Saturday, August 16, 2008

Our healthcare system

A primary care physician once said to me it is a good idea to call you doctor on your birthday to schedule a routine check up every year to be sure the parts are all beating correctly and things are working fine. I take my kids every year, without fail, so I thought it to be a good piece of advice.

Until our PPO got involved. Apparently, on our plan, between the ages of 30 - 39 you are only allowed to check your moving parts and blood work once every 3 years (so, basically 3 times over 10 years). You can check the female plumbing every year, but other pieces of the female body have to wait 36 months. When I hit 40, my body will only have to make it 24 months without any issues (I hope) because that is apparently another magic moment in my life. Kind of like when I got pregnant after age 35 and spent every Tuesday of my last trimester at the OB, just to be safe.

So, from now on, I guess I will have to wait until something breaks or clogs up before I can go see a Dr. Kind of like knowing you should change the oil in your car every 5,000 miles but figuring once every 3 years *might* be good enough, if you are lucky.

Am I the only one that thinks something is wrong with this picture? "Congratulations, you are wise enough to take care of yourslef to avoid issues down the road that are much more costly to everyone, but we won't help to cover the costs of your intelligence. Good luck, and let's hope that cholesterol hasn't skyrocketed."

Foolish.

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