Never-ending story.

Some things just won't go away, no matter how ugly they are. Like the health care mess.

I sat next to the desk of a Denver friend (let us call her J. because that is not her initial) and waited for her to get off the telephone with her company's health insuror.

J., 71, is a human resources professional. She's on hold a lot.

"I'm listening to the music," she said brightly.

"How long have you been on hold?" I asked.

"Oh, five or 10 minutes, I don't know." J. seemed chipper.

"Is it good music?"

"It's OK. Here, listen."

Muzak filtered through static. It sounded like Liberace and his brother George having bad hair days.

Almost four years ago, I left the United States for three years. When I left in 1995, I had two fond hopes for my '98 return: that the O.J. Simpson trial would be over and that progress would be made on the health care mess.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. When I returned, I found out we had JonBenet, not O.J., but same difference. When I left, everybody was screaming about rising health care costs. When I returned, everybody was screaming about the cost of cutting those costs. Same difference.

Anyhow, J. knows the ins and outs of the system. And her husband, also 71, had worked for insurance companies all his life. He retired at age 62 with a medical-dental policy that let him and J. pick their own doctors for about $40 a month. (We'll call him E. because that is not his initial.)

Then an even bigger fish acquired E.'s ex-employer, and last November he and J. received notice their coverage had been terminated.

E. and J. started hunting for another supplemental Medicare policy. "I found one, and signed up," J. said. "They were so glad to have us. But then they canceled the program two weeks later."

The couple rallied themselves, found another supplemental Medicare policy, and enrolled in November.

The policy was valid Jan. 1. J. went to her pharmacy to pick up her blood pressure pills. "They wouldn't give them to me. They'd say, 'Oh, your doctor has to fill out more papers,' and my doctor would fill out more papers. I still couldn't get 'em, and I finally said, 'Hey, you're giving me high blood pressure trying to get these pills.'

"This is February now. The insurance company said, 'Oh, we have all the paperwork. We just haven't put it in the computer yet.' I finally got my blood pressure pills.

"Then it was time to go to the dentist. Of course, we had to change dentists after 30 years, you know how that goes. I called 'em up and said, 'How come my husband got his little letter signing him up with a dentist, and I haven't got anything?'

"They said, 'Oh, we never did enroll you, and we canceled your husband, 'cause you don't get dental insurance ' I said, 'What do you mean? All the papers said we had dental insurance. You gave us the enrollment forms, and we signed up. ...' They said, 'That was a mistake. You weren't supposed to have that.'

"They just made it evaporate.

"My husband and I have to see specialists. I have this growth by my temple. They don't know what it is. It's a growth. So I call my doctor's office. They say, 'Make an appointment, and we'll give you a referral.' The insurance company said, 'You can't go to a dermatologist.' My doctor said, 'Well, I'd cut it off. I cut things off. But I don't know what it is.' The insurance company said, 'If your doctor won't remove it, you'll have to find another doctor in his group who will.'"

"Darn right," I added.

"Meanwhile, I was trying to get a list of specialists. My doctors said, 'We don't have any list,' you know. They even suggested I start calling doctors, and when I found one that would take me, why, go to him."

"Why didn't your insuror send you the list?" I asked.

"Well, they finally did last Friday, but it was Kansas City doctors.

"I called somebody in their office here and got a supervisor. He said, 'This is ridiculous.'

"And I said, 'Oh, yes. This is ridiculous.'"

May I be excused for another three years now?