The common factor

I have recently discovered that at all levels of the medical profession, from doctors to administrative types, there exists beings whose sole purpose is to be incompetent and to ensure you feel like a terrible person with no real medical problems.

This was something I was aware of with GPs especially, and the last seven months has been a testimony to that fact. The incompetent GP I have been seeing, for the seven+ months I've been sick, has been pretty much incompetent and unreliable. After many false promises and waxing strong about onions, he finally did the only good thing he has ever done and sent me to a good specialist (after he made up a lot of lies on my referral and excluded information that was actually important).

Today the extent of nasty incompetence was revealed to me further when I went to Medicare to get a refund. The specialist sent me for an ultrasound. It turns out he wanted to ultrasounds done. It was all fine. Unfortunately it cost a fair bit, but the receptionist printed out the receipt.

"Take this to Medicare. You will get 70% back."

So that's what I did. But rather than getting 70%, or even being treated like a human being, I got this (what it sounded like the lady actually meant I have added in italics):

Nasty lady: I can't do this. You had two ultrasounds. Did you have them on the same day?

Me: (confused) I already had them.

Nasty lady: That's what I said. But why did you have to have two? Did the doctor say you had to have two? (You didn't need two. One was enough. But you are a hyperchondriac and you are selfish, taking up time and resources like this!)

Me: (more confused) Oh err... yeah I had two.

Nasty lady: I can't give you money for both scans. If you didn't have them on the same day I could give you money for both. But you had them on the same day (another sign of your selfishness, you pig! You should have taken them on separate days, but no! You didn't want to be inconvenienced!). I can't give you a refund for both.

Me: Oh err...

Nasty lady: If you want money for both you need to go back to your doctor and get him to write out why you needed to have two scans. Either that or I can just give you money for one. (Haha, you will not be ripping off my system, white trash!)

By this time I was nearly in tears because of her accusing tone, so I just took the money offered to avoid going through this again.

What hurts isn't the fact that the government has ripped me off. What hurts is the fact that this cow (sorry for the language, but I'm angry and upset) couldn't just tell me that the government system is so stuffed up that by having two ultrasounds in the same session I wasn't going to get much money back. She had to tell me in an accusing tone, making it sound like I didn't need the two ultrasounds, and I should have had them in different sessions, but out of my selfishness and paranoia I'd done it my way anyway and thought I'd got away with it.

I wasn't the one who booked two ultrasounds. I didn't have a choice as to when I had them. I didn't know having them in the same session affected my medicare refund (and the receptionist at the Private Hospital didn't know either). Clearly the doctor must have thought it was necessary to have two otherwise he wouldn't have booked them; why did I need a written explanation from him? Did they think I'd twisted his arm and begged him to let me have two? What the...?

Jerks.