Insurance companies like @BCBSofAlabama and their shadiness are the reason that so many people, even those with insurance, go into life crippling debt due to medical bills.

Many of you know that I had a surgery in October 2018 that actually saved my life. It was a common surgery but I was in so much pain and had gone jaundice. The surgery has had a profound positive impact on my life. I am so grateful for it.

I had to have a follow up procedure two days later to ensure that they had gotten everything and to verify that I didn’t have cancer. I was terrified. But everything turned out fine.

I was so proud of myself and feel very grateful that I was able to pay off my medical bills by the end of 2018. This is, largely in part, due to having insurance. And I thank my employer for providing this option (and The Obama Administration for requiring them to do it).

What grinds my gears, though, and makes me call insurance companies shady AF, is that last week, I received a bill for nearly $500 in regards to this surgery. Because, 18 months after said surgery, BCBS decided that a part of it wasn’t covered.

So, in the middle of a global pandemic, a year and a half after my surgery, an insurance company says “nah yeah nah, this wasn’t covered, so let me go back and bill for this”. What the French toast?

In retail, there is usually a limit to when you can go and get your money back, but in insurance, there’s no statute of limitations? They can just decide “hey, 18 months later, we’ve decided that we’re no longer covering this, here’s a bill.”

Now I’m fortunate that my husband and I can afford to drop $500 in the middle of a global pandemic so this doesn’t go to collections and destroy my credit like it could for someone else. But others aren’t.

And if it was a bigger bill, we may not have been able to. How dare a company pull this? And I don’t care if it’s in a contract that it’s okay. I’m not disputing that. I’m furious because they are able to. Period.

This kind of thing is why we need #MedicareForAll. No one - and I mean no one - should get a bill 18 months after the fact. They should have processed that claim 16-18 months ago. There’s no way the backlog is that bad. If it is, they are inefficient.

If it got lost in the shuffle, that is their problem, not mine. They make enough money; eat the cost.

Still - not the point. #MedicareForAll would eliminate this kind of surprise bill for someone. Whether they had it all paid off and were proud of that or not.