Well Baby gone Bad

We are healthy people. We take vitamins, we exercise a lot, we eat right. Chris just actually lowered his cholesterol over 30 points and lost 20 pounds in 3 months with diet and exercise. I think we are the kind of people that 'pay into' the insurance world. So when we got our last insurance increase and it was over $600 a month-we freaked and couldn't afford it so we did some research. Basically (here is my soap box) insurance is a rip off!!!

We ended up with a catastrophic type plan because the monthly premiums on anything else were enormous, like a house payment. Before we paid just under $600 a month for medical insurance, we had a $15 copay and were happy to go to the Dr when we needed to and feel covered with the basics. The new plan is around $300 a month but has no copay. So now when we go to the Dr I have to pay for it. 2 weeks ago it cost me over $100 to spend 1 hour and 15 minutes in the waiting room, and 7-8 minutes with the Dr. This of course did not include the 12 month immunizations so we headed down to the Utah County health clinic in Provo for the afternoon. We waited with a few questionable characters in a not too clean clinic for another 30 minutes-but immunizations only cost me $13 per shot for the wee man. Worth the money? I guess. Now we just put money in a HSA so when we need to go to the Dr we have the money. Hopefully we keep up with the only needing to go for well baby visits, like we've done for over a year now.

I've also learned in the last few months that with my $600 health insurance my birth control was $25 a month. Now with my $300 health insurance plan the same birth control is $30 a month, and they ship it to my house. Hmmmmmm doesn't add up right? Amoxicillen was $15 with my $600 plan, and it's now $4, again doesn't add up. What the crap does insurance pay for? I really think it's a bunch of paper work administrative bull.

I talked to the Dr about the H1N1 booster for Brooks. He had gotten the first shot with the $600 plan and it cost me my $15 copay. Then we switched to the $300 plan so I asked if I could just pay for the booster shot without running it through my insurance. Sure, they said it would be $14.50. WHAT???? Anyway, poor wee man went for his 12 month well baby visit-totally healthy we thought. He ended up having a little ear infection so they put him on amoxicillan. 10 days later he looked like this.....

At first I thought it was chicken pox but after 48 hours they didn't blister, they kind of turned into gross bruise looking things. He had a horrible fever, runny nose, wouldn't sleep so good, and a cough came on after a few days too. This was all AFTER the antibiotic. So here's the debate. Yes they looked like they were taking their course and clearing up BUT what if it's more than just a little rash or something? Before for $15 I'd go to the Dr for peace of mind, now it's over $100 so what do I do?

It's my baby's health so I go to the Dr. Turns out he is allergic to penicillin (or the family of those antibiotics) and all of this was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillen, not chicken pox from the immunization we had thought it was. So I got a new antibiotic that's not in the penicillin family and the pharmacists said it would be $35. Okay, they asked me if I wanted a cheaper one that wasn't penicillin so we looked into a few prices. Turns out getting a different kind, with my insurance is $31. Nice

So, my whole beef is your damned if you do, damned if you don't. There is no way to NOT have insurance, but in the mean time I'm paying hundreds of dollars for what?????? Ugh

Am I way off here or should I just move to Canada, oh wait, in a few years this will be just like Canada.