Here’s an idea, change doctors. You have the CHOICE to do so. I automatically ask for another specialist if they don’t have the time for me. Why on Earth would you accept this? The last time I couldn’t get in to my doctor was after hours and I just went to an Urgent Care facility instead of the Emergency room. They stay open until 10 pm.
Wow - the same CHOICE we have in Canada! Nice!
If I could laugh, I would.
:shakes head, wishing you could know how ridiculous you are being in this thread:
If you ever want to see a good specialist and you don’t live in a huge town, your search radius is very limited. Even if you expand out state-wide, you’re going to be given only a handful of people who specialize in whatever you need treatment in.
You’re in good shape if you’ve already got a solid diagnosis in hand. But if no one knows what the hell is wrong with you and you’re looking for a good diagnostian as well as a competent practitioner? Yeah, sit back and wait a while. If you get seen within three months, count yourself VERY lucky.
And count yourself very lucky again if you end up with someone you jibe with and you leave not feeling like you have wasted your time. I’m at the point where I can be kinda choosy in this regard. But I’m starting to feel like this criterion is a luxury…that I need to just throw up my hands and settle. Which indeed sucks because if I don’t like a person, I don’t want to listen to a word that comes out of his or her mouth. There are things about my personality that I can help, but this isn’t one of them.
I’m crossing my fingers. I have an appointment with an internist that has a good reputation. I don’t know if she’s the best in the city or what, but she’s got good reviews for bedside manner and insight into diagnoses. Also, she’s one of a few female internists in the area, which is important for me since I feel more comfortable with female practitioners (and it’s not like I haven’t given it a good shot with male docs). Guess when I made the appointment? Mid July. Guess when my appointment is. EARLY DECEMBER.
This isn’t a doc at the Mayo Clinic. Just a local internist who will hopefully be my PCP, if I so choose. I’m so used to being a waiting patient that I’m not even going to flinch when she refers me to a specialist, who will probably have an even longer waiting period. I don’t know what I’d do if I were in pain or if my symptoms were debilitating. If they were truly awful, well, I’m glad I don’t have a good imagination because the images would probably stress me out. (I do have an incline because my mother battled with specialists for years to get diagnosed with and help for her rheumatoid arthritis. After decades of pain, she’s finally gotten some relief.)
I would “shop around” based on availability. But most specialists will only accept you if you’ve been referred by a PCP, even if your insurer doesn’t require them to. Some of the medical office gate-keepers interrogate you (who’s your PCP? what are you seeking treatment for? have you been to another specialist? why aren’t you seeing THEM?!) before they’ll even tell you when the doctor has an opening. And you want to work with a specialist who has some type of respectful relationship with your PCP, because it will be them who will be overseeing your care. If you find a specialist all on your lonesome that your PCP doesn’t like (in a small to medium sized medical community, this isn’t uncommon), then your shit’s going to be all jacked up. The last thing you want to hear from your PCP is, “Why did you go see Dr. Crazytown? There’s a reason why he has a short waiting list. He’s Dr. CRAZYTOWN, that’s why!!!” And I’ve found that most docs don’t have a huge catalog of specialists that they draw names from. They go with the ones their patients have had success with, people they personally know and like, or people with well-known reputations. They may have another name or two to give you, but that’s probably about it.
That’s why it’s hard to take your advice seriously.
I think UHC will help a little, but only just a little, when it comes to reducing wait times. We simply need more doctors, in a variety of specialties, especially women doctors. Where UHC could help would be by eliminating the “network” issue…people limited only to doctors who will take their coverage. With the coverage I have now, this isn’t a problem. But it has been with cheaper policies.
Telling people to “just change doctors” sounds like telling others to “just change jobs” if they don’t like their jobs. It isn’t that simple or easy.
I wouldn’t dare try to change doctors right now; the ones in my area won’t take any more patients because they’ve already got more than they can handle. And I’m not about to drive many miles away to find one that isn’t so busy (is there such a doctor?).
I guess we should all live where MAGIVER lives. In Dearborn, there are doctors who have no interest in taking new patients.
I have never called a doctor and been able to make an appointment in one day. If i was really sick, he would say go to emergency. But in America, doctors are spurred by money and overbook . You get as fast a treatment as they can possible give. You are lucky to get 15 minutes of time including assistants who do most of the work . They make more money that way.
I guess MAGIVER has been very lucky. When my brother got brain cancer he got the added thrill of spending huge amounts of time calling the insurance companies and fighting to get them to cover the procedures he paid for. Then he got too sick to keep up with it and his wife got the fun.
Health insurance costs have been going up ,up, up for years., long before Obama care was thought of .They have outsripped inflation every year. This week they kicked rates up another 9 percent. I suppose in MAGIVER land the insurance fees rates for the last decade are all Obamacare’s fault. But it is just greed. Pure greed. The execs make incredible salaries and when Obamacare actually takes effect, the insurance companies want to make sure they make the money they did before. Since they will have to pay out about 85 percent of their revenue in care, they will have to accelerate the cost premiums so they can.still make as much money.
Both of those statements are factually incorrect.
And that’s just for seniors, unless you consider them to be nobodies.
gonzomax, Magiver, we’re in MPSIMS. If you want to debate the politics of health care, start a thread in GD.
Thanks,
twickster, MPSIMS moderator
OK
With respect to gonzomax’s and emacnight’s exchange over health related Canadian bankruptcies:
Do medical costs in Canada push people into bankruptcy despite universal health care?
Ah, so doctors are all greedy now. Nice. You know this how exactly? None of the Doctors I know are starving but none of them would ever go into the business for the money either.
Do you have even the slightest clue what it takes to open a practice with all the equipment, staff, insurance and floor space that’s involved. Before a nickle is spent on that there is a huge student loan to be paid off. You’d be much better off financially to get a law degree and sue doctors than to become a doctor.
And the insurance companies… they want to earn the same profit percentage they did before Obamacare… Those bastards. All they have to do is pay their employees the same wages plus the increase in health insurance mandated by Obamacare.
I’ll just assume that you don’t want your wages and benefits reduced over Obamacare because… fuck I don’t know, you’re somehow special and not a greedy bastard.
Well DUH. Name one remote place on the planet that comes with it’s own doctor/hospital to serve a small group of people. You want to live in back hills of West Virginia then best of luck. That applies anywhere. No country supplies a doctor to remote areas for the sake of it.
Well here’s the opening remark:
"Hospitalized with no insurance…a true story
There’s a lot of talk going on about health care issues, and the people talking the loudest are the conservatives who think nothing of spending trillions of dollars on endless wars, but the thought of contributing to a health care plan for America sends them into fits of rage…"
If you don’t like the discussion of the thread then you should move it. It started off as a political shot across the bow.
I see the Manitouwadge hospital did 172 loads of laundry in September, and 341 loads of laundry in December. Must have been the result of the digestion of a really good Christmas dinner.(www.mh.on.ca/pdfs/2010AnnualReport.pdf – pdf download)
A whole lot of the discussion has been about the specifics of the OP’s situation. Yes, there’s been some – well, a fair amount – of political commentary along the way, but it’s mostly been anecdotal.
A debate qua debate does not belong in this thread. I don’t want to close it, and it’s a little late to try to move it to GD, so I’m asking people who want to debate based on facts and statistics, rather than personal experiences (the OP’s and others), to do it in a separate thread in GD.
Consider those moderator instructions, which you should ignore at your own peril. If you wish to argue about my instructions, start a thread in ATMB.
twickster, MPSIMS moderator
I hear you.
When I lost my health insurance (company closed), I was declined (or told “don’t bother applying”) by every insurance company in my state (Nevada). I eventually left the USA. I now have good coverage valid everywhere in the world except the USA (US law prevents them from covering me in America).
I’d love to come home permanently, but with no way to do it, I’ll just keep spending my money over here and keeping non-Americans employed.