Change Doctors or Insurance Companies?

It’s that time of year. I just got a notice in the mail from my health insurance company, updating my plan. Apparently this update is to inform me that their contract with my current medical provider is ending. This means that my provider will no longer be part of my plan starting October of 2026.

They told me that they understand how important the care I get from my provider is and so they are working hard to keep them in my network, which means they are in negotiation with my medical providers on a new contract. They will keep me updated about these negotiations, but the general drift of the rest of the letter is that if I keep my current insurance and want to keep my current doctors, it’s going to cost me more money because my doctors will be out of network.

As some of you are aware, I have had some major health issues this year and received amazing care from the doctors and nurses in my network. So this news is a bit disturbing to me.

My choices seem to be, lose the amazing people in my network who already know me, have treated me, and I like and trust them, to stay with a large corporation that honestly doesn’t give a shit about me. As far as they’re concerned I’m just a number that hopefully doesn’t cost them too much. And they can feel free to turn me down for any medicines or operations I may need. And somehow, I don’t think they lose any sleep over any patient rejections, so at least I know it’s not personal.

Or I can choose to stay with an amazing group of professionals who have already shown me they care for my well being. I will need to find another large faceless corporation to send money to monthly so they can work their magic and do everything they can to NOT spend any of the money I’m giving them, to take care of me.

The insurance company has kindly provided me with the names of a couple other patient care networks that they do cover in my area, as they assume that my priority will be to stay with the giant corporation that doesn’t give a shit about me. And don’t think I don’t appreciate this.

Obviously, I’m hopeful that the insurance company and my provider network can come to some sort of an agreement so everything can stay the same. If not, I’m going to have a big decision to make…

Do I stay with the providers I like who do an amazing job? Or stay with the giant, rich, soulless corporation that only cares about the bottom line?

Gosh, what should I do?

Rest assured, whatever I do will probably cost me more money.

Other Stuff

Over the last year and change I’ve been sitting down with my buddy Chris Martin of @gettingworktowork and his Beyond Your Imagination podcasts to talk about films. A couple of weeks ago we sat down and recorded the final two episodes of this season. He will be posting those soon.

Until then you can go to his site and listen to us talk about films like, Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus, Fitzcarraldo & Burden Of Dreams, Dogtown & Riding Giants, Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage & Muscle Shoals, Zappa & The Sparks Brothers, and more.

These have been fun podcasts to do and it was great going back and watching some films I loved and hadn’t seen in years. Do they still hold up for me?

The podcasts can be found here at https://byi.show/season-3/

I’ll let you know when the new episodes drop. Check them out.

Really you should be following Chris Martin anyway. A very interesting guy who interviews a lot of amazing people and talks about Creativity and Getting Work To Work.

I am always fascinated with the people he interviews and the topics they discuss.

As usual, Thank You for reading, subscribing, and supporting my writing and filmmaking.

Remember, if you don’t like what I’m writing these days then unsubscribe. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Here’s a link to me reading from my story, The Gas Mask. https://vimeo.com/759262962?share=copy

Back in the 70’s a friend of mine hooked up an old World War Two Gas Mask to a Water Pipe making one of the most efficient pot delivery systems to get you really stoned quickly. But there were a few drawbacks… I hope you enjoy it.

Don’t let the bastards get to you!

Please Support Independent Artists! Even the crazy ones.

Check out my books, as well as my films, and Angry Filmmaker merchandise on my site. www.angryfilmmaker.com