Knock
Goal Post #19 intention: schedule visit to a doctor
It isn't obvious, but if you track certain details about my life scattered through these posts you might have figured something out. Working a dizzying variety of crappy and not so crappy jobs means I didn't have any health or dental insurance at all in my twenties or the first part of my thirties.
When the affordable care act passed, I was in graduate school happily utilizing the on-campus health services. For those three years, my lady bits and brain were taken care of beautifully. Before that, my reproductive health had been wonderfully cared for by Planned Parenthood and I am endlessly grateful to that organization. Access to affordable health care and birth control means I've never needed an abortion.
But, for almost twenty years I didn't go to the dentist at all. Not one single visit or cleaning. At first, this was simply because it wasn't affordable. Then, after about ten years, it had been so long I got worried about how much my problem teeth would cost on top of a regular cleaning. By that time there were cavities I could feel with my tongue. If there were several super obvious issues, what was hiding where I couldn't see or feel? Hardly encouraging.
Amazon provided surprisingly good benefits while I worked in their fulfillment centers after finishing grad school, but I was only there six months total, three as an employee with benefits. Not exactly the widest window of time to find and use both a dentist and a GP. After starting at the children's museum, I purchased a plan through the marketplace. Consequently, neither were ever used. At least, I'm pretty sure they weren't. Let me explain.
The one visit I made to a clinic while still working at Amazon I paid what they told me I owed after I showed them my insurance card. So far so good, right? Almost a year later I found out there was an unpaid medical bill making my credit score go down. Super annoying. Back to the marketplace, we ended up opting out because I was barely making ends meet and plans cost more than the fine for not having the coverage I wasn't using anyway.
To be clear, I was happy to pay the fine as one of the healthy people who didn't really need health insurance and I would have been happy continuing to pay for coverage I didn't really need and wasn't using. But at the time our finances were really that tight. A simple decision based on simple mathematics.
Turns out, even after having coverage through my employer for almost three years now, I still don't really know how to use my health or dental insurance. It's an adult life skill that I simply never acquired. At this point, I'm a little unsure how to start figuring out. When you don't have something it's impossible to learn how to use it, but when I got health insurance it felt like I was expected to just know what to do with it automatically.
After finally facing the dentist last summer, there was, no surprise, plenty wrong with my teeth. But not as much as I feared. It was expensive, but manageable. While my teeth are back on track, I'm still unsure how this system works. I gave my dentist the card, they bill me accordingly. But that's what happened at that clinic a few years ago and my credit took a hit. This goes double for medical insurance. I know I'm paying into a plan, but have no idea how to look up what that plan is, does, which doctors I can see, or how much is covered. Basically I'm trusting the dentist to charge what I owe and am not sure if I'm ready to extend that trust to a doctor.
What about HR? Yes, I know my HR rep, and she is helpful and kind. The trouble is, it's like going to your fourth grade teacher to admit you still don't know what reading is yet. Not simply being unable to read, that you don't even understand what the word means. When I ask questions I rarely understand the answers. Any HR interaction I've had assumes a level of prior knowledge, so I struggle to communicate one basic fact: I literally don't know anything. Possibly they are all so helpful and kind they just can't believe my level of ignorance actually exists. HA! It's true, people. Believe me, it's all true.
Back to the subject of insurance, it's crazy to me that public librarians who stay in state have to completely change health insurance plans when they change jobs. Wouldn't it be better if all the public librarians in Indiana could be part of one group health plan? Even better, all of the public school librarians and public librarians? Wouldn't it be best if everyone across the country could keep their health care plans when they move or change jobs? Just a thought.
With my final three cavities recently filled (yes, it took almost a year to fix all my teeth), I realized I should probably get to a body doctor soon-ish. It's not that I feel sick, it's just I haven't been to any kind of GP since grad school and have never in my adult life had a full health screening. All those grownup tests measuring A1C and cholesterol levels sound vaguely important. After spending the past two years focusing on improving my health, it would be nice to know some of those "before" numbers to compare with today. Theoretically, I am a grownup. So let's schedule that doctor's visit already.
It isn't obvious, but if you track certain details about my life scattered through these posts you might have figured something out. Working a dizzying variety of crappy and not so crappy jobs means I didn't have any health or dental insurance at all in my twenties or the first part of my thirties.
When the affordable care act passed, I was in graduate school happily utilizing the on-campus health services. For those three years, my lady bits and brain were taken care of beautifully. Before that, my reproductive health had been wonderfully cared for by Planned Parenthood and I am endlessly grateful to that organization. Access to affordable health care and birth control means I've never needed an abortion.
But, for almost twenty years I didn't go to the dentist at all. Not one single visit or cleaning. At first, this was simply because it wasn't affordable. Then, after about ten years, it had been so long I got worried about how much my problem teeth would cost on top of a regular cleaning. By that time there were cavities I could feel with my tongue. If there were several super obvious issues, what was hiding where I couldn't see or feel? Hardly encouraging.
Amazon provided surprisingly good benefits while I worked in their fulfillment centers after finishing grad school, but I was only there six months total, three as an employee with benefits. Not exactly the widest window of time to find and use both a dentist and a GP. After starting at the children's museum, I purchased a plan through the marketplace. Consequently, neither were ever used. At least, I'm pretty sure they weren't. Let me explain.
The one visit I made to a clinic while still working at Amazon I paid what they told me I owed after I showed them my insurance card. So far so good, right? Almost a year later I found out there was an unpaid medical bill making my credit score go down. Super annoying. Back to the marketplace, we ended up opting out because I was barely making ends meet and plans cost more than the fine for not having the coverage I wasn't using anyway.
To be clear, I was happy to pay the fine as one of the healthy people who didn't really need health insurance and I would have been happy continuing to pay for coverage I didn't really need and wasn't using. But at the time our finances were really that tight. A simple decision based on simple mathematics.
Turns out, even after having coverage through my employer for almost three years now, I still don't really know how to use my health or dental insurance. It's an adult life skill that I simply never acquired. At this point, I'm a little unsure how to start figuring out. When you don't have something it's impossible to learn how to use it, but when I got health insurance it felt like I was expected to just know what to do with it automatically.
After finally facing the dentist last summer, there was, no surprise,
What about HR? Yes, I know my HR rep, and she is helpful and kind. The trouble is, it's like going to your fourth grade teacher to admit you still don't know what reading is yet. Not simply being unable to read, that you don't even understand what the word means. When I ask questions I rarely understand the answers. Any HR interaction I've had assumes a level of prior knowledge, so I struggle to communicate one basic fact: I literally don't know anything. Possibly they are all so helpful and kind they just can't believe my level of ignorance actually exists. HA! It's true, people. Believe me, it's all true.
Back to the subject of insurance, it's crazy to me that public librarians who stay in state have to completely change health insurance plans when they change jobs. Wouldn't it be better if all the public librarians in Indiana could be part of one group health plan? Even better, all of the public school librarians and public librarians? Wouldn't it be best if everyone across the country could keep their health care plans when they move or change jobs? Just a thought.
With my final three cavities recently filled (yes, it took almost a year to fix all my teeth), I realized I should probably get to a body doctor soon-ish. It's not that I feel sick, it's just I haven't been to any kind of GP since grad school and have never in my adult life had a full health screening. All those grownup tests measuring A1C and cholesterol levels sound vaguely important. After spending the past two years focusing on improving my health, it would be nice to know some of those "before" numbers to compare with today. Theoretically, I am a grownup. So let's schedule that doctor's visit already.
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