El seguro medico contraataca. Health insurance is back

Hola! Si, otra vez, mi segundo encontronazo con el sistema sanitario americano, pero esta vez unido a la maravillosa situacion economica en España y tambien, a uno de los mayores despistes de mi vida. Vamos con la historia...

El sabado mientras hacia limpieza en casa, tire a la basura dos envases vacios de mi medicacion, pero por error, tire el envase que estaba aun lleno, con 80 dosis!! Soy asmatica y tomo diariamente 4 dosis de Symbicort, un corticosteroide broncodilatador. El caso es que me di cuenta de esto cuando por la noche me disponia a tomar mi dosis. Cuando me di cuenta de lo que pasaba, casi me entra un ataque de asma!! Era sabado por la noche, al dia siguiente el centro de salud estaba cerrado y yo estaba perdiendo dosis!!! Intente tranquilizarme, aunque por la noche tuve varios episodios de apnea y el domingo por la mañana, bien tempranito, llame al telefono de Northwestern al que se puede llamar durante el fin de semana o en dias de fiesta.

Despues de dejar mis datos, tuve que esperar unos 20 minutos hasta que un medico volvio a llamar. Le explique el caso y muy amablemente, llamo a la farmacia para que tuviesen preparada mi medicacion. Hasta aqui todo resuelto. 

Ahora viene lo mejor, cuando llegue a CVS, me dieron mi inhalador y vi la factura...

274 $

Si!!! Lo que leeis :) un inhalador de 120 dosis, a 4 dosis al dia, eso es para un mes!! Casi me da un ataque de asma alli mismo, jeje! De la "emocion" se me cayo la tarjeta de debito al suelo, jaja! En fin, pague, inhale, me tranquilice y al dia siguiente fui al centro de salud a reclamar el 50% del precio total del medicamento, que es lo que mi seguro de "visitor scholar" me paga. Asi que al menos he recuperado una parte. La otra parte, supuestamente la tiene que pagar la Junta de Comunidades de Castilla - La Mancha, pero eso es un decir, puesto que me han dicho que no lo van a pagar sin darme ninguna explicacion. 

La conclusion es que yo pago la seguridad social española y la americana y que desde España me reembolsan la americana, de modo que yo solo pago un seguro medico. Eso es lo que dice mi contrato de la JCCM, pero del dicho al hecho hay un gran trecho y eso es lo que ha pasado. No me han pagado el seguro medico americano y tampoco mi medicacion, con lo que despues de pagar dos seguros medicos de dos paises distintos, yo soy la que pago la medicacion de mi bolsillo. Lo peor es que voy a ir a casa en menos de dos semanas, con lo que podria haber cargado de nuevo con mis inhaladores, pero este era el ultimooooo!!! Dentro del caso fui afortunada. El responsable de los seguros me dijo que al menos habia llamado por telefono y que no habia sido necesario que un medico me viese, si no, hubiese tenido que pagar 250 $ extra por ir al medico en fin de semana, me quedo "topicueta". Bonita historia, pero bueno, considerando el panorama economico actual, no voy a quejarme y me seguire considerando afortunada por tener un trabajo bueno y que me gusta.

Dicho esto y considerandome afortunada, tambien he de decir que el modo de lucrarse con la salud de las personas es algo muy bajo y por desgracia, aqui se hace. La salud no es un negocio y toda lucha por impedir esto es poca. Por suerte una grandisima parte de America apuesta por un cambio en el sistema sanitario, donde hasta ahora, la gente tiene que rezar para no ponerse enferma. De verdad espero que esto evolucione hacia un sistema mas justo y favorecedor y que otros paises, como España, no se dirijan hacia este extremo. Estamos en crisis, pero jugar con la sanidad no es manera de salir de ella.

Hi! This is the second story about my adventures with the American health insurance. This time joined to the wonderful economical situation in Spain and coupled to one of my brilliant performances in life. Let's go to the point...

Last Saturday while I was cleaning our apartment I threw away two empty bottles of my asthma medication. The thing is that one of them wasn't empty, it was pretty full with 80 doses still. I need to take 4 puffs per day and when I realized on Saturday night when I was about to go to bed I almost had an asthma attack...Saturday night, next day Sunday and Monday was memorial day, the health center is closed. I tried to calm down and Sunday, early in the morning I called the phone number for the weekend cases. After giving my data, a doctor called me back 20 minutes later, I explained her the case and she called the pharmacy so I could get my inhaler from there. Everything seemed to be solved, until I arrived to CVS. I took my medicine and then, the big moment, the bill...

274 $

Yes!! 274 $ for a bottle of 120 doses, 4 doses per day, one bottle for one month. I almost had an asthma attack right there. I felt so excited about the bill that I even dropped my credit card because I was kinda "surprised" hehe! I finally paid, inhaled my medicine and on Tuesday I went to the insurance department to claim the 50% of the total cost, which is what my "visitor scholar" insurance pays. I could recover that part at least. The other 50 % was supposed to be paid by the Spanish government, particularly the subdivision of my region "Castilla - La Mancha". Unluckily the told me very kindly without any kind of explanation that they were not going to pay for it. That's not the entire thing, they are supposed to pay my American health insurance since I pay both, the Spanish and the American, but they are not going to pay for that either, even though that is what my contract with them says. The final conclusion is that I pay two health insurances and none of them pays for my medication, that's great!! The worse part is that I'm going home in less than 2 weeks, the perfect chance to bring my almost free medication with me, but of course the bottle I threw away was the last...I can still consider myself lucky. The insurance responsible told me that I was lucky I just called and I didn't have to be attended by a doctor, otherwise I would have paid 250 $ extra for being seen by a doctor during the weekend. That is just amazingly incredible to me!!!!!!!!

That's more or less the story, but considering the hard economical situation Spain is going through, I really consider myself very lucky for having a nice job that I truly like. Having said this, I also need to say that making money from people's health is something terrible and unfortunately this happens in this country. Health is not business and it is really necessary to fight against this kind of system. Luckily there are many Americans trying to change this, since until now, some people  must be praying so they don't get sick. I really hope this evolves towards a more fair and better system for everyone, rich and poor and also, that other countries including Spain don't start adopting these ideas due to the hard crisis moments. Yes, we are in a bad moment, but playing with people's health is not the solution!

Evanston beach. Playa de Evanston

Si! Hoy hemos estado en la playa del lago Michigan, la misma que estaba cubierta de nieve hace un par de meses :) Como conte en el post anterior, por fin ha llegado el calorcito y puesto que hoy era imposible ir a Chicago por la cumbre de la OTAN, que mejor plan que ir un ratito a la playa, a tan solo 5 minutos de nuestra casa. Aunque esta tan sumamente cerca y habiamos ido por alli a pasear, nunca habiamos ido alli con la intencion de pasar el dia y darnos un baño. La playa "oficial" aun no estaba abierta y digo oficial porque hay que pagar para entrar, asi que hemos disfrutado de un gran dia de sol y como debe ser, gratis.

Habia gente paseando, niños con cometas y viento, mucho viento, se puede decir que hemos tragado kilos de arena, espero que sea bueno para la piel, jeje!

Yeah! We've been at the Evanston beach :) or lake Michigan, the same place that was covered with snow a couple of months ago :) As I wrote on the previous post, summer has arrived and since it was impossible to go to Chicago today (NATO summit), the best plan of the day was going to the beach. It is very close from our apartment, only 5 minutes walking and even though we had been walking around the place, we had never gone there with the clear intention of staying under the sun and go for a swim. The beach wasn't officially open, there are still some more days to go and of course, pay (I don't understand this...). So today we could enjoy the sunny day for free :)

We were not the only ones at the beach, there were kids with kites, families and wind, a lot of wind!! I can say we swallowed tons of sand, I just hope it is good for our skin, hehe!

La verdad es que el agua estaba muy fria. Normalmente, el lago necesita varias semanas para calentarse  una vez que la temperatura es alta con continuidad, pero ya que estabamos alli, no he sido capaz de resistirme y junto con otras dos o tres personas que habia por alli, me he sumergido valientemente en las gelidas aguas del lago Michigan. Como se suele decir, una vez dentro no se esta tan mal :)
Por otra parte, Thomasito lo ha intentado, pero no ha sido capaz, jeje! Le dare otra oportunidad cuando haga mas calorcito aun :)
The truth is that the water was pretty cold. The lake needs several weeks to warm up once the weather gets warm, but since we were there, it was warm and sun was strong, I couldn't resist it and I just went in. I was one of the few brave people who went in the water today :). Once inside it wasn't that bad!
Thomasito tried also, but he decided not to feel the cold water. I'll give him another chance when it is even warmer :)

Too cold for him, hehe!!

Demasiado fria para el, jeje!!

Me encanta tener la playa tan cerca, aunque no sea el mar o un oceano, de todas formas el lago tiene una superficie mayor que toda la provincia de Ciudad Real :), asi que creo que se le puede considerar playa!
I really like having the beach so close, even though it is not the sea or the ocean. Anyway, the lake's surface is bigger than the entired Ciudad Real province (my home region) :) so I think it can be considered as a beach.
Una vez mas, un maravilloso dia de sol que ha terminado cocinando cosas muy ricas y tomando fuerza para empezar una semana lo mas productiva posible. Eso si, quemada como un cangrejo...no os perdais la foto!!
Once again, a wonderful day was had. We finished the day cooking nice things and resting to start a highly productive week burned as a lobster :) don't miss the picture, hehe!!

Belmont

Hola a todos! Parece que el buen tiempo ha llegado a Chicago, espero que dure :) La verdad es que estaba deseando que hiciese calorcito, ya que mis padres me contaban que en Ciudad Real estaba haciendo un calor muy veraniego en las ultimas semanas y esto, me daba mucha envida.

Thomas tuvo group meeting, como todos los sabados y yo decidi ir un par de horas al laboratorio para adelantar un par de cosas. Los sabados suelen ser moviditos: limpieza, compra, deporte y trabajo. Asi que cuando acabamos, viendo el maravilloso sol que hacia, no nos podiamos quedar en casa!!

No nos apetecia estar mucho tiempo en el tren y la verdad es que a veces, Evanston se queda demasiado pequeño. Al final decidimos ir a unos de los barrios entre Evanston y Chicago, Belmont. La verdad es que esta casi en Chicago, pero bueno, nos ahorramos un par de paradas de metro y todo el lio que se ha montado con la cumbre de la OTAN.

Hello! It seems that the nice weather has finally arrived to Chicago. I hope it lasts long :) The truth is that I was really looking forward to have higher temperatures. My parents were telling me that the last couple of weeks were really warm in Ciudad Real and to be honest that made me jealous.

Thomas had group meeting as usual and I also decided to go a couple of hours to the lab. Saturdays are normally pretty busy: cleaning, groceries, sports and work. But after all of this and with the awesome weather we had yesterday it was forbidden to stay at home!!

We didn't feel like being in the train for too long but there weren't really many things to do in Evanston, so we decided to go somewhere in between, Belmont. The truth is that it is very close to Chicago downtown but at least we saved some train stops and all the mess caused by the NATO summit.

Siempre que voy por alli me parece que solo hay gente joven, muchos de ellos con un rollo moderno, alternativo y hippy, no muy dentro del puro estilo americano :), me encanta! Por otra parte, es uno de los barrios gays de Chicago, aunque no es tan grande como Chueca, que tambien me encanta. Hay un monton de bares y sitios para tomar algo, tiendas de ropa vintage, otras con todo tipo de objetos sin ninguna relacion aparente (disfraces, camisetas deportivas, pelucas...) y entre todas estas cosas, un monton de iglesias y casas preciosas.

I always have the feeling that only young people live in this neighborhood, many of them with a very alternative and hippy style, I really love it. It is also a kind of gay neighborhood, but nothing compared to Chueca in Madrid, for example, which I also love. There are a lot of bars and places to go, apart from vintage shops, stores with tons of gadgets (costumes, sport t-shirts, wigs...) and among all these things, a lot of churches and beautiful houses.

Posando con una de las iglesias...no me acuerdo de que culto.

Here in front of one of the churches. Don't remember what kind of cult it was.

Buscabamos un sitio con terraza, dificil de encontrar por estos lares porque aunque haga buen tiempo, no se cual es el problema de los americanos y las terrazas, las echo tanto de menos!!

Encontramos un restaurante con una terraza (aceptamos barco como animal acuatico...), no como las españolas, pero bueno, terraza :) donde tenian su propia barbacoa y una amplia carta de cervezas, asi que alli nos quedamos.

Thomas se pidio las costillas de la casa regadas con una Hefe-Weisse y yo me pedi un sandwich de "pulled pork" con cole slaw y una buena La Chouffe.

We were looking for a place with terrace, so difficult to find here. Even though there are several months of nice weather, Americans don't really like terraces and I don't know why. I miss them so much!!

We finally found a place with the most similar thing to a terrace :) and they had their own bbq and a long list of beers, so we decided to stay there and enjoy the food, the beer and the weather. Thomas ordered smoked ribs and a Hefe-Weisse and I had a pulled pork sandwich and a La Chouffe (this beer brings me very good memories).

Despues de cenar dimos una vuelta por el lugar, la verdad es que todo estaba muy animado. Antes de volver a casa hicimos algunas fotos en la estacion de metro, tiene unos murales muy coloridos y siempre que pasamos quiero fotografiarlos, asi que aqui estan. Fue una buena noche, justo lo que necesitaba en un momento de morriña española, de terraza y sol :)
We walked around the place after dinner, the environment was very lively. We took some pictures before going back home. I really like how is this station, with all the colorfull paintings. I always want to take pictures there and I finally did it yesterday. We had a great time and that was exactly what I needed because I was feeling a bit melancholic about the good Spanish summer time :)

Pick Staiger concerts. Arturo Sandoval y Anoushka Shankar

Hola a todos! Durante el mes de abril tuvimos el privilegio de disfrutar de dos conciertos espectaculares en "Pick Staiger", el auditorio del campus de Northwestern. Es sorprendente la cantidad de musicos buenos, bandas de jazz, grupos de flamenco, musica clasica y otras variedades que se pueden concentrar en un sitio como el campus de Evanston :) ni siquiera en Chicago!!

Lo mejor es el precio de las entradas, son baratisimas para la clase de espectaculo que se ofrece normalmente.

Antes de Navidad fuimos a un par de conciertos de quintetos de jazz y de la Big Band de Northwestern, pero sin duda, los dos ultimos conciertos han sido los mejores.

El primero, esta belleza india: Anoushka Shankar. Un talento de poco mas de 30 años de edad. Presento su disco "The Traveller", con mezclas de musica tradicional india y flamenco, combinando instrumentos tipicos indios, como el sitar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitar), el instrumento que tiene la cantante en la foto y guitarras españolas. Ademas, hubo cante flamenco con una cantaora española, Sandra Carrasco, fue precioso. Las fotos durante el concierto estaban prohibidas, asi que solo puede fotografiar el escenario. Anoushka actua sentada para poder manejar el sitar y lleva un atuendo tipico indio, al igual que los otros musicos, excepto la cantaora y el guitarrista "El melon".

Fue todo un descubrimiento, la musica flamenca y la musica tradicional india tienen los mismos origenes, por no hablar de los tonos de las guitarras. Fue muy emocionante.

Hi everyone! Last month we had the privilege of enjoying two wonderful concerts in "Pick Staiger", Northwestern University concert hall. It is surprising the amount of good musicians, including jazz bands, flamenco groups or classical, that perform in a place like Evanston :), which is not even Chicago downtown.

The best part is the tickets price. They are normally pretty cheap, at least for the kind of show they have.

We went to a couple of concerts before Christmas. One of them was a jazz quintet and the other one was the Northwestern Big Band. Those ones were good, but the best ones until the moment were the ones in April.

The first one was this Indian beauty: Anoushka Shankar, a very young and talented musician. She presented her last CD "The Traveller", a work that mixes traditional Indian music and flamenco, combining typical Indian instruments like "sitar" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitar), the instrument the singer has in the picture and Spanish guitars. Moreover, there was a Spanish flamenco singer, Sandra Carrasco, gorgeous. Taking pics during the show was forbidden so I only took a couple of pictures of the stage. Anoushka performed sitting on an Indian carpet to be able of playing her sitar and she wore traditional Indian clothes as the rest of the musicians, except for the flamenco singer and the guitar player "The Melon".

It was a great discovery, flamenco music and traditional Indian music have the same origin, the sounds of the guitars are so similar! Everything was very exciting and I recommend it 100 %.

Anoushka Shankar

http://www.anoushkashankar.com/

Escenario de Pick Staiger preparado para el concierto de Anoushka Shankar.

Pick Staiger stage ready for Anoushka's concert.

El segundo concierto fue del grandisimo Arturo Sandoval, una de las leyendas vivientes del jazz. Es un musico de origen cubano, afincado en Estados Unidos. Fue descubierto por Dizzy Gillespie y es a dia de hoy, uno de los fundadores del ritmo afro-cubano, conocido hoy en dia como "latin jazz".

Arturo Sandoval es un excelente trompetista, pero durante el concierto nos deleito tocando el piano, percusionando e incluso cantando "be-bop", que no es exactamente cantar, sino crear melodias con la voz, como si fuese jazz :)

Me encanto su energia, los ritmos latinos, su alegria. Fue impresionante. Ademas, toco con la "Chicago Jazz Orchestra", asi que imaginaos el nivel musical. Las fotos no se ven muy bien debido a la iluminacion del teatro, pero creo que os podeis hacer una idea.

Thomas ha recibido hoy el nuevo disco de Arturo, "Dear Diz, everyday I think of you", una increible explosion de sonidos y tambien baladas. Lo pasamos estupendamente, Arturo sigue teniendo una potencia increible :)

The second concert was by the greatest Arturo Sandoval, one of the jazz living legends. He was born in Cuba, but he lives in the US since he was young. He was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie and he is currently one of the founders of afro-cuban rhythm, also known as "latin jazz".

Arturo Sandoval is an incredible trumpeter but during the concert he also played the piano, percussion and he even sang "be-bop". Well, that is not actually singing but making melodies with the voice, emulating jazz music :)

I really liked his energy, the latin rhythms and his way of cheering people up. It was incredible. On top of that, he played with the "Chicago Jazz Orchestra" so the music level was way too high. 

The pictures are not good due to the theater light, but I hope you can have an idea about how the concert was.

Thomas got Arturo's new CD today "Dear Diz, everyday I think of you", a great explosion of sound and also ballads. We had a great time, Arturo still has the power :)

http://www.arturosandoval.com/