Our own version of the NFL lock-out??

Beware - RANT ahead.

I just love this girl to pieces:)

During our last visit to Addie's pediatrician we were greeted with -"here's a letter you need to read about potential changes to your health insurance."  Hhhmmmm....ok, I thought - this ought to be interesting.  I read the letter which basically stated that Anthem, whom our health insurance is through, was at odds with CHKD (the primary network of pediatricians in our area) and negotiations to renew the contract between the two parties had stalled.  The primary reason...they couldn't agree on pay rates.  HA!  Seriously...millionaires can't get along with billionaires....boy, this surely sounds familiar.  I have spent the last several months listening to all of the hoop-la about the failed NFL negotiations and I too am a disappointed NFL fan but THIS....seriously, this was different.  Here's my deal...the NFL deal (or lack thereof) is bad - no football - BOO:(  But, asking me to switch pediatricians simply because the the two parties can't get along is a whole different story - now you are involving my family...and I just can't get down with that.  I am all for fair pay rates and people should be compensated for the services they provide but my daughter shouldn't have to suffer because these two can't find middle ground. Because...unfortunately, at the end of the day the only ones that suffer from all of this are the kids...and that's just not fair.  So...at the bottom of letter it listed a phone number I could call - which of course directs you to an automated message about the negotiations - blah, blah, blah.  Not anything I didn't already know - next step - call CHKD and this time....a live voice!!  A nice, friendly, understanding and sympathetic voice that listened to my concerns and said as much as she could.  Her message was not significantly different from that of any other correspondence I had received but she seemed genuinely concerned about my situation and assured me that should negotiations completely fail and Anthem and CHKD part ways, they would do everything they could to transition their current patients to their new pediatricians that are considered in-network.  She passed along a web address (www.chkd.org/anthem) that would provide updates as they were available and also encouraged me to call back should I have any additional questions.  Ok - I appreciated that but at the end of the day the bottom line is this - if they can't reach an agreement we will be forced to either pay "out of network" costs (only 70% of our visits will be covered - leaving us to pay approximately $200 per visit - ouch) or to change pediatricians to an "in-network" physician where we will pay $0 for Addie's well-baby care visits.  Frustrating on several different fronts - the first being that we pay ALOT of money a month for health insurance and to add on to that because someone thinks they aren't getting a large enough cut is disheartening and also we went through a fairly laborious process of talking to friends and meeting with pediatricians prior to Addie's arrival to find a pediatrician that we thought would provide Addie with the best care.  We LOVE Addie's pediatrician - we are comfortable with him - we trust him - and we DONT want to change.  And honestly, we likely won't - we'll suck it up and pay the 30% and it will pain me everytime I hand over my check card because this should be FREE!!! Whew...ok, I must admit - I feel slightly better having that off my chest.  Anyone else had this happen??  If so, were they able to resolve it before you had to make a change or pay out of pocket??    

J