Health care - just venting

Well, I went and did it this past Sunday. I drove over to Philly to help my Son dig out from the snow and was in the process of helping push-pull a neighbors car out of the snow when I managed to tear something in my right fore arm. IMHO I think I tore a muscle (or tendon, I don't know the diff), between my wrist and elbow. I tried to tough it out for a few days but my arm is weak, my range of motion is limited and it hurts pretty good too. So I finally cave in and go to the doctor - a local "Family Health Care Center" that is part of one of the major hospitals in my area. The doctor was pleasant enough and she examined my arm, then gave me a referral for X-rays and another referral to see an orthopedic specialist. So I leave the Dr.s ofc. and go home, call the local Imaging Center, make an appt. and get my X-rays taken and get a CD with my pictures on it. Then I call for an appointment with the orthopedic Dr. and find that the earliest they can see me isn't until next Friday, over a week away. Not only that but it is about 15 - 20 miles from my home.

I'm sorry but what ever happened to finding out what is wrong with you and having some kind of treatment done the same day?

And with my market plan insurance (bronze plan cause I'm broke) how many co-pays am I going to accumulate? It almost seems like you are run through this mill on purpose so you can accumulate lots of those co pays.

Forgive me my Buick Brothers and Sisters. I am just cranky from not feeling 100% and not finding any relief at the Dr's ofc.

Would I have been better off just going to the local ER? I am afraid of running up a bill but it looks like I am going to have to pay a lot out of pocket no matter what I do... Health care seems so compartmentalized - unless you are at the hospital. And what am I supposed to do for the next week? Do I wrap it? All the Dr. suggested was Tylenol and a sling...

Thanks! Vent over!

 

Family docs can certainly look at X-rays and render conservative treatment while awaiting a specialty consult. It's generally standard practice.

 

Torn muscles and ligaments do not show on xrays. You'll need a MRI for that. Dr's always send you to a specialist because thats were these guys still make bank. So while we all would like to have it the way it was just as I would like to buy a new truck and not spend 50K we'll have to live with it for now. Not being political but when the Dems had super majorities in the house and senate and the presidency they could have passed single payer or medicare for all. But they chose this system. Not sure why but till we find something better we deal with it.

 

I hear ya....the throbbing pain always helps the mood too. I got stuck in the hospital thinking I had heart issues for about four hours. $1300 later they told me to go home and they would send my results. I never heard another word from anyone other than the billing company. I decided I should go to my regular doctor and he told me to quit working so much and take a vacation,but I can't because his billing office is in line after the hospital. I feel much better knowing that if I die I will owe someone instead of vice-versa.Good luck

 

I just went through this over the summer with my broken collar bone. It took a week before I could see an Ortho Dr and let him tell me it was up to me if I was to get surgery or not. I decided against surgery but still saw him to check progress. It ended up costing $1500 out of pocket (yes I Have BCBS), to basically get a sling and someone tell me it's progressing nicely.

 

Because the National Health Service is such a ringing success?

 

Wife was diagnosed w/copd. Given a year to live. Didn't accept this. Scheduled a visit to Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Flew from NC to Arizona. Full monte ,soup to nuts at Mayo. EVERYTHING done/diagnosed. One trip. 3/4 days there. Awesome,complete,all at one location. Upshot? Wife NOT suffering from copd. Mayo:1. Duke Medical Center:0. Expensive. Worth it.

 

If it was me, I'd not pay those SOBs and dare them to come after me as I would get a lawyer and sue for malpractice.

I've gotten two medical bills dismissed due to their negligence. You have to fight for your rights or they will walk all over you!

 

Yep, its a racket these days. Pretty much for me its to the point that I don't go in unless I cannot treat it or get proper meds myself. Wife gets onto me but I hate wasting four hours of my life for the Dr. to tell me I have a virus and get rest and going back again to get cleared to fly. Forget it.

 

If I'm not dying, I'm not going anywhere near a clinic or hospital, unless the injury is going to substantially limit my everyday life. I don't have insurance either; can't afford it. Not that it would be much use unless I am dying anyways.

 

Yes you can because they called it the affordable health care act. Better sign up in 3 days or pay the fine.

 

I heard on the news that it seems most people are just paying the fine...a nice, bittersweet F U to the dolts that passed that garbage. I been on government health care my whole life and I was and am the biggest opponent to it! That VA mess you keep hearing about? People dying because of wait lists and never getting treated...yeah that's not a great example of how great government health care works...

 

Funny isn't it?! "Here, we'll help you get 'affordable' insurance. If you don't, we'll charge you anyway." ou:

 

My friend was paying just over $200 a month for their plan before obama care. They liked their plan but didn't get to keep their plan. Now they to pay over $450 for a much worse plan, much higher deductible and out of pocket. Affordable Care? Not for anyone making over $48k/yr. That's the magic line in the sand where people who make over get extorted to pay for those who don't.

Last summer I had acute appendicitis. Went to emergency and spent the weekend there. When the bills started rolling in I discovered that everyone with 'ologist' at the end of their job description works IN the hospital but none of them works FOR the hospital.

So if you end up in the hospital, expect to get a bill from the anesthesiologist, the pathologist, the radiologist, the oncologist, and don't forget everyone's favorite the proctologist because there all gonna stick you in the end.

Then expect a bill from the hospital.

 

Yeah, it's a great system. Then when all those bills pile up and you can't pay them you get thrown into collections. Now begins your downward spiral, you are physically impaired and now your credit takes a hit too.

 

It is private insurance coverage obtained through a government exchange and not government insurance. It is working well given the level of misplaced opposition. Universal health care in the U.S. would have been even better under the Affordable Care Act if some had not opposed it. We are one of the few industrialized nations that does not have it. The rest of the world is way ahead of us. We went through the same misplaced opposition during the time of passage of the Social Security Act and Medicare--both of which are now very popular. In time people will also look back and say they cannot believe legislation like the Affordable Care Act was opposed.

 

The single biggest problem with the VA is their labor union (American Federation of Government Employees, AFGE). The place is run like the mafia, only union members get promoted, everything has to go through the union first.... so when you have to test in order to advance, the union already has seen and approved the test days in advance before anybody takes it. NOBODY is afraid of being fired, you literally have to kill somebody at work or get into a fistfight with a manager in order to be dismissed. Folks know exactly how much work they have to do an never budge an inch to do more..... this may mean they can work 4 hours a day and sit the other 4. Anytime a manager tries to discipline an employee for coming to work late, leaving early, fudging numbers, not working etc... they just run to the union and it gets dismissed.

 

Im paying the fine. Screw it. 1 month of the Obama care is more than the fine.

 

I just want to say........WOW. I hope you never need a doctor because you will find that everyone who thinks this is a good plan already has themselves and their five offspring in line with a wide variety of non life threatening problems in front of you.

 

I am a lot more familiar with how this all fits together than you are. My spouse works in the field in Europe. It works very well and is well liked.

By the way everyone is paying a penalty today for all that have no coverage. When the noninsured incur a big medical bill today, most cannot or do not pay it. The cost goes right back into the rate bases for those that do pay for insurance today. So the people insured pay higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles because of those who up until now have been getting a free ride. At least with the penalties the non-insured's will be forced to kick some money into the insurance pool. We just need to get the penalties raised to force the non-insured's to obtain insurance. In a way this is how Medicare and Social Security started. Everyone has to ante whether they like it or not. This is the only way to eliminate so many freeloaders in the medical system.