So I’ve been on Medicare – the first time I’d had health care in 30 years – for about 10 years now. When I signed up for Social Security, that was part of the package. Actually, only Part A – since that was totally free.
Part B covered doctors, I think – at any rate, it was going to cost $100 a month, and I knew I wouldn’t go to a doctor. A few years ago, I realized a burden could possibly land on my kids, so I signed up for Part B. I never signed up for Part D, which is the prescription part of health care – I just simply am unable to believe in that kind of medicine, and won’t use drugs, though I will use what alternative folk call remedies – supplements, minerals, homeopathy.
A couple of years ago, after being bombarded with insurance companies all of October and November, I realized that many of these companies were offering some dental and vision care – one cleaning a year, new glasses. And started to sign up, until being told by Anthem that I would have to pay a penalty monthly for not having had prescription coverage all those years. And they would not estimate how much. So I canceled it. Then last year, I talked to Humana, and signed up, after being told it was about 30 cents a month.
Turns out it is over $34 a month, a penalty for not using drugs, which I won’t use anyway. And the only way to appeal is to prove that actually I did have prescription coverage somewhere.
When my wrist broke during a fall in 2013, I walked into the Mercy facility talking about white willow bark, Rescue Remedy, and the fact that I didn’t use standard medicine.
So they never even offered me a pain pill, and didn’t write a prescription. I’m thinking a good term for how I feel about regular medicine is that I’m a conscientious objector.