Got Insurance? (aka: Got Rage? oh yea I do!!)

Health Insurance. It's on everyone's mind these days with Obamacare and the potential disaster that nationalized health care is turning out to be. This post, however, isn't political at all (I promise) it has all to do with a company. A Company I have done business with for years! A company my husband has been insured with for years as well. Shall I start from the beginning? Julie Andrews would say it is a very good place to start ...
I work for a small company who has for quite some time provided us all with an option for insurance coverage. A recent turn of events has put me as the only person on this list of insured persons at our company. I am paying nearly $300 out of pocket per month for health insurance. Yes, I am a smoker (flog me now - you would be in good company) but other than that am a picture of health. I've never had an abnormal Pap, weird diseases or high blood pressure. Nothing people - I am YOUNG I am HEALTHY. I am also almost $300 poorer each month to simply get an annual exam from my regular doc. This is entirely unacceptable to me. I am sick of all of that money going to the Company and not into my pocket. There are a million things I could do with this money and none of those things include throwing it away at a worthless insurance company.
I have decided to change my insurance to a less expensive variety. It won't cover quite as much but as I said, I'm at the docs once a year for my annual exam and I'm more than willing to pay a little more out of pocket at that time rather than paying so much each month. I hope this is a more fiscally responsible decision but as of Friday the insurance company makes that in the "Remains to Be Seen" category. Let me explain: My insurance guy, George, a fellow golfer and guy who also likes to have a good time came in last week and we filled out the required information online for my new insurance. What will be happening is I will personally get the bill from the Company and will then pass it along to my employers who will pay the bill and take a stipend from my pay check for health insurance. (Hopefully also the company will also start paying a larger percentage. Currently I pay 70% and they pay 30%. My office manager thinks she can talk the bosses into 50/50-we shall see). This insurance application went off without a hitch - see above-GOOD HEALTH! Also, I'm not a person with pre-existing conditions (including pregnancy because I'm all done with that). I am a happy girl! The insurance will be less money and I will still have pretty decent coverage .....duh, duh, duh - or so I thought!
Fast forward to Friday morning. Friday: my least favorite day at work and also my busiest. My insurance guy George calls me. Normally, this is not a big deal. Normally, I like to talk to George. Not on Friday friends! George did not have good news. George got to inform me that the Company doesn't like me because .....wait for it .....my HUSBAND is also insured with them!!!! Are you kidding me?? Just what I thought as well (there might have been some colorful language exchanged -George is not happy either). My husband is also employed by a small company. His boss pays ALL of his insurance premium which makes me (and his paycheck) very, very happy. I have not approached his boss about changing to family because I don't want him to change his mind about paying 100% so we have settled for the insurance situation as it stands: Hubby has his policy, I have my policy and we have a policy (yep - a THIRD) for The Peanut. This has been the most reasonable way to do this so far. As it turns out the Company won't let me get my own policy because they want me to go on my husband's policy (turning that policy into a FAMILY plan and making it waaaaay more expensive). Like I said -very much rage and a fair amount of colorful language .....grrrrrrr...
But, let me tell you a story, it gets better! The insurance Company will let me have my own policy if we LIE to them and tell them my hubby and I (who, for the record, are very happily married most of the time) are having marital problems or are split up. My insurance guy says he is going to try and avoid telling them this because he knows it isn't true but is willing to do that because he wants me to have insurance! Are you kidding me? So the only way to have our insurance be something that is financially possible is for us to be LIARS???? This is absolutely not even something I'm willing to entertain. I can't do it partly because I am nearly incapable of lying (now if you tell me a secret or about a surprise party I can handle that) and partly because I just don't want to spend money with the Company at all anymore. I feel like a Company who would be willing to do this to their clients is not worth looking at twice no matter the quality of insurance they can provide!
So, tell me? Whaddya think? I seriously thought I was going to have a bit of some kind of episode on Friday afternoon (hysteria, heart attack, panic attack or what have you). I have calmed down a bit since then but really can not even think about telling anybody-even a faceless, nameless insurance jack-wad that I am divorcing just to get insurance. Thoughts???
In the mean time, I'm out finding myself ......








PS: Part of the reason I am calmer today is because I did about 15 million loads of laundry and got to read 300 pages of my latest book. I set myself up a little spot -see below - not quite as lovely as Sassy's but it is pretty comfy and works well!

Forgive the ugliness of the chair, orange carpet (we live in a trailer house people), random scarves (I wear them all the time so why put them in the drawer?) without homes and poor quality photo (I don't have a camera any more so the cell phone will have to do)!