December 15 – “Strike three”

After hours upon hours of online research, and with the generous help of Seaside, I finally made the fateful phone call yesterday.  Health insurance.  The policy I had was being discontinued, and Blue Cross Blue Shield would no longer be offering PPO type insurance.  But as I said, I had done extensive research.  And I even had a good friend who is also an agent trying to track done something for me.  What I found was a PPO policy offered by none other than Guidestone, the agency of the Southern Baptist Convention that provides retirement accounts and insurance for pastors and church staff members.  It was pretty expensive, but Seaside assured me they wanted me to go ahead and get it.  It was the only way I could be guaranteed to keep my existing doctors. 

After a fairly short wait I was connected to a nice young man who asked me a few questions.  Not many, actually.  Apparently it didn’t take him long to be able to say I was ineligible for any kind of insurance they offered unless I met one of three criteria. 

1. I was new to my church (just starting there).  Well, I’ve been at Seaside for 20 years.  Strike one.

2. I was married or planning to get married, pregnant or planning to become pregnant, or had a new dependent of some kind and needed coverage for them.  Not gonna happen any time soon, that’s for sure.  Strike two.

3. I had experienced loss of coverage due to ineligibility of some kind. 

Now I figured I would easily be covered under that last one.  But no.  See, the insurance companies figured that one out.  Discontinuing the entire policy was not the same as being declared ineligible.  I was still eligible.  There just wasn’t a policy that they offered that matched me anymore.  Which meant I didn’t match Guidestone’s qualifications either.  Strike three.  And so the arm of the Southern Baptist Convention that was established to assist pastors was useless when it came down to actually assisting this particular pastor.  Unless, of course, I quit Seaside and go to another church.  Sigh.  Thanks for … well, nothing. 

On the positive side, at least I will have health coverage of some kind.  I was automatically transferred to an HMO by Blue Cross Blue Shield.  That means we get to go through the joy of establishing with a Personal Care Physician who must then be involved in every decision there is regarding our care.  I will probably have to find another rheumatologist and neurologist within the system who will agree to work with the hefty chart I have accumulated over the years.  Either that or it will be back to page one again, trying new medications until I work my way back up to what I am on now that appears to be working well.  Strangely enough we found Chris’ doctor on their list, so I jumped in and signed us both up under her name.  She operates out of the UTMB clinic right around the corner from our house, so that’s another win.  And it is a lot cheaper that the PPO would have been.  So, hear me sighing a great sigh of resignation.  Guess we will officially be UTMB bound for the rest of our lives.  But is that such a bad thing?  At least we won’t have to leave the Island as much.

1 Peter 2:2-3 says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Father, thank you for being the Great Physician.  These insurance companies could sure use you to be the Great Administrator, though.  Amen.