There may be a few things in here that are a bit TMI. If you didn’t want to know a hell of a lot more about my health issues, you may want to ignore this post. Consider yourself warned. 🙂
Dear Aetna Health Insurance,
I had no idea it was so much cheaper for you to insure a pregnant woman than to keep a woman healthy and… well, NOT PREGNANT. In the past 6 months, I have had to fill 2 different prescriptions a total of three times for birth control and had you pay a total of $12. ON ALL THREE OCCASIONS. Each time, I had to pay in excess of $80 – not for 4 months, because y’all won’t let me have that … but for 2. When I was on the Ring, I paid $85 each time… now that I’ve changed back to the Pill, I paid $104. US dollars, not Canadian – just in case you were wondering.
I am not on birth control solely for the ability to have sex at will. That’s just a benefit. I am on it for my health. Without some sort of hormone controlling my system, it goes haywire. My PMS is out of control. I can go for months without a period. Most importantly, it prevents me from getting pregnant when I do decide to have sex. I have had three miscarriages in my life. I do not need to tax my body with any others. Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 pre-cancerous cells – on my cervix and in my birth canal. I had layers from my cervix and half my birth canal removed. I already know that should I decide to get pregnant, I will be listed as a high-risk pregnancy because of my history. I do not need to spend $100 (that I cannot afford) every two months because you feel that being on birth control is an elective for me. It is not. Recently, my GYN and I discussed getting an IUD – which seems like it might be the only thing that will completely work for me. While I am still thinking about it, I am concerned that you may see this as another way for me to have an "elective drug" and refuse to pay.
Aetna, I’m sorry. You have forced me to try and find new health insurance. If I’m going to pay $170 a month, I want to know that I’m not going to have to fork out another $100 every two months for birth control… and I want to know that I’m not going to have to fork out $150 for an antibiotic when I have a sinus infection.
I am truly pissed off. I will be telling everyone I know to not use you… wait, I already am. God bless the internet.
Sincerely,
H