Insurance, friends or foes?

Remember that ER trip I had Les take with Parker a few weeks ago? Well, after getting the mail that the post office held for us for 2 weeks, due to our trip to Michigan, we had lots of "nice" little tokens in there. One of them being the Hospital Bill from that ER trip. It is a whopping $471. And that is after we paid our $100 copay that night. On the bill it says that our insurance paid $0. So, I look in the Benefits Book that the school gave us and looked up our plan. It says nothing about having to first meet your deductible with an emergency visit. It only says that after a $100 copay, plan pays 80% and we pay 20%. So, I call the number on the back of our card and talk to a very unpleasant woman. She says that she has no idea what book I could possibly be looking at and that on her computer screen it clearly states that we have to first meet a $500 deductible before the plan picks up anything. So, I go to the site on the school districts website that talks about health coverage and again nothing about meeting a deductible. Of course, however when I go onto the official BCBS website it mentions a deductible. It just really makes me mad that the Benefits Book given to us by Les' employer does not have that information written it. How am I suppose to know that I have been given incomplete information. Anyway, I just really needed to get that out. I was so upset when I saw this monstorous bill that we now have to pay, the week after Christmas. I don't regret taking Parker in though. I mean come on the poor kid could not breath.