The Hassle That Wasn’t
The strangest thing happened the other day when I got my Covid vaccine
First off, I get to the vaccine place, and I didn’t have to fill out a dozen pages of questions about my damn health history. Huh. Come to think of it, I don’t remember doing any paperwork at all really!
It gets weirder. So this nurse walks up, right, and I hand over my insurance card… but she said I didn’t need it?
Clearly we got some kinda misunderstanding here.
So I pull out a credit card, you know, gotta at least cover the co-pay.
No need for that either, she says! Yeah, right. Send me home so you can hit me with surprise bills in the mail for the rest of my life? No thanks.
Cmon now, I don’t have time for this, I said. I don’t want another bill to get sent to collections. I mean, I sure as hell haven’t met my $6,000 or whatever deductible yet this year, can’t we just settle this here?
Get a load of this…
“Sir, the federal government is providing the vaccine to everyone, free of charge,” she tells me.
HA!
You mean to tell me…
I don’t have to worry about if this vaccine site is “in network” or not?
…That I don’t need to call ahead of time to get a cost estimate, to see if I can afford this thing?
You’re telling me… pop pop, give me that shot, and we’re done here?
No pre-approvals, no hoops, nothing?
You’re giving it to me, for free, just because I need it?
I know, I know. Too good to be true.
It’s been a couple weeks now, but still no bills. Guess I don’t have to worry about my insurance company deciding not to cover it. It feels weird, you know, not having to waste the next 6 months of my life fighting with them over some shit like the docs coding it incorrectly as a “routine procedure.”
Paid for by the federal government? How about that?
Maybe this universal healthcare thing ain’t such a bad idea after all.
