# "Get this thing off my back!" A Canuck Doper Universal Health Care case study **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 19, 2012, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699 "2012-07-19T09:50:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/61 "2013-01-06T09:57:35Z")
Glad you’re OK. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/62 "2013-01-06T10:29:54Z")
Good news! Thanks for the update. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/63 "2013-01-06T11:35:56Z")
So I suppose this means no exciting youtube video? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/64 "2013-01-06T15:05:05Z")
Sadly, no, but I’m sure a bit of googling would satisfy your curiosity! ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/65 "2013-01-07T18:48:05Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The prescription seems to have drained it out - now, instead of bump on my back, I’ve actually got a little depression. SOCIALIZED MEDICINE CAUSES DEPRESSION! WATCH FOX NEWS TONIGHT AT 10! All right, enough with the capitals. This is a great thread. I’d love for someone to do an analogous thread for the US of A. I’d do it myself, but I rarely go to the doctor. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/66 "2013-01-07T19:59:19Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > SOCIALIZED MEDICINE CAUSES DEPRESSION! WATCH FOX NEWS TONIGHT AT 10!\ I’d laugh if this wasn’t so close to the truth of how it would be reported. ☹ Glad to hear you’re doing well, **Northern Piper**. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/67 "2013-01-07T20:05:42Z")
Thanks for the good wishes, all. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/68 "2013-01-07T20:20:32Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’d laugh if this wasn’t so close to the truth of how it would be reported. ☹ > > Glad to hear you’re doing well, **Northern Piper**. :::snerk::: Yep!! As opposed to my 'Merkin free market medicine. A recent visit to the dermatologist involved an hour in the waiting room and 10 minutes in the exam room. The prior visit required only 45 minutes in the waiting room… and another 45 in the exam room. And they forgot to credit the payment we made. Re the OP’s thing: if it is/was a cyst, they can indeed come back. Typo Knig had one shortly after we were married, also on his back. It was a bump for a few months, then got a bit larger and sore (infected, I gather), then drained on its own with help from hot compresses to encourage it to “come to a head”. He had a dent in his back for many years. About 10 years later it swelled up again and he had it removed. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/69 "2013-01-07T22:43:53Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > SOCIALIZED MEDICINE CAUSES DEPRESSION! WATCH FOX NEWS TONIGHT AT 10! > > All right, enough with the capitals. This is a great thread. I’d love for someone to do an analogous thread for the US of A. I’d do it myself, but I rarely go to the doctor. > > Anyone? I could give perspective on what it’s like to try to get healthcare when you’re low-income, if you like. (Hint: it’s a lot shittier than Northern Piper’s experience.) ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/70 "2013-01-07T22:51:19Z")
Perfect! Can you start a new thread for it? ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/71 "2013-01-07T23:00:21Z")
You think it’s worth a whole new thread? This happened last spring, the ordeal is done. I can put all the details into a single post. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/72 "2013-01-07T23:08:40Z")
Well, okay. I didn’t want to hijack this thread. It would be good if someone currently getting care could do an analogue of this thread, tracking the experience over time. That would be ideal. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/73 "2013-01-08T00:37:56Z")
Well, I think it’s analogous to the extent that I can outline the journey in a similar fashion to NP. Anyway, for context: In 2012 my household income was roughly 1.5 times the poverty line. I’ve been underemployed since July 2008. I have high-deductible individual insurance, an artifact of getting cancer in 2006 while employed at a start-up with no benefits. I’ve kept it because it was cheaper than paying for the five years of post-remission follow-up than paying out of pocket. My method of getting healthcare until the end of 2011 was relying on the fact that my yearly CT scan happened in March, so: [ul] [li]No medical care until after the CT scan[/li][li]Wait til the hospital and insurance company sort their paperwork out[/li][li]once I got my multi-thousand dollar bill from the hospital, apply for charity care[/li][li]repeat step 3 as necessary until they wrote off the entire amount[/li][li]since oncologist and radiologist billed separately, I paid them out-of-pocket if I could, which was sometimes[/li][li]most health care covered at 100% for the rest of the year[/ul][/li]Nowadays I have no more required CT scans, so basically if I want medical care, I have to pay for it myself. My deductible is currently slightly less than a third of my gross income. So, given all that, last May I threw up my hands at a weird, recurring, painful skin issue that had been refusing to heal itself for nine months. That’s the first step in poor-people’s healthcare – wait an absolutely ridiculous amount of time before seeing a doctor in the hopes it’ll go away on its own. Step two, I called the office of my regular doctor (the one who sent me to the right place at the right time to get my cancer dx), explained I’d had this recurring issue for months, and asked how much the fee would be, which was $150 for the office visit, plus an unknown amount for labwork if it were necessary. I explained I was broke, and asked if they would do a sliding scale. No. Asked if I could arrange a payment plan. No. I asked if they could do anything for me. I was told that payment was due at the time of the visit. And that was that. Step three, started looking up and calling several major health clinics that are well known as community support centers (aka quality healthcare for poor people) and offer sliding scales. [Howard Brown](http://www.howardbrown.org/) was one. I asked how much their sliding scale fee was. Their first question (after getting my name, sadly) was “Do you have insurance?” I told them yes, but I would be paying everything out of pocket due to my deductible. Didn’t matter, I didn’t qualify and would have to pay the full fee. Step four, Google. Public health clinics, low-cost clinics… it was surprisingly hard to find anything. I even PMed a local medical-type Doper or two to see if they knew of anything. This process took about a week. There were very few nearby, very few currently accepting new patients and a lot of sifting because not all urgent care clinics are low-cost and they often make it damn hard to know this from their website. I finally found a low-cost clinic down the street from me. It was like on the third or forth page of results, and it’s in a strip mall so it’s not something you’d notice walking by. Step five, show up at the clinic. Since I wasn’t a previous patient and didn’t have an appointment, I waited for several hours. Thankfully, they didn’t ask about insurance, and I didn’t offer. I finally saw an overworked nurse practitioner, who was utterly baffled when I described my symptoms, and ventured that it sounded like psoriasis. (I looked it up on wikipedia later, and my symptoms were so far from similar to psoriasis it’s not even funny.) She wrote me a prescription for cortizone ointment, I paid $15 for the visit, and went to the pharmacy. The scrip cost $11.95. I still have 2 refills I haven’t used yet (but should do soon before they expire). Net result: **Wait time:** more than 9 months **Waiting Room Time:** 4-5 hours **Treatment Received and Times:** Consult with nurse practitioner (20 minutes); drug info from pharmacist (5 minutes) **Treatment Time (Total):** 25 minutes **Total time trying to find a clinic to see me:** about a week and a half **Medical Fees & Co-Pays:** $15 **Prescription Costs:** $11.95 **Parking and other incidental costs:** $0.00 **Diagnosis:** NONE **CURE:** NONE. But the flare-ups are at least less severe because I can use the ointment as soon as it starts getting irritated. I don’t have any idea what I’ll do when the scrip runs out. With regard to OTC costs, obviously I’d tried a number of things in the nine months prior to going to the doctor. Tons of lotion (on sale, when I could find it), and towards the end I even tried anti-fungal sprays out of desperation. My best guess for this is about $30-40. I’m considering dropping my insurance because aside from the fact that my premium has gone up again, having it seems to actually prevent my access to healthcare. How screwed up is that? I’m holding out for another month or two because I have a job lead that seems promising (although a lot of them have seemed “promising” over the last 5 years). I got a foot injury last summer, which I rehabbed myself without paying for medical intervention. It took about 5 months to heal. I’ve also got thousands of dollars in outstanding medical debt from stuff that insurance wouldn’t cover. And this is why we need real single-payer healthcare in America. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/74 "2013-01-08T01:36:04Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > And this is why we need real single-payer healthcare in America. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a nearby country that had experimented with such a system – and even better, a nearby country that was kind of similar culturally – so that we could see whether such a thing worked or not? ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/75 "2013-01-08T01:43:50Z")
That’s just crazy talk. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/76 "2013-01-08T03:06:15Z")
I’m sorry you had such an unfortunate experience, **Kaio**. Hope the job-hunting goes well. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699/77 "2013-01-08T08:41:22Z")
Thanks. After 4.5 years though… had another prospect fall through on me earlier today – which would have paid _really well,_ too – and have worked a grand total of about 5 hours since the end of October. So my confidence is feeling a little flat, to put it mildly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-this-thing-off-my-back-a-canuck-doper-universal-health-care-case-study/628699.md?page=3)