Let the Games Begin!

I worked the phone for a couple hours yesterday.

I'm back knee deep into it.

I was on the phone with Aetna for about an hour, about half that time on various holds. I spoke with two different people in two different departments, trying to decipher and interpret the insurance lingo they spoke in. Now a third person is due to call me back in the next "72-hours."

I've gone through this routine twice already. No one ever called back.

I've fought with Aetna over most of 2006 - playing a bait-and-switch with my pharmacy coverage, denying doctor ordered scans, questioning doctor's prescription decisions. What's the worst thing about cancer? It's your insurance company.

If honesty, and what is good and right, does prevail, Aetna will be offering me a pharmacy benefit as advertised and sold to me and then I'll have no worries of my chemo drug ever being covered and paid for.

And I believe in what is good and right.

There are strong chances that I will continue to be eligible for patient assistance through the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Or there are chances that I could receive some kind of assistance through private organizations. But we are talking about a cost of medicines at $5,000-plus each month. It's nothing to take for granted.

It's great to have those options, but it wouldn't be what is honest, good and right.

If I sell you a brand new sports car and then deliver you a junkyard jalopy you would demand some correction. It's what's right.

So I have to pursue Aetna to try to hold them accountable, have them step up to the plate, and do what's right. It's only the right thing to do. So I continue to pursue them.

I'll wait for someone to call me back in the next "72-hours." Then they're getting another call from me.

In the meantime I need to explore all my options.

I learned yesterday that I would be eligible for Medicare in 24-months from September, which is when I would be eligible for disability. Enrolling in Medicare automatically makes me eligible for Medicaid. Other than that, there are no other government-related options.

If I was dirt poor, or of retirement age, or a child, I would have viable options. But, unfortunately, I'm just your normal, average guy. So there are no government options.

Today I'll continue to explore opportunities on the private side. Bayer won't re-evaluate my status for assistance until 30-days before the current agreement expires.

More phone calls today . . .