A Conversation with Elizabeth
1998
Continuation

From:          Elizabeth  
To:            LMixson@pec.com
Sent:          Friday, April 10, 1998 1:28 PM
Subject:       Continuation
 
I sent a partial message as someone came in requiring help.  I was rambling about the privacy issue of e-mail and my concerns.  Oh, now I recall I discussed the "turf" issue. 
 
What is a "cough" test? 
 
I have been through major insurance wrangles the past year or so.  When I left the City I had to pay a whopping 180/month COBRA.  I paid it for many months, until finally I qualified for "coverage" at a different job.  Then it was HMO coverage, and I wouldn't have been able to pick my doctors. I was only seeing one, a dermatologist, but she wasn't even on the list.  Just as I got the coverage, I changed jobs and got back with BX-BS, but then I left that job and for the first month here I had to do COBRA again.  This time it was almost 300.00, but fortunately I only had to pay one month until my insurance kicked in here.  As you know, the insurance companies really get you with "pre-existing conditions."  The only way to get around that is to demonstrate a continuation of coverage.  The insurance person here though told me the law changed a little the first of the year, supposedly to be more beneficial, but I'm not sure how it changed.  I think I have "good" insurance here, although surprisingly I pay some for it, and I also took out disability insurance, although it is rather costly.
 
How are you insured then?  It seems that if Julie had a more "stable" job, that it would be best for her to have you on her policy and not worry about your own policy.  Just curious, as it has been such a wrangle with me, yet I see so many abuses.  I know for a fact that many city employees are regularly going to psychiatrists at 150/hour and getting all their psychotropic meds paid for as well, which are quite expensive.  I complained to someone that I never met the 200.00 city deductible in a year, and hence never got any benefits, and she said, "Oh I meet that deductible the very first month."  In this context, I got furious when I left the City as well, because I had begun seeing an EAP (Employee Assistance Counselor) through the insurance program because of the job stress. When I left the job (theoretically putting me in a psychologically vulnerable condition), and even though I was paying the 180/month for insurance, the "program" cut off my counseling benefits right in the middle. The irony is that if I had been crazy enough to require seeing a psychiatrist, that would have been totally paid for, but they were unwilling to pay for a counselor assisting in "prevention" or helping a person navigate through a job loss, which is an acknowledged major stressor.  
 
I just don't want to see a male doctor, although I have mostly done that for years.  I got used to seeing a female at UA.  Many males will not go to a female doctor, but women have had to go to male doctors for years.  Although, I know many females who will not go to a female doctor.  I had a friend who was checking out female doctors and she literally practically "interviewed them."  She said she wanted to make sure that they "weren't that way" meaning gay. 
 
I have followed the prices on computers, so I know how prices have dropped.  The trouble is I want a computer that does everything that the computer in the Millenium program does. 
 
Well, I best go.  Fortunately I have a friend coming over for lunch, although I told her I can't pay this time, which I usually do.  (I get a big discount and it usually easier for me to just pay the whole bill). 
Elizabeth

RE: work