Health insurance may be the worst thing about America (except the current presidential administration)

Everyone in this country has at least one story of frustration regarding their health insurance. The vast majority have more than one. Some have many, many more than one. Some are small irritants, others are life-and-death catastrophes, all are consequences of a Republican party that both favors profit over people and the wealthy over the masses.

Youngsters don't have the experience of American health care before the ACA—you think it's bad now, and it is, but it was so, so much worse before. And the Republicans want to destroy that too.

It's amazing that just this one issue hasn't cratered the GOP, but that's the power of propaganda, I suppose.

This is on my mind today because I had another insurance frustration this afternoon. It's certainly on the small irritant side of the scale, but it's maddening nonetheless.

I had a proper optical exam today. I needed one since the last two eye exams I had were el cheapo ones from Target Optical and another discount chain that both resulted in completely useless glasses prescriptions, and I've thus been using an eyeglass Rx that is about six years old and is now inadequate. Anyway, as expected, my health insurance—which is a middle-of-the-road option from the ACA exchange—doesn't cover vision for anyone over 16, so I paid full freight for the exam. I'd like to support the practice by buying new glasses from them too, but one pair will cost me $500 there at minimum; I was still considering that, but then Dr. H—who is a fellow umpire and thus has enough affinity with me to cut me a break on the fee for deep-scan photos of my eyes—discovered something on those photos that he wanted to follow up on with another test. But don't worry, he told me, this is medical and should be covered by your insurance.

OK, cool, let's make the appointment.

I go to the front desk and they ask for my insurance card and regretfully tell me they can't accept that particular insurance. And this is the policy I switched to because what I had the last two years (a higher-tier policy!) was accepted by so few doctors.

So if I want to get the test Dr. H wants, it's going to cost me about $400-$500.

Well, so much for buying my new glasses from them. Not enough cash for both those things, for sure. So cheap frames and unreliable lens quality from the internet it is.

I will probably call the optometrist office back and schedule the test and pay out of pocket. But first I had to process my annoyance and rage a bit at this country's inability to stand up to the private health insurance lobby.