Health insurance annoyances.

Since I need to start getting colonoscopies because colon cancer runs in my family, I'm starting to set one up for this summer.

(I had meant to do this last year, but Covid got in the way.)

Setting up an appointment with a specialist wasn't that big a deal on my new insurance that I have off of the Affordable Care Act, but what came next was a bit surprising.

I had to make sure that the hospital was in-network, then deal with trying to figure out if the anesthesiologist will be in-network, which you really can't do till a week before the procedure, it turns out.

I also have to get cleared for the procedure by my primary care doc a few weeks before the test, and that includes bloodwork, and it turns out that the new in-network primary care doctor doesn't do bloodwork tests out of that office, so I'd either have to go out to a far suburb to see them, or set up a separate bloodwork appointment at a separate lab place at a separate location.

So, that makes quite a bit of work, in addition to figuring out how I can get affordable colonoscopy prep, since the kit I got prescribed costs $100 even with insurance.

I'm thinking of this overall as a test case in how good my health insurance is; you never really know until you start having to use it.