Health Care

[palabravampiress]

Health Care is a hot button issue right now, so I figured we needed a thread in which we can talk about it. This thread is for any sort of Health Care-related discussion.

Right now, I'm watching Buffy season 5, so Joyce's illness made me think of this topic. Honestly, I'm finding it kind of unrealistic that Joyce would have received such prompt, dedicated care. Maybe things were different a few years ago, but today, I find it kind of difficult to get prompt medical care in the state of CA... and that's with insurance. Even in my old state (Ohio), I find it difficult to believe that they would have done a CAT scan just because Joyce passed out. Last time I passed out, they charged me a couple of hundred dollars just to talk about doing a CAT scan, but then they decided not to. It just seems like in today's health care environment, you don't just go in and then they start running the big tests. Instead, it seems like you go in and they take a slowly escalating series of trial-and-error-type steps from wait-and-see all the way up to pull-out-the-big guns. On TV, characters always get CAT scans and MRIs and other fancy tests the day they go in to get checked out. In real life, things have to be pretty bad before anyone pays attention. Even getting an appointment is difficult, let alone getting a major test.

For example: I have a friend who tried to commit suicide several months back. She knew she was in bad shape weeks beforehand. She tried to get in to see a shrink. The earliest possible appointment was weeks in the future. They wrote her a prescription for some pills in the meantime. The quick fix didn't work and it didn't calm things down enough for her to get timely help until there was an emergency situation. Suicide is a complicated sort of thing. I'm not entirely convinced that such issues are entirely medical and not also related to personal accountability. Even so, she tried to get help in advance, but help just wasn't there until the situation reached a crisis level.

Example #2: I didn't have health insurance for awhile. As soon as I got it, I made an appointment with a gyno to whom I was referred by a friend. It took like 3 months for me to be seen, then they ran some tests about a month later, then it took another month for a follow-up. Some things were resolved, but some things were beyond that doctor's specialty. I asked that doctor for a referral for a GP. I got one, but that GP isn't taking new patients for... another almost three months. So roughly half-a-year after I first sought care, I'll get in to see a GP. There's urgent care for when I have pink eye or get an infection, but what about for the chronic, non-urgent-type problems that I'm having? Every time I make an appointment, the earliest available slot is months away.


I mean, no wonder the E.R.s are full; it's practically impossible to get an appointment in a timely manner... and that's with health insurance. Before I had that, I couldn't even get a reputable doctor to see me. They say there's a shortage of health care providers, and boy, do I believe them!

So I guess my question here is two-fold:
A.) Short of becoming a doctor, what can your average person do to help? Health care is very important, but your average person isn't exactly trained in much more than first aid and basic CPR, if even that. What can an ordinary citizen do to make health care easier (and faster) to obtain so that people can get preventative care, not just emergency care?

B.) How can your average person get help in, like, a month instead of in, like, a year? I don't want to cut in front of people who might be worse-off than I am, but then again... I'm doing pretty poorly. I mean, my feet and legs are becoming increasingly crooked. Seriously. The knuckles of my big toes don't go up-and-down anymore so much as outside-to-inside (kinda like a thumb). My legs are no better. They're becoming increasingly bowed. I've always been crooked. I wasn't even supposed to walk. It's a miracle that I can walk at all. But that's becoming harder... and walking is kind of important. I've got a barrel of other issues in addition to those. So, on a personal level instead of just on a health-care-is-a-hot-button-issue level, I kinda wanna know if anyone has any advice for how a new patient can muscle her way into an earlier appointment without being totally awful and rude.

 

[SintiKid]

Don't get me started. Four years ago I was hit by a car while crossing the street and had several bones including my leg broken, which now makes winters here in Minneapolis unbearable (it's the main reason I'm moving). Last year I had a kidneystone and had to have an emergency operation. I have no insurance which means I'll likely have to file for bankruptcy now. I also have a lot of dental work I need done but again, no insurance. Now I spend all my time just trying to get back up to zero. I had to drop out school because of the car accident too and now don't see a way to get back in so I really don't know what I'm going to do about that.

Unfortunately I don't have the solution but just wanted to vent.

 

[Joyce Summers]

I agree that Health Care can pretty much suck as regards to getting seen to. However, recently- last week actually- I collapsed at home and when hubby called 911, I was obviously admitted and within a day I was having a blood transfusion (My blood count was terribly low due to a post-partum complication). Admittedly that health problem is different from what you are describing and needed, by health care standards, immediate attention, but I've never actually had problems with waiting for medical attention before.
My Grandmother when she had cancer had immediate scans to find out why she was sick, and then a LOT of medical attention when they found out the cause. A family friend who was found to be diabetic also got immediate attention- that is I didn't think it was too long at all before she was seen to.

Now, before you think I'm sending you a nyeh-nyeh-nyeh vibe, I do have a point. My aunt is a nurse. She knows what she's doing, she knows what needs to be done with the situation. If we hadn't have had my aunt, my Grandmother would not have got any treatment at all, but she kept checking up on the situation and what the other doctors and nurses were doing and that's what prompts action. In a way it's basically 'Knowledge is Power'. You need to know what should be done to prompt the doctors to actually do it. They feel you can wait, because you don't know you should not be waiting. I don't mean you have to get yourself an honorary medical degree, but just research enough of what ails ya to know what the steps are, what treatment the doctors should take. Then when they say 'Well, it'll be three months' or whatever time slot they give you, you can counter with 'But consider[...] therefore shouldn't we[...]?'. This in a word, throws them a curve ball and you'd be surprised how it prompts action. Trust me, knowledge really is power in these situations. The health care system seems to have unfortunately fallen into the belief that we are in the service of them and therefore will wait as long as they say, so we have to remind them that they are actually in service of us. I'm afraid that's all I can advise. Go prepared with much knowledge and I know from experience that such solid counter arguments prompt a lot of action.

The only thing I can say as regards to crappy experiences....the Maternity Ward I was in sucked!:mad61:

 

[Kean]

I think disastrous health care is very much a world wide issue. Today is the one year anniversary of my grandmothers death. She went into the hospital for a serious-ish procedure and never came back out. The injuries that killed her (which she didn't have going in) were literally caused by the nursing staff and hospital's negligence. Even after an enquiry their only reply was 'sorry...we're under staffed'. The whole system is a shambles.

 

[Buffanator]

I have a really good job with mediocre-crappy pay and great bennies. One of those bennies is quite decent medical coverage. Last summer I was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs) - a very dangerous health problem. I went to the E.R. one morning around 9:30 with sharp pains in my chest & difficulty breathing & was taken in right away. I was in E.R. all day with Cat-Scans & MRIs and even a heart cathater....by 10:30 that night, I was in ICU with a heprin drip.

I was in the hospital for 4 days, and out of work for 2 weeks. On blood thinners (coumadin) for 6.5 months. (I'm off all that now.) Through all of this, my insurance paid EVERYTHING except $200. That's right - out of a $37,000 hospital bill, I owed $200. I pay $15 co-pay doctor visits, and my meds are always $25 or less (the coumadin was $4.00, which was a godsend, considering I had to get a different mg nearly every other week...)

The crap part of it? I only make $30k a year, and I pay half of my health care while my employer pays the other half.

I know many people in this country don't have decent health care. I know many can't get it; many can but opt not to for whatever reason; some would rather have the pay than the bennies, and some just don't understand how it all works. The bottom line is - HEALTH CARE shouldn't be an option... it just should be. For everyone. My November presidential vote will depend a lot on this subject matter, for while I do have good health care, neither of my elderly parents do, and yes, it's quite a problem.

BTW - for all you women/girls out there: I got P.E. from birth control pills. On all those little packages, where it lists blood clots as a possible side effect.... there ya go. My doc said that I was EXTREMELY LUCKY to be alive, because 75% of the people who find out they have P.E. find out when they're getting an AUTOPSY.

~peace!~

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

I agree with all the appointment trouble.
I had this case last year. I really needed to see my Ophthalmologist because I knew I needed stronger glasses (or lenses). So I went there in October and asked for an appointment. They gave me one for January. Well, that was pretty long away, but I figured better than nothing. Then one week before my appointment a letter arrived, saying they had to postpone my appointment to February because the doctorwas on vacation. Okay, so I was pretty angry at them, but took it anyway. Then, in February, another letter arrived, saying they had to postpone my appointment again...well, actually, the letter didn't even say that, it just told me to call them, which I did, and on the phone they told me. Well, so in the end, I got the appointment I needed in October somewhere in March. And from what I've heard, these days it's even worse. If you don't have private insurance (in German there are two types of insurance, private and law), they can only give you appointments in the morning (of course mornings that are months away). Too bad we all have to work.

Well, and another issue I had was when I first had trouble breathing. They send me from doctor to doctor for weeks, just to eventually tell me three months later I have deviated septum and could get an operation or just leave it like which would also be okay as it wasn't too severe (but still bad). My first doctor was really the best, she had absolutely no idea what she was doing and half the time I had to take antibiotics which, in the end, didn't bring anything except probably harm my body (I heard you're not supposed to take antibiotics too often because your body could get immune to them).

Oh, and my personal favourite story: my brother got bitten (or stung?) by a tick some years ago and to be sure he didn't get any diseases from it, he had to take antibiotics. Too bad the doctor somehow miscalculated the right dose and the dose he prescribed was wayyy to high and would've severly harmed, if not even killed, my brother. Luckily he (my bro) was smart enough to recalculate himself and notice.

Did anyone hear about that doctor (I think i was a German one, not sure though) that passed our during an operation and was later found to be drunk at that time?

 

[Aethra]

Yeah the health care system here is definitely screwed up. I don't know much about other systems, except what I saw in Sicko, which was definitely baised, so I'm sure I don't know all of it.

Anywho, I'm definitely not the healthiest person out there (Osgood Schlatter, heartburn that lasts for days, sporadic hiccups, tennis elbow, etc.), but I don't have as horrible horror stories as some of you! A few minor ones though.
A few years back I had to go to the emergency room after I got beaned in the temple with a softball (which I would like to mention was not my fault! The girl next to me missed, the ball tipped off her glove and did a 90 degree spin into my head. And I think it's all karma for giving another girl a concussion the year before). It took hours for me to be seen, and I had night practices, so not only was I smelly from having run around for hours beforehand, but it was late and I was tired. And I was in shorts, and the room was very cold. And I hadn't eaten. But anyway, when I was finally seen, a doctor looked at me for about three minutes, told me it was a contusion, and told me mom to wake me up in the middle of the night to ask me an obvious question. And that was it. He didn't give me anything for the pain or the swelling, just sent me home. Waste of time.
Last year, I accidentally jammed pencil graphite up the pink part of my index fingernail. I won't get into the story of how that happened, just accept that I was that stupid. So that was at night, and the next morning it was enflammed and hurt to the slightest touch. I stupidly went to the school nurses, who just made everything worse, and then tries to convince me that going to pottery before I went to the ER was a good idea. I refused though. Again, it took forever to be seen. It was literally three minutes until the time my mom and I deicded we would walk out when someone came to help me. It was at least four hours there.

And just last year, my mom was out with the dog early one winter morning when she slipped on the ice. And she's old. When she picked up her leg, her foot was detatched and pointing due west. It took forever for her to be helped, because no one came down the street for a long time, and then when the woman called it in, they found out that EVERY ambulence in the city was in the shop. I'd just like to point out that wonderful planning. Once she was actually in the hospital, she couldn't get a surgery until the next day, which really wasn't as bad as it could have been, but she was in great pain the entire time, because every painkiller they gave her reacted negatively to her system, and she was physically sick for three straight days.

 

[StuckinTraffic]

I personally have never experienced any really GLARING negligence in my attempts to receive the proper care from medical professionals (and I have a really GREAT doctor right now, I'm keeping him forever!)....but I have been mangled, spindled, chewed up and spit out by my insurance company. My husband is in the military, so we have exceptionally good health insurance...but I think the people that work at the co. don't have a lot of common sense sometimes! I have witnessed other people's struggles with trying to get care, tho, and it's a disgrace. My neighbor's son-in-law fell off a ladder at work, resulting in a huge bump on his head. His wife ran up there to take him to the closest ER, and upon arrival they learned it was going to be at LEAST a 4 hour wait. They left that hospital to go to another ER, where they learned it would be several hours wait there, too.....they finally gave up and went home (by this time it was the middle of the night) so they could get some rest and try to see their regular doctor in the morning. They did get in to the doctor's office, and lo and behold.....turns out he had a concussion! That's just outrageous.

I agree with whoever said that you have to arm yourself with knowledge. While you don't have to know as much as a health care professional, you DO have to know enough to ask the right questions. The patient also HAS to stand up for themselves if they feel they're not getting helpful information. Ask questions! DEMAND answers that are in plain, easily understood language. I think a lot of times, health care providers forget that we don't all speak the 'lingo.' Or, maybe they like to talk over our heads in the hopes that if we don't understand, we won't ask questions....too many times, that turns out to be true. The patient is a partner in their own care, as much as the nurse or doctor or PA is, and is at least partially responsible.

 

[randiann]

Don't get me started on healthcare, especially if you rely on the government for help. My best advice is don't get sick. AT ALL. If you really wanna hear me rant (which I have done on this topic at least once I know if not several times) I'll try to make it back on here when I have 2 hours to be all angry about it.