thanks Ganga….glad to see you here as well 😉
November 13, 2006 at 12:40 am
Medical insurance Mysurige kooDa bandaaytu swamy 🙂 Yashaswini antha ondu yojane ide adu baDavarige maatra.
eeglu kooDa namma medical shop^gaLige hodre, consultation mele ondastu medicine list tarabahudu.. ee naDuve consumer’s market aadrinda mysurinallu intaha practical problems bandre surprise illa. On the Counter drugs anno concept bagge ondu line ilvalla swamy ? Medical insurance in US works like the vehicle insurance in India alve ?
November 13, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Veena,
I know medical insurance is coming up big time in India. To a large extenet, that is beenficial. But, here it has become a cut-throat business, at the expense of the patient and that’s what bothers me. Doctors charge a lot of money, insurance rips the patients. Imagine the poor guy who cannot afford insurance, it’s pretty much like saying that he cannot afford a life. That is sad !!! In Mysooru, even the poorest of poor can hope for ‘some’ relief in K.R.Hospital, I bet.
As for the over the counter drugs, yes that will help the small ailments. But, what about that dreaded big one ? That’s the one everyone is afraid of, right ?
December 1, 2006 at 6:33 am
People say this to me many times. Bangalore-alli entavaru bekaadru sustain aagbahudu.. He need not be an IT guy antha.. That is the answer to your Q!.. You can substitute Bangalore with India! 😉
December 1, 2006 at 2:27 pm
LOL…let’s de-IT’ize the country !!!
August 20, 2007 at 11:25 pm
DS:
1.
The U.S. medical insurance system is providing livelihood and prosperity to millions of people in India, Phillippines, etc., through medical transcription, claims processing, billing and coding, etc.
2.
A stud is supposed to be radiating good health. Even an ordinarily healthy person will rarely need medical attention until mid forties. I suppose that is how insurance companies make money – the premia paid by healthy studs upon whom the companies don’t usually spend anything.
3.
Since you are a frequent visitor to India, you could always have your checkups in your favorite Mysuru – that is what NRI Sram 59, does.
I on my part don’t have the patience to go to Bengaluru docs. So, I call up my 82-year-old doctor aunt 350 Kms away and seek her advice — Telemedicine. I think there are quite a few telemedicine cosultancies flourishing in Bengaluru. You could also consider taking up an insurance with Manipal or Apollo Hospital in Bengaluru for hospitalization or operations both of which might be a one in a million chance.
August 21, 2007 at 3:43 pm
@ Aram:
I still don’t like the insurance industry and the way they operate….I should get my annual in Mysooru as you suggested.
August 21, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Yes, the U.S. medical insurance industry is definitely too complicated.
Jim Rogers (ex-associate of George Soros) has wryly observed in his delightful travelogue books, AdVenture Capitalist and Investment Biker, whether the U.S. doctors really get enough time to do their core work of attending to the patients because a lot of their time is spent in documentation.
(http://www.rediff.com/us/2000/feb/24us2.htm
Death of Sridevi’s mother is recalled, as
America gets tough on medical errors)
better keep oneself away from the U.S. doctors.
August 22, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Michael Moore has a new movie called “Sicko” which deals with this subject.
August 22, 2007 at 6:21 pm
thanks for feeding this bookworm with new stuff to devour
August 22, 2007 at 7:51 pm
sorry, only the words michael moore and sicko registered in my feather brain and I jumped to conclude it was a book. I suppose I will have to wait till a DVD is available.
November 16, 2007 at 3:50 pm
hi all, its vinay, i am desperately hunting for a job in the field of medical billing, plz do mail me, if u come to know, heyy but one thingggg, i am searching for medical billing companies in mysore. tc