1. Go to doctor and be prescribed a new drug. (.75 hrs)
2. Get new prescription filled. Find out drug is not automatically covered by government prescription drug coverage. Save those receipts! (.5 hrs)
3. Schedule a new doctor’s appointment. (.17 hrs)
4. Find and print exception paperwork for government prescription drug coverage cases and fill out your parts. (.08 hrs)
5. Take exception paperwork to doctor’s appointment and have her fill in her parts. (.75 hrs)
6. Mail exception paperwork. (.25 hrs)
7. Wait.
8. Call doctor’s office to see if paperwork has been returned. (.17 hrs)
9. Wait.
10. Call doctor’s office to see if paperwork has been returned. (.17 hrs)
11. Go to doctor’s office and pick up exception rejection. It will always be a rejection. (.5 hrs)
12. Print forms for secondary insurance coverage and fill out. Attach the exception rejection. (.25 hrs)
13. Print forms for reimbursement from secondary insurance  for already purchased prescriptions and fill out. Attach original receipts! (.5 hrs)
14. Copy original receipts for your taxes. (.25 hrs)
15. Take secondary insurance forms to campus office. (1 hr)
16. Wait.
17. Take the check that arrives in the mail to the bank. (.17 hrs)
18. Repeat for each new prescription!

I kind of hate to complain because the healthcare paperwork crap I deal with here is much, much better than what I dealt with when I lived in the US, but I’m going to complain. That’s almost 6 hours of bullshit to deal with for each new prescription. I can speed things along a bit by combining drugs sometimes, but it’s still a lot no matter how I dice it. Do you know how much work I could do in 6 hours?

Being sick is a lot of work. And a lot of it is complete fucking bullshit that’s about endlessly proving you’re sick enough to access the care you need.