Monday Musings: Reboot

I’m launching my blog reboot today. I’m not really changing the content as much as I am trying to make it better organized. I think if I have some predictability I will write something that I might just get up the nerve to share with others.

From now on, I will try to write three times a week (this may be tough if I ever get employed again.) On Monday’s I want to keep it open enough to write about whatever strikes my fancy. So “Monday Musings” will include general observations not unlike what I’m already doing. On Wednesdays I will launch “Wednesday’s Political Hump.” This will be an opportunity for me to shout my opinions about politics. With all that’s going on in the Middle East and all that’s going on in Africa that’s not making headlines, not to mention poor Japan and our own dear country, I’d like to write regularly on politics. On Fridays I will continue with "Friday Food." I love to write about food and think that I can keep up with the other foodie bloggers out there.

So my first Monday musing is about trying to schedule a doctor’s appointment. Oh health insurance, you are a pain in everyone’s ass. I spent three hours this morning trying to do two things: select a primary care physician and schedule a doctor’s appointment. The first hour was used to figure out how to navigate CareFirst’s website, which while it contains pictures of lots of smiling faces to ease your worries, is not very intuitive. Selecting a username and password was bulky and perturbing. I had to type in personal information that I don’t really think is a good idea to enter online anywhere, like my mother’s maiden name. I’ll hope CareFirst doesn’t have hackers. Once I did that I was ready to select a primary care physician. To spare all of the nitty gritty, in the end and after multiple pop-up windows to nowhere I chose a doctor right around the corner. I’ll hope she knows what she’s doing.

Next was scheduling an appointment. I called the doctor’s office and was told the office was closed from 12pm to 1pm. Really? So I decided to check other doctors. One answering service told me the wait time was 30 minutes but kindly offered to call me back when I made it to the top of the queue. No thanks. So I walked the dog, came back, sat on hold for about 10 minutes and then made an appointment. For JULY 5th. Really? Three months? Sigh. Of course I’m not even sure I need the appointment, but made it anyway. Maybe some ailment will come up by then.

I know these complaints are not new. In fact my mother spends most of her days dealing with doctor’s appointments and untangling insurance claims. But for me it was a stark reminder of how difficult things can be in this country. I’m a well-educated person and I really struggled. What about everyone else? Why is this so difficult? And don’t even get me started on the luxury of having insurance. I feel lucky that by the grace of God (and because ACDI VOCA is located in DC and not Maryland) I was able to squeeze onto Hayden’s insurance. Isn’t that sad?