AKMA’s Random Thoughts

Formal Observations

I had been hoping to share the results of some of Pippa and Jennifer’s fantastic clean-up efforts — that would be, photos of some old posters that have been hiding, curled-up, in a closet. There’s a poster for the Clash gig at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh (Combat Rock tour; I love the fact that the poster doesn’t mention the year of the concert), a poster for the Clash’s first album, a Who Are You poster, and various posters of Margaret’s heroes (and mine):Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, David Bowie. But that’ll have to wait till I get back from my triumphant “All Over Heck and Back” summer tour.

Two other great things happened today. First, the local house-call bike-repair guy came around and spruced up the family bicycles, during which operation he refused (on more than one occasion) to perform more work on them than the bikes themselves warranted). Then he looked at the beat-up second-hand bike I’d picked up to replace my even-more-beat-up long-term bike, and he said it just wasn’t worth any work at all. My old long-term bike, though, was worth oiling, adjusting, and putting new tires on — so he fixed it up nicely, for little money, and told me that as much as I loved that old beater, he really wanted me to save up and buy a new bike rather than invest in repairs to a rusty old one. I got the sense that I might have to mug him to force him to accept my money.

Second, I crept up to our financial officer’s desk holding some intimidating forms from our new medical insurance plan (this is our third plan in four years), and asked her if she’d help me figure out how to answer the questions correctly. She took a cursory look at the sheaf of documents I offered, made a scornful face, and dropped them in the trash before my panic-stricken eyes. It turns out that these really were not my responsibility, that I had already provided the necessary information, and I was off the hook. Bless you, bless you, Lynn!

But that brings me to my outcry of protest for the evening: What sense does it make for medical and financial decisions to tremendous importance to be determined on the basis of forms, forms that are so obscure, tedious, simultaneously repetitive and subtly different, that a visually- and verbally-literate writer and thinker positively dreads filling them out? I know, Eric will jump up and start talking about the benefits of DigID for HIPAA; at moments such as this, I’m a soft touch for those arguments. I just want to go to the doctor, find out what’s up with my thumb, pay a bill moderated by insurnace for which I pay a reasonable premium, and live without fear that I’ll be bankrupted or killed for putting the wrong number in the wrong ambiguously-labelled space on a form. . . .

Posted by AKMA at July 29, 2004 09:07 PM | TrackBack