Insurance Co Urges You to Manage Stress, Denies Claim

I appreciate that you, health insurance companies, are very concerned that our stress levels are too high. On your websites you note that stress can lead to health issues like heart problems or colitis, or, like my husband had, debilitating back pain that kept him in bed for six months.

Fortunately you offer some handy tips on how to recognize stress: The tipoffs are “rapid breathing or tense muscles,” which, you’re right, is how I felt when I was on the phone with you asking why you wouldn’t cover the one non-narcotic painkiller we had found that works! Thanks for helping me understand how I am feeling when I am enraged.

I am glad that you, health insurance companies, are sympathetic to people with chronic illnesses. You understand that ongoing health problems can be very difficult and that reducing stress is the key to managing them. Sometimes after going to the doctor with my husband, we would feel very stressed out because claims for the neurologist or the orthopedist would get denied, apparently totally randomly! But we took your six-session workshop on how to work towards positive change, and now I have more clarity regarding the small steps I have to take to involve the attorney general in our dispute over my medical claim. Thanks!

Also, thanks for pointing out that women, selfless caretakers, need to take care of themselves too. In your Web post you ask, “What’s Going On Under That Superhero Cape?” I’ll tell you! It’s a breast pump! That I had to pay for, because you said it was covered and then you said it wasn’t covered!

Fortunately, you offer good advice on how to manage stress. The first is to identify exactly what is causing stress in your life. I’m glad you suggested this because until I thought about it, I didn’t really know that the mountain of denied claims and the hours of phone calls and letter-writing were the reason I now have high blood pressure and a twitch in one eye.

Now that I’ve identified that, I’m happy to take your advice on managing my money to reduce financial stress, like, say, the kind of financial stress that might come from an unexpectedly denied ER visit claim!

Anyway, to sum up, thanks for your concern about my health and well-being. Thanks to your websites, I can look for ways to reduce stress in my life, which for one means trying really, really hard to never go to the doctor.

photo: flickr/CyboRoZ