Afraid of rationing health care? Blue Cross just did it to me.

Surprise! CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield has cut me off again. You'll recall that last year Blue Cross stopped covering my prescriptions for the year at the end of October because my asthma pushed them beyond their $1500 annual limit. You'll also recall that I discovered at that time that my "best you can buy" self-employed insurance with Blue Cross has been offering me the same annual prescription drug limit, $1500, since 1997 when I started with their coverage - yes, the amount never goes up, in spite of inflation and rising drug prices, and in spite of the fact that my premium just went up around 25%.

This time, CareFirst Blue Cross is refusing to cover a prescription that they've been covering for a year now because, suddenly, after I spent $120 on the prescription to get enough to cover my time house-sitting for Chris and his wife while they're on vacation, Blue Cross has decided that my prescription isn't "medically necessary."

Let me explain what this prescription is.

It's called hydroxyzine. It's for itching. In my case, it's not itching as in, "gosh, my ankle itches, I think I'll scratch it." It's allergy-induced itching that wakes you up in the middle of the night and feels as if you have a thousand insects crawling on your scalp and other body parts. You literally wake up scratching your head, without even realizing you're doing it, that's how bad it is.

It's been getting worse every year. That's why I finally started taking allergy shots last year, in the hopes of beating it. And, at the same time, I found out that my allergies were inducing asthma. And not just, oh take a puff and get over it asthma, but the kind that was running the risk of permanently reducing my lung capacity - I believe the quote from the nurse was, if we don't get this under control you'll be walking around with an oxygen tank in twenty years.

Anyway, now you know what we're dealing with.

So, over the years, as the itching grew worse. At first, over the counter chlorpheniramine maleate helped. But then, as the itching grew worse, it stopped helping. A variety of doctors, including allergy and asthma specialists, have prescribed everything under the sun to stop it. They prescribed Zyrtec, and Claritin, Clarinex and Singulair, Xyzol and Allergra, and I'm sure a few more drugs I'm not remembering at this moment. Nothing seemed to get the itching under control. Until they prescribed hydroxyzine.

Hydroxzyine is the only drug that has significantly helped alleviate the itching.

And Blue Cross just cut me off. They say my hydroxzyine isn't medically necessary. You see, a Dr. James King, sitting in Baltimore, who has never met me, and doesn't even have access to the files my three different doctors have on me, has decided that, on reviewing my file (well, on reviewing whatever he actually has there in Baltimore), that my two specialists and general practitioner are wrong.

But the good news is that I can file an appeal with the faceless bureaucrat who cut me off. And who gets to decide my appeal? The same faceless bureaucrats at Blue Cross. At least with a federal medical plan, if a faceless bureaucrat cuts you off you can write to your congressman. Now all I have is some guy in Baltimore who's never even met me, and works for a company whose incentive is to deny me coverage in order to save money.

And they say we don't ration health care in America.

And remember, I'm one of the guys with "good" health coverage. The system is broken. For all of us. Pam follows up with some of her health care horror stories. What are some of yours?