I had been getting the same medicine at the same pharmacy for quite some time, always costing something like $4. I go to the pharmacy to pick it up one time, and it’s $40. I need the medicine so I pay it (I can luckily afford it), but I call the insurance company to see what’s up. They tell me the manufacturer raised the price, there’s nothing they can do. I ask why I wasn’t informed that my medicine would be 10x the price, they say that “there isn’t a system in place to do that.” I ask what I am supposed to do, and they say, “there’s other manufacturers for this medicine that are cheaper.” I ask what pharmacy has those manufacturers, and they say they don’t know. So I have to call the pharmacys, get the manufacturer’s names, then call the insurance back and ask them the cost.

Also, I had the thing where the doctor was “in network” but the lab (right down the hall) was not, so I got an unexpected bill. I spent hours on the phone arguing, and they finally took the charge off.

My experiences have been infuriating, inconvenient, and frustrating, but not life-threatening luckily.