Does Blue Cross cover cat colonoscopies?
A small incident shows the big troubles with American health “insurance" bureaucracies
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.
Health “insurance” is in truth not insurance, but a convoluted and grossly inefficient transfer payment system, touched off by World War II-era wage controls, and then turbo charged by the creation of Medicare and Medicaid.
Doubt me at your peril. Here’s the chart showing medical care cost burdens from 1960 onward:
Though that largess has been miserable for many hundreds of millions of Americans over the last five decades (probably a billion of us by this point), there have been specific regime figures who benefitted. For example, Gretchen Whitmer, the current Michigan governor, is the daughter of the former CEO at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan. She didn’t grow up poor.
It’s hard not to dislike Blue Cross if you look into the matter just a bit. Most commercial health insurers, like their government cousins, are a major reason for that chart pasted above. But for me, Blue Cross is in a class all alone. When I worked for the Michigan Legislature, we joked morbidly that BCBSM’s competition-killing influence warranted pasting their logo on the State Capitol dome.
It’s difficult to escape their clutches, as evidenced by the fact that my current employer uses a Blue Cross affiliate. I don’t blame the HR department, as the Blue Cross-afflicted policy realm often makes it the only cost-effective choice.
But that doesn’t make me like them anymore, and they work hard to earn my distaste. Today, for example, I received a letter from them marked “important information” on the outside of the envelope. The supposedly urgent mass mailing was to inform me that a follow up mass mailing would include a colon cancer screening test.
Like many if not most of the letter’s recipients, I don’t need a colon cancer screening test. I already took care of the lovely “you’re over age 50” colonoscopy, which showed me I was lucky enough to not need another such ordeal for another decade.
But let’s say I had totally ignored this concern, despite having health coverage and a doctor I trust advising me. If I were so indifferent to my health, then would I really respond to pseudo junk mail telling me they’d be sending me even more junk mail to collect my poop?
No, I would not.
Leaving aside the cost of running the test, imagine the cost of just these two mailings: the one I just received, and then the forthcoming screening kit. THIS … thoughtlessly redundant nonsense … is part of the reason American health care costs so much in the first place.
As another example, I reliably receive a phone call from CareFirst every time I pick up an asthma inhaler at the pharmacy. These are not complicated devices. I never answer the call, but they ALWAYS leave a message.
Now, as the letter advises, I do have the option of contacting them to tell them not to send the colon cancer test kit that I never asked for in the first place:
Translation: “We have tons of time and money to waste, but if you’d like to waste even more of your own time helping us out, please do so!”
But if I do that, you won’t learn any lessons, will you?
So, send me your stupid test kit, CareFirst Blue Cross. Because while I know that I’m colon healthy, I’m not sure about our cats, who both leave an ample supply of feces samples in the basement litter box.
We’re particularly concerned about the 12-year-old big boy who has weight control issues and are looking forward to the lab results.
I hope that your cat is well. I’m certain that he will feel much better knowing his stool is being cared for by Big Blue
I did not know about Nit Whit and her family history. Nice Intel. I also use BCBSM. My costs have gone up almost exactly 500% since ACA passed.