Insurance and Ethics

Apparently, I don't post enough :) This is for all those who are fooled into thinking I might have anything interesting to say. Well, here it goes.

First of all I'd like to thank Dictionary.com for the bit of information below that I thought would be interesting to include:

Insurance:

1. the act, system, or business of insuring property, life, one's person, etc., against loss or harm arising in specified contingencies, as fire, accident, death, disablement, or the like, in consideration of a payment proportionate to the risk involved.
2. coverage by contract in which one party agrees to indemnify or reimburse another for loss that occurs under the terms of the contract.
3. any means of guaranteeing against loss or harm: Taking vitamin C is viewed as an insurance against catching colds.

Ethics:

1. a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.
   
2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.
   
3. moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.
   
4. that branch of philosophy dealing with the values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
   

I recently got my husband and I into a mess that will affect us financially. Insurance should be something that gives you confidence. It's something to fall back on when the unexpected happens. However, like most everything in life, it comes with a price. So when my husband and I pay that price, I expect the insurance that brings confidence.

When we got pregnant, it was sooner than we had planned, not entirely unexpected, but we were confident we'd be able to handle it physically, emotionally, spiritually and last of all, financially. Financially because we were insured!

At the beginning of the year, I was added to my husband's excellent family plan. The amount deducted from his paychecks every two weeks went up, but we had no need to worry about the costs of having the baby because they would cover it. We were sure of that because we were paying the price.

Well, now things don't seem so "insured." My wise mom told me to keep a log of everything that has recently occurred concerning our insurance. So much for confidence!

Here is what I wrote:

June 18th: I called Blue Cross Blue Shield with questions about our maternity benefits. Considering they take money from Brevyn's paycheck every two weeks so that we can get the great benefits we do, and Brevyn is the primary provider for our family, it was assumed they were our Primary insurance. They asked me yesterday whether or not I was insured by anyone else. I was clueless to how Primary and Secondary insurances worked and in my ignorance I told them about our other insurance. I have had a basic insurance with Select Health since I got a job at Fibernet over a year and a half ago, back when I was single. I kept my insurance when I got married assuming it to be more of a benefit to be double insured, and never would I have thought that would be a mistake. Select Health was being paid for by my employer, but as it fell second in quality to the insurance my husband and I have been paying for out of his paychecks, and me being his spouse and listed on his family plan since the first of this year, which also increased our rates, I had every reason to use his instead of Select Health and every reason to assume, without entirely understanding Primary versus Secondary, that his was our Primary insurance.

June 19th: I spoke with Fibernet's Select Health representative, Irene, who returned my call after I'd called her with questions yesterday. I came to find out that deductibles with Select Health must be paid before they cover their 80% and then Blue Cross would cover the other 20%. Of course this plan would rate second when compared to Blue Cross which covers 100% with no deductibles. Who wouldn't assume Blue Cross would be the "Primary" Insurance. But of course I find out all this after the fact, and Blue Cross now has it in their system that they are my secondary insurance and Select Health is my primary. And as I understand it, Blue Cross will now probably back bill us the amount Select health would have charged us for our doctor's visits, and I find that to be entirely unethical. Therefore, I filled out the appropriate form to terminate our Select Health insurance which will take place July 1st. I rescheduled my ultrasound to July 1st to avoid being charged anything as Blue Cross should then be our Primary Insurance. I spoke with a Blue Cross representative, Debbie, who gave me some reassurance that we should be okay since they were the better insurance. She elaborated more and it wasn't in those words. However, I was still nervous because of what I'd been hearing contrary to what she'd explained and told her I'd be canceling with Select Health. She told me that I will need to send in a Certificate of Termination as proof that Select Health is no longer my Primary, which I never considered it to be in the first place.

As a side note, this would be reversed for my husband. Blue Cross Blue Shield would be his Primary insurance and Select Health his Secondary, and it would be more beneficial for us if my husband were to be the one having the baby. However, I see it as we are both having the baby. I am taking on the majority of the physical responsibilities as the women. I believe he has some physical responsibilities as well. We both will be taking on the emotional, spiritual, and financial responsibilities as the parents. As we are both on his insurance plan, we have EVERY right to use it as our primary plan for our family!

Perfect Timing and Tender Mercies

Brevyn went away to Wyoming this weekend for his two week AT with the National Guard. Not having been able to talk to him most of the weekend, I expected I wouldn't be able to at all while he was away. He warned me that they would be out in the middle of nowhere and he possibly would be unable to get service on his cell phone. I was having a hard time with this. I at least wanted to be able to talk to him, and I knew the two weeks he was away would be the two weeks the baby would develop more noticeably.
On Sunday I was noticing our baby moving inside me more than usual, but I still hadn't been able to feel anything by placing my hand on my tummy. That evening, the phone rang and surprisingly enough it was Brevyn. My mom handed me the phone and I ran into my parents bedroom and laid down on the bed to talk to him. He was standing on what is called a CAT (I think that's how it would be spelled) that they had driven to the top of a hill. He had to stay very still to be able to hold on to the call. As we were visiting, I felt subtle movement and placed my had where I felt it. Sure enough a moment later, I felt something push slightly against my hand. Brevyn had called at the perfect moment to be a part of me feeling the baby against my hand for the first time. As I shouted with excitement about this, the baby kept moving more and I was so happy to have Brevyn on the phone. He was sad he couldn't be there with me of course, but duty called.
I look at things that happen like this as tender mercies from the Lord. I have been blessed with many of those in my life, and this was yet another one.