Last month, the annual ritual was once again endured: GovGuam’s Health Insurance Choice. Over the past four years, we’ve moved from Calvo’s Selectcare to Aetna, back to Calvo’s Selectcare, and now to TakeCare. Every time you have to research new documents, compare benefits, fill out new forms, and learn new bureaucracies.
I attended a session at the Guam Museum to meet an insurance salesperson. There was no representative of the government of Guam who should have been present to provide analysis and recommendations for our selection. It was like comparing coverage, copays, deductibles, etc. $300+ per month.
why every year?
why do you need it every year? I had insurance for several years.
Then there is the challenge of obtaining essential prescriptions not available on Guam from another off-island pharmacy. On the phone she said 2 hours later what was missing was a new insurance card with member number on it. To register online, you needed your member number, Rx Bin number, group number, and benefit ID number. All this was a hassle to find without a new insurance card.
stress, anxiety
All of this just creates stress, confusion and uncertainty. This is not how we treat manamco. We can and should do better than this.
Add this GovGuam health insurance debacle to our growing list of crises in healthcare. unresolved medical malpractice situation; deteriorating public hospitals; Abandoned public health and social services building. Lack of professional health care planning agency.
Sure, there are hundreds of dedicated, hardworking medical professionals serving the people of Guam, but what’s lacking is real leadership to meet the challenges.
Shimoda
Incredibly, the Guam Economic Development Authority, with zero healthcare experience, is tasked with getting us out of this wilderness. But their progress has rarely been made clear to stakeholders (the people of Guam), and now the supposed masterplan for the medical campus is likely delayed until the end of the year. So we can only say that this dream medical campus (which costs easily over his $1 billion) is currently short on plans, funding and land.
Dave Lotz is a vocal advocate for preserving Guam’s unique heritage, a knowledgeable, long-time hiker, environmental advocate, and critic of an incompetent government. He has resided on Guam since his 1970s and is retired from Guam’s Parks and Recreation Service, Andersen AFB Environmental Flight and National Park Service.
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