Death to Insurance Companies

I am tired of insurance companies. Really, if there was a legitimate and cost effective way to do without them I am all for it. There are actually a few doctors in our town that don't take insurance at all. It's a cash business for the wealthy and if I were among the wealthy I think I'd take advantage.

My son has had this lip condition for over a year now. We have seen doctor after doctor and no one yet has been able to diagnose or effectively treat it. Meanwhile it's getting worse and I am worried about scarring or disfigurement. I am trying to get our son into a specialized facility to be seen by one of their world class doctors. To do this, it has required a lot of research and investigation on my part, which is fine. All I ask in return is that our insurance company demonstrate the slightest bit of competence. Oh yeah, and that those that interface with customers actually speak the English language.

I can get most of the information I need via the Internet. I can log into our insurance account, find doctors, look at the status of claims, etc. When I set the account up I put it in my husband's name since he is the primary on the insurance. However, he has never once logged into it. A month ago I went to log on and it said my password was incorrect and it locked me out. I called and they said they'd send reset instructions in seven to ten days. Problem number one. I am supposed to wait seven to ten days to be able to access anything? Ten, eleven, twelve days pass and I receive nothing in the mail. So, I call back and they supposedly are going to send it out again. So now my seven to ten days has turned into at least fourteen to twenty. A full month passes and I receive nothing.

I called back yesterday as I was still locked out of our online account. The guy was a total douche and said he basically can't tell me anything since I set up the online account in my husband's name. We went round and round with me trying to explain that I set the account up, that I have permission to access the account, and that I need to know how to access our benefits. He tells me that he needs to speak with my husband. So, I have my husband call and he's pissed because a)he was in a meeting and b)he's already on two separate occasions given my "permission" for full access to the account. He then says he wants to reset the account to which they tell him they will mail him something in seven to ten days, but that if I want to set up my own online log in I would have to call back myself.

I call back and am again told that i don't have any permission to access the account. It is at this point that I lost it. I am usually pretty calm on the phone even when dealing with incompetent idiots. This was it, though. I flipped. I told them that my husband had just called in, that I was sick of being given the run around, that they were the most incompetent bunch of idiots I have ever dealt with and that's saying a lot considering I taught in a public school for six years (not a knock on the students). I told her I have called twice before, it's now been 30 days and we still don't have the reset. She then looks it up, verifies that I have called twice, and then admits that the paperwork has never been sent out. Surprise, they really are incompetent.

There may have been vague threats about what would happen if another ten days passes without getting this paperwork...something about contacting every governing board and agency that oversees them, there may also have been the suggestion that they don't hire idiot douche bags or people that can't speak English in any recognizable dialect. And possibly there was something about why people become so frustrated, freak out and open fire. I know I probably sounded like a lunatic, but honestly after trying to handle it in a mature fashion and getting nowhere because the combined IQ of those working for the insurance company is 0 I just couldn't take it and simply flipped out.