Why in Apollo’s name is my wife’s insurance company giving my urologist the runaround about paying the bill for my vasectomy? They aren’t going to pay the measly $700 left over after our cash co-pay for the procedure because they want to confirm that I don’t have any health insurance of my own or other payers for benefits like this. Well guess what? I’m willing to bet most families have only one person who brings home health care benefits because they’re really damned expensive for employers to provide. And the reason health insurance is expensive isn’t vasectomies. It’s what happens when you don’t get vasectomies.
Think about it — if I had remained fertile and impregnated my wife, the insurance company would have been paying for neonatal care (enhanced because my wife’s age raises health concerns above and beyond that of a younger mother), tens of thousands of dollars in obstetrics for the delivery, and over the next eighteen years, tens of thousands more in pediatric care, well-baby visits, and dealing with the countless infections, colds, scrapes, broken bones, and who knows what other injuries are a normal part of growing up. Instead, they are asked to pay seven hundred dollars for the privilege of avoiding tens of thousands of dollars in payouts down the road.
Meanwhile, they can continue to charge my wife and her employer the high-margin premiums with low expected benefit risks which are standard for under-40 DINKs. Well, in my case I’m soon to hit the big 4-0 but that’s another story. Point is, they’re saving so damn much money with me getting sterilized and being childless, they ought to be not only writing my doctor a check, but reimbursing me the co-pay.
