#60: want to share this with some friends?
a rant about how the american health care system will fail everyone because of how difficult it can be to navigate
hi hi hi sisters ♡ not gonna lie, i’m bummed that is mid-november and i’m barely wearing long sleeves here in new york. like next week is thanksgiving, I want it to be chillier!! I feel like i’m the only one complaining about it not being crisp enough outside hehe
also, I have had a goal to get 100 subscribers by the end of 2024, I am SOOOOO close, I am at 92 subscribers, so if any of you lovely humans have a friend that you think would enjoy this substack, I kindly ask plead you to share big sis recap with a friend, thank you ♡
continuing on with keeping the recommendations section to recommendations for different substacks that I read. I find it to be really important to support small “businesses” (that sounds odd to use here, but maybe influencers is another word I can use?) and one way I can do that is by sharing about them!
is a substack full of personal essays, ranging from friendships to fashion to life in new york, I love personal essays and I wish I was better at writing them. I really enjoyed this one (below) from june
movies: watched quite a few movies this week, starting off with woman of the hour, its based on a true story starring and directed by anna kendrick, really enjoyed it honestly. watched the martha stewart documentary on netflix, it was interesting, I didn’t really know much about her, so I was intrigued. I love her friendship with snoop dog. bjørn and I watched monsters inc, I havent seen it in YEARS and it really holds up well. so funny, the animation looks great, and it made me cry. sunday was a triple movie day, starting off with little women, WOW a perfect movie in every way. for movie church we watched clue, this movie is SO funny and nostalgic. everyone must watch it. and then lastly, bjørn and I watched psycho by alfred hitchcock and it was SO good. not too scary, not really scary at all actually, its suspenseful, intriguing, and overall a great watch.
podcasts: timothee chalamet did an interview with zane lowe, he normally does interviews with musicians solely, but since timmy is in the new upcoming biopic about bob dylan, it was still very appropriate for this interview to take place. I opted in to watching it on youtube, because timothee looks especially beautiful
music: miranda and I went to the kacey musgraves concert on saturday and HOLY COW she is perfection. her voice is so crisp and she gives off the best ethereal and witchy presence while also being like a nymph that belongs in trees. the songs that really impacted me this time around were: Sway, Follow Your Arrow, Deeper Well, and Rainbow
in my stomach: went on a couple of double dates this week with bjørn and some of my friends (they were so so so fun) and I tried a new pizza place called lucia pizza, really good vodka slice !!! and then we also went to a gnocchi place in the east village called Gnoccheria East Village
the health care system in america is quite honestly, so hard to navigate. I am a college educated individual, I know how to use technology, and I know how to do research and I would say i’m quite smart, yet I still have such difficulty navigating health insurance and everything. it allows me to have SO much sympathy for those that don’t have access to technology to navigate this system that is quite frankly set up to fail us all.
here is a little timeline example of how the health care system recently failed me earlier this year:
made a derm appointment on zoc doc May 29th for June 11
june 10th, I call the doctor to confirm because I hadnt heard from them
they said they didnt have an appointment for me but they could make one for a couple of days later, but I would need a referral from my PCP
I email my PCP and send pics of my moles and say I need a referral and I gave them the info, I didnt hear from them for three days so I call and they say I need to come in person to get a referral because they dont do tele-health so I schedule an appointment with my doctor for june 16 and then immediately I have to call the derm and reschedule my appointment again to june 19 so it can happen after my doctor appointment and I can get that referral
I have my doctor appointment and shes like “yeah you should see a derm I can send in a referral”
I tell her that the referral needs to be an electronic referral because that is what the derm only accepts
she says she does that
come june 18, the day before my derm appointment I get a call from them saying that they havent heard from my doctor for the referral, so I call the doctors office and ask and they said they only do referrals via email or fax and to ask the derm for their info to do that
so I call the derm and they say they only accept electronic referrals but I can call my insurance and they can submit my referral electronically for me
I leave a message with my insurance and dont hear anything for a couple of hours
I call my insurance again on my lunch break; I call the number on the back of my insurance card and it sends me to a rep for people with florida insurance, she has to transfer me to someone in new york, I get transferred, he’s confused because I have medicaid and thats not the medicaid line, he leaves me on hold for 15 min to try to get me to the right person, I am finally transferred to the right person and I ask her what number I should have called to begin with and she said the number I originally called was the correct one but something must be messed up with the lines and its sending people to florida representatives….
she also says they dont have the authorization to send in the electronic referral
I start crying because at this point its been 30 minutes of my lunch break and I am stressed my mole is cancerous and I just want to make my appointment.
luckily she is nice and calls my doctors office for me and she gets back and shes like “oh one of the colleagues was able to figure it out”
i’m like WTF why couldnt someone at the office do that to begin with instead of sending me in CIRCLES for days and weeks. so now i’m hoping that my referral goes through before my appointment tomorrow morning, it takes about 24 hours and my appointment is in less than 24 hours, so i’ll probably have to reschedule it again…
BUT I was able to have my appointment, only took a lot of stress and tears and hours of phone calls…
flash forward to this past week, my insurance expired at the end of october but it renewed automatically but my united healthcare insurance didn’t so I had to call insurance and talk to them for an hour to get everything back in order, but I don’t have insurance for the rest of the month until december 1st. once again, I was on top of contacting insurance a couple of months ago and they told me it was an automatic renewal when it wasnt
all this to say is that the system of health care and insurance is incredibly flawed and failed. if I have a hard time navigating it, I can’t even imagine what others have to go through. it takes hours of time, hours that people dont have during a normal 9-5 day. it takes outside knowledge and patience and its really hard. or the elderly when they dont know how to operate new technology and they have a hard time, its no wonder how these people are able to get scammed easily.
BUT even though health insurance is a pain in the ass, I am incredibly grateful for it. without it we would have to pay an astronomical amount of money for appointments or medications and so on. i really dont know too much on how it can be changed, BUT while i was studying public health, i did take a healthcare systems and policies class that i lovedddddd and we read a book called the healing of america. the book looks at different health care systems around the world, particularly how their insurance plans work and compares it to the united states. its really fascinating and also shows how countries have been able to entirely revamp their systems. highly recommend
i also encourage all of you to get your flu and covid shot while you are being on top of your health !!!
tiktok: I NEED to make this coffee; I want to make this
pinterest: a cute hairstyle for the holidays; life motto; croissant cat
instagram: slay sister paxton; need to draw these; tattoo this on my forehead
love you all so much!! thanksgiving is a week and some change away, its almost time for christmas decorations and music, and the semester is coming to a close!! see you next week, thank you for being here ♡
kacey musgraves as a witch and a tree nymph is so perfect
I’ve been trying to get an ultrasound paid for for MONTHS. I have a super high breast cancer risk. No dice AND NOW my insurance is dropping the health system that my primary care doctor is a part of. No idea what I’m paying for. So so so bad 🧘♀️ 😡