This Space for Rent

I love the American health-care system

A month or so ago, I went out and had a new set of reading glasses made, so I could do something radical like actually being able to see things that are within reading distance. A few weeks later, I got the glasses. Which didn't work (unless by work you mean gave me blinding headaches which made it impossible to actually use them), and then, just before I went back to the glasses place to get them to look at the stupid glasses, I got a note from my fucking useless insurance company saying "oh, there's an X-ray item on your bill that we're not going to pay for". I went in to the eyeglasses place to return the glasses and inform them that I was not going to pay this $122 dollar charge and I wanted to know what it would be.

After two and a half hours, they decided that my prescription was wrong and they'd have to correct the glasses. As for the mysterious $122 dollar charge, nobody in their office knew what it was, and so they said their billing person would get would call me back that afternoon.

I got a call back, but something about the glasses and not anything about the $122. That was last week. Today, I got a bill from the stupid eyeglasses place for -- taa-fucking-daa! -- the stupid $122 dollar charge.

So I circled the charge, wrote a note saying that I did not request that procedure and that I was not going to pay for it, so please take it off my bill, and mailed the bill back to the eyeglasses place.

I'd love to live in a country where the whole damned medical system isn't a massive confidence scam. Perhaps it's time to start investigating a get out of Hell free card, just so I won't spend my declining years fighting with doctors and health insurance companies over a string of stupid extortion attempts.