A (self described) vain writer I know visited the dermatologist to have a couple of liver spots disappeared. “A sweep of makeup would hide them completely,” she said, but the doc wrote a ‘scrip for a topical cream. $239. She paid a $20 co-pay. And will wait 4-6 weeks for results.
“Way to stick it to the man (the insurance man),” she said.
Actually, way to stick it to this man, since we have the same insurance. I could feel my wallet drying as the premium climbs.
Have I mentioned my $4000 deductible recently? :)
Last year — before I went on the public dole with Medicare — I went to the dermatologist to have a cyst lanced because it showed through my clothing and resembled an erection. Upon learning that I had Blue Cross Blue Shield, the skin guy immediately identified more than two-dozen places that “needed freezing off”. He said the cyst could wait.
I figured him out pretty quick and forfeited my co-pay and left.
This past Christmas Day Mrs Poleczech was bitten by her Sister’s cat and required Emergency Room treatment. She still has Blue Cross Blue Shield, but this was a neighborhood storefront ER that was not in the BC/BS network. There was a $75 co-pay up front and a balance of $1100, of which BC/BS paid $400 — leaving me responsible for the balance.
Noting that they only gave her first-aid and wrote a prescription for antibiotics, I will, of course, take them to task in expectation of a negotiated amount much lower.
As for the cyst that resembled an erection, it went away. They always do.
I’ve been told, although I have no personal knowledge, that erections that resemble cysts last longer.
Caution: if it lasts longer than 4 hours, see a different doctor.
Man, at my age, if it lasts longer than two hours, call the undertaker — and a cosmetologist just to get the smile off my face.
— George