Got it in the mail today.

Rate change effective March 1, 2010
While we strive to keep costs as low as possible, it is necessary to adjust our rates to cover the escalating cost of health care. As of March 1, 2010, the monthly rate on your HMO Saver will change from $329.00 to $427.00. Anthem Blue Cross will usually adjust rates every 12 months; however, we may adjust more frequently in accordance with the terms of your health benefit plan.

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Now, please excuse me for a moment while I ask the insurance company where they expect the policy holder with multiple sclerosis and seizure disorder to come up with another hundred bucks a month… assholes.

Thing is, they don’t. They REALLY want to drop me. *lol*

See, this is something that most people wouldn’t notice, I don’t think, but that going to law school has done for me. It taught me how to look at the world through my Genuine, Certified “So-This-Is-How-They-Screw-You” Lawyer Goggles^TM. And the second that I saw that my premium didn’t jump a nice neat $100, but rather $98, I knew something was up. (Who ends a number in a 7? Honestly?!) It bugged me. So I decided to figure out what percentage we were looking at. Sure enough, 29.9%. You know what that means, boys and girls? It means they’re not allowed to raise my premium by 30% or more. There’s a rule, somewhere, saying they can’t. They’re raising it as much as they can.

It is rules like this that we need more of.

When I talk about healthcare reform, I am talking about making more rules like this. Maybe Insurance reform is more what is important to me. I dunno.

It seems crazy to me that the amount of money it costs for my healthcare per year is more than I have made per year.

I mean, let’s do the math –

Monthly Insurance Premium: $427
Topamax (copay): $30
Cymbalta(copay): $30
Seasonale (copay): $30
Lisinopril/HCTZ (copay): $10
Gabapentin (copay): $10
Herbal Meds: $50
Psychologyist for therapy – One Visit:$90
Psychiatrist, monthly visit: $10
One visit to a doctor if I feel sick: $10
Total before Copaxone even comes into the picture: $697

Copaxone would be $780 (and that’s the 30% copay) if I weren’t incredibly lucky and having my copay taken care of by Shared Solution’s copay assistance program.

If I didn’t have Shared Solutions’ help, it would cost me $1477 before I even started thinking about things like rent, food, or utilities.

That blows my mind. Lets add to that my student loans. How the hell am I supposed to conquer THAT?

I am NOT a stupid individual, nor am I lazy. I have a bachelor of music in music business from Berklee College of Music. I have a juris doctor from Southwestern University. I am 29 years old. But even my best job didn’t pay me enough to do everything up there and take care of all my needs.

Anthem is counting on that.

This company that is supposed to exist to help people is trying to bully me out of my policy by making it too expensive to have the good coverage that I found through them in the first place before we discovered that I was ill.

Well, guess what, Anthem Blue Cross?

You can’t bully me.

I will always find a way to keep my ass covered, and if I can’t do it, my crazyass awesome family and friends will. Because that’s what we do for each other.