Met Life .... This is Your CUSTOMER calling

Met Life . . . This is your life.

Met Life has been a company I admired. I purchased their long and short-term disability insurance packages. I enjoyed their sponsorship of the Snoopy TV shows when my children were young. They seemed to have it all together. Then I became a dissatisfied customer, on more than one occasion. I am again a dissatisfied customer, having done everything requested of me to continue my disability claim and still without more than two months of payments on my claim. It reminds me of the days when AIDS was a disease we feared and misunderstood. Insurance companies would delay payment of claims in the hope that the patient would die before collecting what was due them. I am a VERY LONG TERM cancer survivor – nearly 29 years. This became a serious problem in August of 2008 and I have not worked since that time. On December 31, with little warning, my claim was closed. I called and asked what needed to be done to reinstate the claim. I was told to send the last two physician notes from my chart, which was faxed to Met Life on February 2. Met Life then did………nothing. They did not read the information that was sent and they did not reinstate my payments. I am down to $70, having borrowed against credit cards and home equity line of credit. I have called Met Life daily, enduring the frustrastion of punching in my numbers only to reach a voicemail message informing me that the case managers are gone for the day and will call me first thing in the morning. They don’t call back and I start the cycle of phone calls again. At my wit’s end, I left a message that I would have to apply for food stamps and cite Met Life’s lack of compliance with the terms of their own policy as the reason for my need for food stamps. That at least has generated enough interest for Met Life to admit that I did what I was supposed to do to get paid by them. They further admit that they failed to read what I was asked to send them and to do it within 5 business days. My information is what they needed to reinstate my claim. They now state I should have the money in my bank account by Wednesday, February 25. Stay tuned to this blog to see if Met Life meets their contractual obligation.
How do we treat the sick among us? This is a broad societal question. Do we try to ease their pain and suffering? Do we make them work harder to obtain the medications and they need to survive? Do we consider them a burden? A source of wisdom? An inspiration? Are we conflicted in how we feel about them? What do you think? Have you had an experience with medicine, insurance or the government with respect to a health problem that you would like to share? Maybe we can help each other.