The Signature

Today something hit me emotionally at a meeting that I was not quite expecting.  I sit on a multi-employer trust fund in a supervisory capacity for health benefits.  Today the absurdity of our system hit home.

I arrived at the meeting shortly prior to the adjournment time - of course running late as so many things are demanding my perceived immediate attention these days.  I sat down at the meeting table with a cup of coffee nodding my 'hello' greeting to other attendees. 

As I mindlessly started signing forms and applications that needed my approval, one stood out.  I paused.  The form I was signing was to approve a 'temporary disability' application from a young man who was diagnosed with cancer.  I gazed at his shaky signature at the bottom of the form that obviously took quite a bit of effort.

I held up the application to the fund administrator and asked what was going on.  She sheepishly told me that the young man had died prior to needing any 'temporary disability' benefits as the cancer took his life. 

I became saddened and enraged.  Why should anybody who is on their death bed have ******g forms shoved in front of their face to sign?  Is this is what the health care industry has become?  Mind you, I get paid ZERO to sit on this trust fund, but that is not the point.  The point is that the system is what it is because so many people have tried to SCAM it to pad their own pockets.  Now we have to have people dying on their death beds signing forms trying to keep fraud under control.  Pathetic. 

I hope you're happy, disability scammers.