Bureaucracy

  I have just spent more than an hour on the phone with a medical bureaucracy trying to get my Prescription drug coverage for Medicare in effect.  I have an advanced college degree and low blood pressure and by the end of the call, I feel I need a prescription to calm down and lower my blood pressure.
The agents with whom you must deal are trained only to read a script and react to the correct answer with the next part of the script.  There is no way around this script, nothing you can say to get them to skip on to the application.
I called, knowing exactly what plan I wanted, how much it costs, and what it covers, I had done my homework.  I was able to tell them up front, that I wasn't eligible for assistance, was healthy, had never lived outside of the country, had not gotten out of an extended care facility or hospital (I had done my homework), but it did no good, they had to go through the script.
My phone was on speaker, so hubby was listening in and when the call finally ended with the agent saying, "Thank you for calling, sweetie," he too was stressed.