I like having medical insurance. It sure is better than having no insurance. But wait.. Don’t I have Obamacare insurance? Oh, no wait… That’s for other people. I’m just paying for it. But I digress…

Like most people, I don’t have a choice of what medical insurance company covers my ills. I wish I did, and I wish I was covered by anyone or anything except Group Health. Why? Simple, my dear Einstein. Their customer service sucks.

I have a few prescriptions I take on a regular, sometimes daily basis. Unfortunately, being covered  by GH means I have to go to a GH pharmacy to have my prescriptions filled. No, I can’t go to Walgreen’s or Rite Aid or (gag gag) Albertson’s. GH is an HMO or HOMO or something. Meaning: They don’t do things the way everyone else does. There’s a few GH pharmacies scattered around Pierce County but they’re all out of the way no matter where you live.

When I started using GH I was told I could have my prescriptions filled over the internet and have them mailed to me. Wow! How convenient! No…… Not! It takes forever to get prescriptions from GH mailed to you. Their “disclaimer” (another word for bullsh*t excuse) is that you have to allow 5 to 7 days to have your order mailed to you from the time the prescription is approved. So…. In translation, that means it actually takes about 10 days on average to get your prescription mailed to you-assuming they don’t screw up and actually mail it.

So I decided gas was not really that expensive and for the last few months have been travelling Tacoma’s pothole infested roads (or Obamaroads) to GH’s medical center in downtown Tacoma and that would save me some time in getting my prescriptions filled. After all, they have the drugs right there! Stupid me!

Their walk up window service at Group Health’s Tacoma Medical Center (just kitty-corner from the Frisko Freeze) is worse than their mail service. On average, I have to wait a half an hour before my number is called and I get to talk to someone, then it takes at least a half an hour for them to find the drugs in the back room. Sometimes they forget about me and I have to go back up to the window asking where the hell my drugs are. Then the “technician” has to go to the back room and find out where the other technician is who’s supposed to be looking for my drugs.

I’m not against old people.. Ok, I am… They piss me off. They get their turn in line at one of the 6 or 7 windows in the pharmacy and talk for what seems like forever asking dumbass questions about their prescription. Questions like, “Why do I have to take this;” “Can I drink orange juice with this;” “How do I take this;” “Can I shove the pill up my ass,” etc… I think there should be a separate window just for the dumb people and old people who don’t know how to swallow pills.

But nothing is worse than the horribly slow service that the pharmacy technicians provide at no cost to me. They are slow in filling orders and they know it. They talk slowly, they move slowly, they respond to everything slowly. They never smile. They act like they wish they were somewhere else. I think they should be somewhere else. They would be great employees for local or state governments… Slower than sh*t. I went to the pharmacy on a Saturday once, thinking the crowds would be smaller therefore, the overwhelmed Einstein’s behind the windows could maybe put two thoughts together in the same hour and maybe go a little faster.. Nooooooo! Of course not. There was two people working at the windows (instead of 7 on weekdays) and of course, there was the old people, asking dumbass questions and the government workers… I mean pharmacy technicians were just as slow as ever…

Having medical insurance is better than nothing. But if you need a prescription filled, you’re likely to get it filled faster if you go to Mexico as opposed to going to Group Health of Washington. They just suck.

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