This is Why the Health Insurance System SUCKS Right Now

I am already stressed out this morning. I did not get to sleep until well after 1 am because I was really worked up and apparently it crossed over into today. 

So, in the past 24 hours, I drove 20 minutes up to Cocoa Puff's second flu shot only to check in, wait 20 minutes, and then be told, oh wait, we don't have any of those! ARGH! At least Cocoa Puff had fun running around the office. But now his flu shot is going to have to wait until well after Froot Loop's surgery. Should be fine, but just annoying. 

And of course, I had my yearly freak out about health insurance. I have HORRIBLE options here despite being young, healthy, and needing only really the bare minimum for preventative care, etc. We've had to change health insurance every year since the ACA began. Honey Graham has pretty awesome insurance through his work, but it is ungodly expensive to add me to it and pretty bad to add the boys too. 

Last year, we signed up for our current health insurance and despite paying a little too much for it, I really liked it. It has been awesome and I LOVE OUR DOCTORS. There's a fantastic hospital about 35 minutes away with an adjacent medical center with just about every specialist you could ever need. THEY ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE THEM AND I DON'T WANT TO FIND A NEW DOCTOR.

Then, of course, I get a letter saying that they're discontinuing my plan. OF COURSE. *insert string of profanity here* Apparently they are discontinuing ALL marketplace plans (although I did not buy this one through the marketplace), all PPO plans, and all silver and gold plans, leaving only bronze. Well, okay, that sucks, but I can deal with a bronze plan through the same company, and an HMO is acceptable because I really want to stay in their network anyway. I'd really rather have a silver plan, but I guess it's okay to have a bronze plan... etc etc etc. 

Well yesterday, I go to check out my bronze HMO options and it's even MORE EXPENSIVE than what I'm currently playing. Over $200 more expensive for a LOWER LEVEL PLAN! ARGH!!!!!! Piece of crap. We can't afford another $200 a month right now. 

So I checked out our marketplace options and we have two choices: Go back to a company we had two years ago, which I hated working with and lose our current doctors because they assigned us all different PCPs all over the freaking state. NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO. Not doing that again. 

Option two looked good at first, they had a silver level plan and it was less expensive than my current plan. Sounded too good to be true so I checked out the company and I could not find a SINGLE positive review about them. Plus, no doctors even take this company because they suck so much. ARGH! 

So I'm stuck. I don't know what to do. I really want to keep our current insurance. I'm so bummed that they're screwing us over like this. 

Honey Graham is going to ask about adding the boys to his plan, but my guess is that it's still going to be way more expensive. Last time we asked, it was $250 a month EACH! That ain't gonna work. He's going to have to talk to his boss about what to do now. 

Stupid health insurance. I am very grateful for the ACA. I am. What pisses me off is that all the CEOs are taking all these premiums and hiking them up like crazy just to fill their own pockets. HMOs have screwed us all over for decades now. A certain political party keeps screwing with us saying oh sure we'll pass this for you if you do this this and this, making it crappy. The original idea was great. Affordable health insurance so that families don't have to decide between getting health care and you know, eating. But politicians keep messing it up. Our healthcare system is so messed up. Hospitals and doctors are price gouging everyone, and insurance companies are even worse. Screw it all. Ugh. 

On top of all of that, I just scheduled Froot Loop's surgery for next week. Buh. He has his preop visit on Friday. I am super busy all weekend with church stuff and helping my parents move my Mom down here. I have no time to rest before his surgery and then it's going to be stressful and awful for several days afterward. 

THEN, I finally got a call from the school about Froot Loop's first ARD. Oh joy. OUR FIRST ARD. Remember, I'm certified to teach special education, so I know all about ARDs. I will write more about this later because I'm too stressed out right now to even think about it. 

Both of the boys are absolutely bonkers this week. Neither of them have eaten much at all and they just Wont. Stop. Fighting. I am totally out of "spoons" for them, and I am out of reserves too. I can't take any more stress. 

But, of course, Honey Graham is still sick. He's going to his second doctor visit in less than a month for this chronic cold that just will not go away. He needs to get it under control before Froot Loop's surgery. He's been sleeping in the other room for almost two months now and I just miss him. We're both in survival mode right now and I feel like he's more of a roommate than my husband. 

Everything sucks. I'm too busy to think about it, which I guess may be a blessing in disguise, but I'm having trouble sleeping again because of all this crap going on and I can't turn my mind off fretting about things. 

What's stressing you out right now?