Pedia Tricks

From time to time, we get to see how the other halves live. Going to Hollywood premieres and parties in gorgeous houses on the beach on one hand, riding public transportation and seeing how medical care works, or doesn’t, for the poor on the other. I’ve been spending the last couple of days trying to get a pediatrician for my imaginary child. While he or she is in foster care before adoption, we will be using Medi-Cal, which is normally what the poorest people use.

Now, most people when they’re having a baby, talk to their friends and family to get pediatrician recommendations: who is the nicest, most experienced, most convenient, most comforting. We go to the website for our insurance carrier, and since we have a PPO, chances are this spectacular doctor is listed. Or we call him or her up, and they say, “You have Blue Shield PPO? Of course, come on in.” If you go to Medi-Cal website, you don’t see a listing of doctors who take Medi-Cal. You are told to click on a couple acronyms – CMC, NDC, NPI, etc. It turns out none of them include listing of doctors. If you call up the pediatricians your friends recommend, I assure you none of these excellent doctors takes Medi-Cal. Nor can they give a reference, because no one they knows takes Medi-Cal. Eventually, it comes down to doing endless google searches to come up with a list of pediatricians who say they take Medi-Cal, but God knows if they are any good.

Through a gay dad’s organization Ian signed us up for, I found one pediatrician who alerted to me to the fact that the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, only the biggest and best children’s hospital in America … takes Medi-Cal! The problem is that it’s some distance away, and I would really like a pediatrician who is closer in case of emergencies. Still, I feel I’m getting closer.

Speaking of getting closer, the novel is finished and in various people’s hands, some friends and family members, a couple people who might be in the position to help me get it published. They call this kind of thing a waiting game, as if there’s any game aspect to it. Speaking as a professional game designer, I can say with authority that there is no such thing as a waiting game.