Argh!!!
So…I went to get the anti-malarials filled this evening, well tried to anyway. According to BC/BS they will cover the cost of treating malaria, but not the prevention. In order to get them to cover the cost I have to get malaria first. So basically it seems that they’re hoping everyone will be too scared of getting malaria that they’ll pay out of pocket for the meds (in my case over $1000) in order to prevent the contraction of the disease and if they do that they won’t get malaria so BC/BS doesn’t have to pay a dime in treatment. Nice scam. Oh, and did I mention that the side effects include disturbed sleep, nightmares, depression and in rare cases hallucinations and suicidal thoughts? And I have to pay for that?
Update: The Doctor decided to put me on doxycyclene instead of the Lariam and Malarone…so now I just have to worry about bad sunburns…I’m a fair-skinned redhead, I think I have the sun issues under control at this point in my life.
Tags: pre-trip planning
Sunshine
That’s a bum deal. Just had a bunch of friends come back from Kenya and Uganda. Don’t think they had to pay so much for their anti-malarials, but there were a couple who had some serious freak-you-out-make-you-afraid-of-the-dark-and-pray-till-you-sweat kinda dreams. Hope you’re spared those. 😉
I’m not sure what meds you are taking for malaria, but we just got out tablets off the net – they cost around $60 and then after that we’ll just buy them while we’re away.
Either way, once the money is spent, you’ll stop thinking about it and you can get on with enjoying your trip 🙂