I fractured my elbow and tore my rotator cuff. I went to emergency that night and they gave me pain medicine and told me to see an orthopedic surgeon.
I had to make an appointment with my primary care doctor to get a referral. That took 5 days. After I got the referral I couldn’t get an appointment with the orthopedic doctor for two weeks.
So I was home for almost three weeks before seeing the doctor and another week before I could get surgery. That was almost a month that I had to sit at home in agony before my elbow and shoulder were treated. Yea, I love HMO’s.
That would be because medical costs have skyrocketed so much in the past decade that the only way for some of us to get medical care is to go to a doctor who won’t turn you down because you can’t pay.
I, when I get sick, am the “stick it out” kind of person. I’ll take a day off work, drink herbal teas and orange juice, sleep, and hope it goes away, cuz I’m not getting another day off of work. Once I had a cold from hell; I’d tried everything, and a month and a half later I was still sick. So I broke down and went to the ER, the only doctor required by law to take me even if I’m unable to pay right then.
No, but seriously folks. The reason why a UHC system could work in just about any country (Yes, even the united states), though it would take a period of adjustment is that 300 million people aren’t going to sit at home picking lint out of their navels just satisfied with the status quo. Why? Because we need to work. Working fills a hole. I’ve recently come to the realization that everything that we do as human beings is just to blur and anesthetize the reality of life. Without certain activities we wouldn’t be able to live, merely exist. You are also forgetting the certain altruistic element that we have. Does everybody that works (regardless of job) do it merely because of egoistic reasoning? That I’m doing this because it only profits me? Of course not.
Of course there will be a certain group of people that will quit working. These will be the social pariahs, the leaches, if you will, of society. And everybody will look down on them. But that is the price of having a healthy society. If you’ve ever read about Durkheim’s theories you’ll get the gist of it. In a healthy society there must be certain negative elements.
The very first thing you should do if you haven’t already is contact the manufacturer of the medicine and see if they have a program for low-income or uninsured patients. Some pharmaceuticals offer free or greatly reduced pricing.
I don’t think anyone would dispute that you are right about this. This is an incredible waste of resources, since ER doctors have to treat non-emergency ailments, and the ER is clogged for true emergencies. I know life threatening ones go in first, but serious ones have to wait.
The ER in my very nice hospital is a far worse place to stay than the waiting room in my doctors’ office, and the wait is a lot longer also. I can’t imagine why anyone would use it for a cold unless there were no alternatives. I’m sure Brooklyn is worse, and that is said as someone with Brooklyn in his blood.
Enabling people to go to family practice for this kind of thing (or even better, be able to call in to a nurse to get a prescription without a visit) is just one way a single payer plan would save money. BTW, the government paying private doctors and hospitals is not socialized medicine, anymore than the government paying Boeing for bombers is socialized aircraft manufacturing.
Thanks for the info. I do get short-term assistance for the hospital bills and such, but in the long term…I don’t know.
I am luckier than many-I’m not having to worry about putting food on the table, nor do I have a family to support. I can only imagine what it’s like for people worse off than I am.
(I’m also incredibly lucky to have a super-supportive employer!)
