Chronic Rants

I’ve written about the roller coaster effect before, and it’s happening again now.  This time it’s both physical and emotional, not to mention financial.

In addition to all of the irritating, difficult, painful physical problems, I’m also dealing with bureaucratic crap.  I wrote last week that the long term disability insurance company is denying my claim for benefits, but it turns out that it’s worse than I’d thought.  As it turns out, they aren’t suggesting that I’m not ill.  Instead, they are saying that I’ve been sick for a long time and they see no evidence that it’s gotten any worse.  Basically, if I was well enough to work a year ago, I should be able to work now, too.  But how do you prove worsening fatigue?  I don’t have a blood test or MRI for that.

Then it gets worse.  According to the lawyer I spoke to (who came highly recommended by friends who used her for their own SSDI claim) I will have an extra problem because I did not see a doctor in the few weeks leading up to my leave from work.  In fact, my last appointment before leaving my job was 2 months earlier.  At that appointment my doctor and I discussed the possibility that I might have to stop working, but I don’t know if that was recorded in my medical records.  I think it’s time to cough up the money and get a copy of my own records.  I wish someone would have told me that life would be easier if I saw my doctor in person before leaving my job, instead of just speaking with her on the phone 4 separate times.  I’d have gladly done it, if I’d only known.

The lawyer talked about the many steps we would take to appeal the LTD denial, including getting letters from my doctors and from friends and family, as well as hiring a vocational expert to study my case and write a report explaining why I can’t work.  This all sounds wonderfully proactive, but there’s one part that makes me very nervous: the lawyer isn’t confident enough in my case to take it on a contingency basis.  Damn!

So basically the system is designed to screw us.  I got insurance and paid my premiums, and the company denied my claim to save themselves money.  In order to get them to pay what they rightfully owe me, I have to spend a lot of time and energy and effort and money (none of which I have any extra of) to hire a lawyer.  If I ever get well (or well enough, at least) I am going to fight this system.  I don’t know how I’ll do it, but I will get it publicized, I’ll get my legislators involved, I’ll do whatever it takes, but this simply can not be allowed to continue!  But first I need to get my own claim approved and focus on my health.

And in case you’re wondering, the appeal will take approximately 6 months and cost me $7000-$10,000, plus expenses.  Expenses are for things like paying for copies of medical records, paying for the vocational expert, etc.  If we lose, I’m out that money.  If we win, the insurance company owes me $30,000 per year and they will pay me what they owe me from the date I became eligible a few months ago.  They will not pay the legal expenses I incur.

Yep, the system sucks.

Oh, and of course this is also at the same time that I am looking into practitioners, tests, and treatments that will not be covered by my health insurance, I feel like crap daily, I am enduring the most stress of my entire life, and my scant energy should be used to research my treatment options and to recover.  Like I said, this system is designed to screw us.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2012 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Educating, Expectations, Frustration, Healthcare, Rants, Symptoms, Unpredictable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.