I called UCSF's price transparency hotline earlier this week, to find out the price of some Xrays, because my insurance - the best plan that I was offered - won't even cover the first $2,000, and then half the cost after that. The pricing transparency hotline told me that they could not give me a quote until I made appointments for the procedures.

I called the Xray department. Apparently, they don't set appointments as Xrays are a walk-in procedure.

After almost two hours on hold and being handed around, I found someone who was able to tell me that the Xray billing department could provide me the information, provided that I was able to get an exact list of the Xrays that my doctor required. They could see my doctor's referral on their screen, but apparently, I still needed to reach out to my doctor and get the information from him, if I was to provide it to the billing department.

I messaged my doctor four days ago. He hasn't replied. Given that he squeezed me into his schedule at the last minute, and he usually replies to my messages after 10 pm, or during the weekend, it's clear that he's overworked, and I don't want to be an additional burden on him.

The last two weeks have been agony, and I haven't even been able to start to pursuing a diagnosis. This current week has also involved a lot of rage.

I've come to the conclusion that the system is so egregiously predatory that everyone involved - even those who are working within the system to ostensibly help me (such as my doctor) are ultimately culpable, since they are propping up the system.