3 Years ago I was living and working in LA when two things happened:

1. I was diagnosed at UCLA Medical Center with MS and

2. I had brain surgery to relieve my congenital hydrocephalus, again at UCLA.

The symptoms I had with my MS were thought to be related to my hydrocephalus, but alas, it was indeed an MS diagnosis. Needless to say, being 3,000 miles from home, my mother badgered me into moving back to the great state of Tennessee.

I took a job with a large health care conglomerate in East Tennessee. I should have Cadillac health insurance, right? HA!

My company, which employs over 9k people in the area, has the worst health coverage of any plan I’ve ever had. And to add insult to my injury, until recently we owned a health insurance company!

My plan relies heavily on using only our facilities, which for MS, is not so great. My out of pocket deductibles for going to the university hospital are outrageous, even though the care is superior there.

I work in the marketing department so I was privy to some information about our new drug plan. We opened our own pharmacy which means we get my MS drug for half price under 340b pricing. That’s roughly $720 for a month’s supply. Under our insurance coverage, injectible drugs cost employees $150 a month. And the kicker? The comment was made that it only effected 65 people. I corrected them that it effected 66 people.

My great health care company is short sighted. An MS flare can cost 5k for each flare. Without drugs, MS patients can have multiple flares a year. Now I ask you, what’s more practical in the long run? Lowering the drug cost back to $60 a month like it used to be so that even the $8 an hour employee can afford them thereby reducing flares, which reduces costs and may mean that that employee may delay becoming disabled by years and sucking disability insurance dry, or keeping the drug cost at an outrageous $150 a month, meaning most employees have stopped taking their drugs, raising the incidents of flares and collateral effects? Lost wages, lost work production, lost quality of life?

Oh, and we have NO out of pocket maximum on our plan.

My company, a non-profit pillar of the community, cares only about the bottom line. Which was increased when Humana bought the health insurance arm of our company for $245 million this year.

I could take a job with better benefits at a lower pay scale and come out ahead.