Blue Cross, You're EVIL...(and Avatar!)

I just have to start this post by saying that this post is totally to vent, so if you don't want to hear someone whining for a bit, you might just want to not read. I am just SO ANGRY lately at BCBCM! And, what is going to frustrate me even more is that my computer cord is broken, the battery is dead, so it is probably going to take me a long time to post this due to the fact that my computer shuts off every time it gets bumped at all. And I already have to take a break from posting, Braedan is having his self a little tantrum. Man.

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It has been a few days since I actually started this post, and I am much calmer at the moment. James and I just got back from seeing Avatar, which was AMAZING by the way! I loved every minute of it. Makes you really think. I thought it was a very cool, much more modern twist of Pocahontas meets Fern Gully and add a few millenia. Awesome. But back to my previous version of this post.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield. The anger. So angry. Very angry about their whole company. I lost my insurance as of September 1st due to leaving my job, and so I was going to purchase individual coverage from BCBS. In order to get the 6 month pre-existing condition period waived, you must enroll within 62 days of losing previous coverage (and a few other rules, which I had met all of). So I enrolled at the beginning of October. Their records show that they received my application about October 23rd...well in the correct time frame of getting all that waived. Awesome. So I give it about 6 weeks and keep waiting and calling to find out the status of my application, and every time I called was told that my app was approved that it was just waiting for a contract number now. OK. So I call at the beginning of December, and was told that my contract was active as of November 15th, but that a contract number just had not been generated for me yet...ok, so I was going to have to pay for more than a month of coverage that I could not use? Mind you, I did not even go to the doctor during this time because of no insurance...to save on the bills. No way was I going to pay-but I just waited to see if I would actually be charged for that time. Weeks and weeks go by and still NO WORD from BCBS. So, about 2 weeks ago, beginning of January, I decided to call again just to see what the hold up was. APPARENTLY there were some temps in during the season, and my application was never pushed through. SO we had to start all over again. Very frustrating. The woman on the phone took all my information and resubmitted my application and my biggest question was about the waiver. I had done everything I was supposed to and would have been eligible to have the pre-existing condition waiting period waived, but she was going to call me back after her boss spoke to the underwriters. So goes a few days.

After a few days I receive a call back and this is what I was told. I either had to back pay to September 1st and do overlapping coverage (from when my last coverage ended) or take the date of February 1st and have the waiting period. WHAT?! Your company screws me over with this and you tell me I have to PAY? Excuse me, but I did everything that I was supposed to do. I met all of the eligible criteria, and HAD my application gone through like it SHOULD HAVE because it was already IN THE SYSTEM, there would have been no problem. AND I would have had coverage in November. So I told her no, and that they needed to figure this out. So I waited again. And this is what they said: Instead, I could either take the original date I wanted, November 1st and back-pay or keep the Feb 1st date and still have the waiting period. This is UNACCEPTABLE! How can this company think they can just take someone's money like that because THEY MESSED UP?! I was so angry. We were so angry we decided to pull our application completely. We were livid! This was after going back and forth and back and forth and they would not budge. How completely unfair is this? This is just unreal. I understand why they chose November 1st, because that's the date I SHOULD HAVE HAD only IF my application was processed in time. But it wasn't. And since their company messed up and ruined my time frame, they should have still allowed me to have a waiver. Because now, I am starting all over again, and I don't get a waiver. If I didn't need the coverage and could find something better, I would go there. But I can't, not with all the times we need to go to the doctors and hospital etc. Can you see how I would be so angry? Do I have this right? I think I do. And all I can say to Blue Cross is SCREW YOU!

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Ok, I know that wasn't very nice of me to say. But I am angry. About this whole thing. I'm sorry, but if your company messes up, own up to it. Don't make the customer have to pay for YOUR mistakes. Now I have a pre-existing condition that I can't get any help for, and if an emergency arises, I will be out big big big bucks because of this whole mess. I can almost say that I hate Blue Cross. I really can. This is not the first issue we have had with them. But that is my story, this is my complaint, and I feel a little better getting this out, but no amount of words can explain the back and forth frustration we have had with this. I have only touched the surface. Just so angry. And now I must go find something to make myself feel better. And hope that my gallbladder doesn't burst in the process. Because BCBS isn't going to pay to fix it. The end.