‘New password cannot be old password’: Workers are taking PTO just to call insurance companies, doctor’s offices, and claims. Welcome to ‘adulting,’ a new ‘horrible holiday’
To quote the alt-rock band Paramore, just because we want to: “Ain’t it fun, living in the real world?”
TikTok creator Carley Lagemann (@2kidsandacabernet) surely vibes with that sentiment, according to a recent video she posted that has almost 647,000 views and 47,000 likes.
@2kidsandacabernet I'm chuckling at how ridiculous the healthcare system is right now. And it's not the fault of the people that are in the day to day working hard!
♬ Bops Goin Brazy - Tyga
In the video, Lagemann sorts through a wallet and pulls out what’s presumably an insurance card.
She wrote in the text onscreen, “Who else needs a ‘day off’ dedicated to just calling insurance companies, doctors offices, figuring out claims, figuring out who owes what to who, what portal I need to get into to pay and who I need to speak to to get this figured out.”
Lagemann added in the caption to the video, “I'm chuckling at how ridiculous the healthcare system is right now. And it's not the fault of the people that are in the day to day working hard!”
The comments section felt this one hard.
“Even one day does not feel like its enough for that. Need a few more to recover from it all,” one person commented.
“Definitely. My dad passed in June it’s been a summer of helping mom figure out papers and long wait times on the phone,” another commented.
One commenter pointed out the struggle with passwords in such situations, like receiving the message, "New password cannot be old password."
A viewer chimed in with, “Yep this is why they get away with what they do cause we don't take time off to call.”
“I call it adulting day and dedicate 1 PTO day a year to it, like a horrible holiday,” someone commented. Another commenter dubbed such days, “Life Admin Day.”
“Yes and having to literally take off work because their hours are always like 9:37 - 1:44 on M, W, and every other TH,” another person wrote.
A commenter added, “I just do all this stuff on the clock lol.” Lagemann replied, “There's no other way.”
“I need a week or so to do all this. It's all so outdated, poorly designed, and overwhelming,” a commenter summed it up.
"I literally posted this the moment after being on the phone for hours with our insurance and specialists to make sure we were covered for something," Lagemann told the Daily Dot via email. "All while taking care of small children and thinking, how do people with full-time jobs get this stuff done too!?"
Lagemann said that she was surprised the response from viewers didn't get political. "Everybody was in the same boat no fighting no finger-pointing just everyone relating to each about the frustrations of managing through the healthcare system right now," she said.
The concept of a life admin day is nothing new. Life coach Chantal Dempsey told Yahoo! Finance in 2021 that working with your manager to get time to take care of your life tasks could be a better path than trying to get that stuff done on the clock.
And it’s no wonder people need time. According to a Time article in February, the U.S. is in the midst of a “patient burnout” epidemic, tied to long healthcare wait times, paperwork, and confusing and exorbitant bills. As Time reported, citing a 2022 poll, 12% of U.S. adults said healthcare was handled “extremely” or “very” well in the country.
And yet, according to a 2021 Forbes article, American workers are hesitant to use PTO, especially for mental health reasons.
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