Friend: So, you’re having a colonoscopy tomorrow huh?
Me: And endoscopy, yeah.
Friend: Fasting?
Me: Yup.
Friend: I bet you’re hungry
Me: Please stop
Friend: At least you’re getting the medical care you need, right?
Me: Oh yeah, absolutely. In the grand scheme of things I really have nothing to complain about. I spent the first 24 years of my life without health insurance, so I know how good I’ve got it now. The bureaucracy of it all kills me though. I have to talk to my main doctor so they can talk to my specialist so that they can write a prescription that will convince the insurance company that I actually need the procedure blah blah blah I hate it!
Friend: Don’t even get me started on bureaucracy. I had to have a procedure done for my intellectually disabled child, and it became… just… this whole thing.
Me: Your nonverbal kid?
Friend: Yeah, that’s the one.
Me: Why was that complicated?
Friend: Well, they’re 18 now, but I’m going to be caring for them for the rest of my life. And yet, nobody bothered to tell me that getting access to their medical records would suddenly become impossible once they reach majority.
Me: Oh shit
Friend: And all the systems are so complicated there’s nobody to even put the blame on!
Friend: So I present my child to the doctor and I’m like, “here, you try to get consent. I’ll wait.”
Friend: Of course, the doctor knows this. The nurses know this. Whatever insurance person I’m talking to on the phone knows this, but I had to legally become a guardian of my adult child which took months!
Me: Jesus Christ.
Friend: Healthcare in the US is a fuckin joke.