Well, it is not my intension to use this blog as a forum to gripe but please indulge me today...

I am totally baffled by the total...I can't even think of the correct word...ignorance?, stupidity?, maybe brillance....of the insurance industry.

 

We got a letter in the mail recently from my husbands insurance company that runs the flex benefits for his employer. It was a letter informing him that he still has his entire $250 flex benefit for the year that will soon expire.

Here the last paragraph of the letter states:

"The IRS has issued a new revenue ruling which allows reimbursement for the cost of over the counter medicines. It must be clear that the over the counter item has been purchased to treat or alleviate the sympotoms of an illness or injury rather than promote general health.    Antacids, allergy medicines, pain relevers and cold medicines are examples of eligible expenses. The cost of vitamins and other dietary supplements may be reimbursed only if physician documentation regarding a medical condition is provided." (Have you ever tried to get your Dr to write a script for supplements??...give me a break...)

 

Well needless to say I was flabbergasted! Heaven forbid the insurance company or the IRS try and promote "general health".  Lets just keep taking OTC medicines to band-aid our health complaints and symptoms so that eventually the body gives up trying to tell you that something is wrong. Then when we're diagnosed with a serious degenerative disease we scratch our heads and say, boy I didn't see that coming. The fact that your body was trying to tell you for 10 yrs while you self medicated never enters your mind....

 

I am not pointing fingers or laying blame on anyone....until a few years ago I didn't know any better either. How would I know...no one ever told me. When I got sick my mother gave me asprin. When I got a cough she gave me a cough suppressant. Thats what good mothers do right?

 

The more I learn about natural and alternative health the more I realize how I have just scratched the surface on the workings of this great machine we call the body.

 

So, it looks like the insurance company gets to keep our $250 again this year....there is no room in my herb cupboard for all those OTC products....