52

[RoundEye]

That’s the number of Neurosurgeons my wife called before I got an appointment. Then they wanted a referral from my PCP. Big, BIG joke there, I dealt with the problem until it hospitalized me. Plus the hospital I’m going to doesn’t just hand out info on patients. There make it like you are pulling teeth. If you think healthcare needs no reform, then don’t get sick. You’ll be fine with the present status quo unless you get sick. Stay healthy and you’ll be fine with healthcare.

Most doctors wanted insurance or cash. They will not take my Medicaid from Louisiana. As I stated before you have to be plenty wealthy to afford the 2650 dollars a month it cost for my shots of Rebif.

I’m not certain what has to be done but we need change quick, fast and in a hurry.

[JC]

So who should pay for your care and bills in your situation.

[OSULLY]

The state to state variations are huge.

[RoundEye]

So who should pay for your care and bills in your situation.

I don’t have the answer to that question. Federal government intervention is needed.

One thing that needs to be done is keep people from getting bankrupt. We need to take care of people in this country. I never asked for MS that’s for damn sure.

I’m telling you now though with the way things are right now, you get sick, you are forced out of work, and you are bankrupted. Stay healthy and you are fine. Get sick and you are screwed.

Don’t you think, calling over 50 doctors is a bit much? None of them wanted to touch my Medicaid. None of them wanted to deal with my MS. They gave the impression they only wanted easy work. There’s no doubt in my mind I’m a tough case.

[Dan]

the entire health care system is out of control ! the costs are on fire ! I pay $570 a month for health ins and that's just for my wife and 2 kids,that's not even for me as my employer pays for me.


and I agree,care and many doctors are questionable in motive and quality IMO.



and the monthly cost of your meds is unreal !

and as an american born tax paying(your entire life)citizen ,you certainly should have an easier time finding a doctor that takes medicaid,

and you should have some type of federal/state help during this tough time in your life


that's a scary and horrible situation you are in my friend.

[Faust]

So who should pay for your care and bills in your situation.

the same system that he's been paying into his entire working life. the idea that universal healthcare would not work is a lie. asking around people in canada and europe illustrates this. and i dont mean watching TV for the info.... i mean actually asking people who live there.

personally i would have no problem chipping in on Roundeye's (and every other sick person's) healthcare, if i knew that when i get sick i would also be covered.

what is really standing in the way is that currently the taxpayer revenue that could be spent on a better healthcare system is needed for bullshit "wars" and hidden agendas. so we're stuck with either paying more on top of what already pay, or ending said flow of money to those causes (which, given the lack of transparency are very hard to even pin down and address in the first place).

thats not to say that all other options should be removed. sure, if someone has the money they could go pay for their own coverage. but as it stands, the healthcare system here is broken. just like Roundeye said.... the only people who don't agree are either a) folks who arent sick, or b) folks with enough money or one of the rare employers with rightious insurance (which is becoming harder and harder to come by).

[RoundEye]

...that's a scary and horrible situation you are in my friend...

Yep, and it can happen to anyone at anytime. I feel as if I have been hit by lightening. If fact if I can get money straight right now I’m getting a natural looking lighten bolt tattooed on my neck, long story but I’ve been trying to get Thomas Penalton of Tattoo Highway to do it.

As much as I hate to admit it, we are all paying for my medical care. Each and every tax paying citizen of the United States is paying for it.

The most I ever paid attention to insurance was if a new job had it as a benefit. Like I mentioned in a previous post, if you are healthy every thing is fine but if you get sick it will bankrupt you and your family. I found that out in a very real and scary way. I might have just been diagnosed with MS but the doctors say I may have been fighting it for ten years according to the damage they see. They even documented it on reports as it affecting me for the past three to five years. Well that screwed me royally because now I can’t get health insurance to cover it because it is a pre-existing condition.

From the little research I have done people in Britain pay three dollars for their prescriptions and people in Australia pay five dollars. I could be off on the numbers though. And I or YOU pay 2650 a month, that’s a number I’m not wrong on either.

Now here’s a real kicker, if I go back to work (even part-time) I lose all assistance from the state. In a way I’m being forced onto public assistance. There is no way I could work and afford the medication I need. I’m not joking or BS’ing anyone on the cost either, look it up. It’s called Rebif Titration Pack. That link is the 22mcg’s and I’m on the 44mcg’s at this point. (as a side note here, DON’T piss off your wife right before she has to give you a shot in the stomach. She will try to pop you like a balloon. :rotfl

This medication is used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Interferon is not a cure for MS, but it may help to decrease the number of attacks of increased symptoms such as balance problems/numbness/weakness and slow the worsening of the disease.

I’m trying to keep myself in a good mood, this crap has been giving me some very wild mood swings, but healthcare is a very serious subject. Like I said, if you healthy every thing is peachy BUT if you get a serious illness it will bankrupt your family. What I’m trying to do is get the other grasshoppers in the world like me, and there are many, is pay attention to healthcare before life jumps up and kicks you in the ass.

[blebs]

One thing that needs to be done is keep people from getting bankrupt. We need to take care of people in this country. I never asked for MS that’s for damn sure.

I’m telling you now though with the way things are right now, you get sick, you are forced out of work, and you are bankrupted. Stay healthy and you are fine. Get sick and you are screwed.

Before my first heart surgery, I was fairly well off. Of course, lost my job because the company no longer wanted to insure me. No problem. Just live off of your savings and whatever. That's fine and dandy till it's all gone. Now add another heart surgery, my wife's emergency kidney surgery and where am I now? Read line one of Roundeyes quote.

[RoundEye]

...the same system that he's been paying into his entire working life...

I started working part-time in high school and minus accidents I have worked full time since I was in trade school after high school. Plus a ton of side jobs to earn extra cash.

Like when my dad and I were talking the other day, I may not have been out doing the right things in some people eyes but I was always busy.

I worked hard and partied hard too. I’m not trying to make myself out as an upstanding, model citizen either but I was always busy working and playing. I went to school two years for electronics and I went to a class for about a year at Tulane University for server administration. I may have lived life like a kid at heart but should I be kept out of the workforce because of my healthcare cost?

While I was in the hospital they even sent a Social Security advocate to my room to help me apply. That in itself blew my mind. She even commented on the fact I would not be able to cover the cost of my care.

I would donate my left nut to charity to be able to work reliably again.

[RoundEye]

Before my first heart surgery, I was fairly well off. Of course, lost my job because the company no longer wanted to insure me. No problem. Just live off of your savings and whatever. That's fine and dandy till it's all gone. Now add another heart surgery, my wife's emergency kidney surgery and where am I now? Read line one of Roundeyes quote.

One of the worst things is if you get sick, nobody in this world wants to touch you, you are damaged goods. I’m certain you never asked for heart problems either.

I’m out of money, way past that point. Only reason I’m on the net is that I leech it from my parent’s house through wireless. I put $1000 in the bank years ago to start a college fund for my son. I am down to that, it’s all I have left. If it wasn’t for it being in a 5 year CD I may have spent that too.

So think of healthcare another way, I have not been able to add to my son’s college fund or pay my own bills. So not only is it affecting me, it is affecting my son too.

So if people don’t want to change health care because of cost or how it may be impacting their kids, believe me it already is affecting children. My son, the next generation, is being severely impacted by all this. I’m telling you if you think the cost of not trying to do something about healthcare in this country will save the U.S. money, it will cost us much, much more in the long run then doing nothing at all.

Who then is really being impacted years from now?

[RoscoPColtrane]

You should go visit a VA hospital before wanting the feds to take over health care.

These people can't be trusted with anything and you want to put your families healthcare in their hands?

[RoundEye]

...You should go visit a VA hospital before wanting the feds to take over health care...

I thought the VA was or Veterans or current military only. I was never in the military. I tried to join, twice in fact, but could not because of metal in my body.

As far as the Feds, I’m really on the fence about that. They can’t seem to do much good at anything. All I’m really sure of is something needs to be done about cost. For employers too, the cost of insurance for your employees is crazy. Also I’m not wild about the government wanting everyone to have insurance and then fining those who don’t. They are wanting to fine people $1000.00 who don’t have insurance. That’s fine, it’s still way cheaper the 30K plus that I have to pay for just one medication, plus other medications and hospital cost. The hospital wasn’t cheap either. I was there eight days, gave 16 test tube size tubes of blood for running every test imaginable under the son, nerve test and nine MRI’s.

And as I mention again, who do you think is paying that cost? I’m not working so that means everyone in the U.S. is paying through taxes. I think that is nuts.

[RoscoPColtrane]

I was just saying you should see what a nightmare it is for some of the Vets to get care in those hospitals. So much in fact that i don't even bother, i just use my regular health insurance from work (thank god that is an option for me).

THe real trick to getting health care under control is to make it illegal for hospitals to charge so much.

Take for example my sleep apnea equipment. A tube (yes just a regular tube) for my mask costs me nearly 60bucks at the 'discount med equiipment place', i've seen them for more than that before too. I can get the same exact tube online for like 8 bucks. That kind of markup is un needed and absolutely rediculious.

Why should hospitals be allowed to charge so much to help people? YOu have to question when they stopped caring about serving people and started caring more about thier pockets. sad....



Good luck with everything btw. It's a broken system for sure, i just don't want the feds ruining it more...

[blebs]

I was just saying you should see what a nightmare it is for some of the Vets to get care in those hospitals. So much in fact that i don't even bother, i just use my regular health insurance from work (thank god that is an option for me).

THe real trick to getting health care under control is to make it illegal for hospitals to charge so much.

Take for example my sleep apnea equipment. A tube (yes just a regular tube) for my mask costs me nearly 60bucks at the 'discount med equiipment place', i've seen them for more than that before too. I can get the same exact tube online for like 8 bucks. That kind of markup is un needed and absolutely rediculious.

Why should hospitals be allowed to charge so much to help people? YOu have to question when they stopped caring about serving people and started caring more about thier pockets. sad....



Good luck with everything btw. It's a broken system for sure, i just don't want the feds ruining it more...

I said before, in another thread that a field hospital was better then any VA clinics around here. I don't question that at all.

As far as how to fix the system, I really don't have an answer. It's been left run amok for so long, I don't see a fix.

[RoundEye]

... It's been left run amok for so long, I don't see a fix...

Probably try a few things before we get it right. Hold on it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Good doctors should be paid well. Like any professional, such as a teacher should. My main complaint is the cost. It’s not a joke in the slightest. The cost of getting healthcare will bankrupt you. I’m getting really tired of fighting a borked system and I’m about ready to give in and say screw it. The stress of dealing with all this will no doubt put me in an early grave.

[Faust]

You should go visit a VA hospital before wanting the feds to take over health care.

These people can't be trusted with anything and you want to put your families healthcare in their hands?

i completely agree. however, that brings up an additional issue that needs to get fixed. my thought is to not let the need for repair of one part of the machine to prohibit the repair of another part. in the end it just means nothing gets fixed.

using the dismal application of govenrment administered healthcare in veterans hospitals (and plain old basic needs assistance for that matter) as a model, we could only make improvements.

[RoundEye]

...I was just saying you should see what a nightmare it is for some of the Vets to get care in those hospitals. So much in fact that i don't even bother, i just use my regular health insurance from work (thank god that is an option for me)...

Oh, I completely misunderstood you. I thought you meant for me to go to a VA for better care, not the opposite.


My complaint is not with getting care, it’s the cost of it. Even then I hate to complain about that because of research needed for chronic illnesses. Research is a necessary evil needed in order to move forward with a chronic disease.

I’m sure some people have seen this already. The cost is stupid high. It will bankrupt your family and put you in the poor house. Yet still some people wonder why a person applies for Social Security. Sure there are some people who abuse the system but there is that with any system set up to help people. There is always freeloader, lazy ****s. They feel like they hit the lottery, I feel like I’m selling my soul to the devil. Have to keep in mind though that the system was set up to help those in need in the first place. I got my Social Security statement in the mail the other day. If I was to draw SS right now, I would get less then 2/3’s of what I was making when I worked. Then it goes down more if and when I hit 65. Look around your house, could you survive easily if suddenly 2/3’s of your stuff disappeared?

Getting MS and living with MS is a personal battle that I somehow have to manage to live with. But with the wonders of the Internet I can somehow get a few people to realize the cost of healthcare is crazy high. Remember, one day you will get old and by then it is too late for you to make any changes in the system. Keep in mind you may be healthy now but that can change at any moment. You may think you are safe because you are working and have insurance. That is not enough, believe me. When you cause the insurance cost at your company to sky rocket, they will find a way to let you go or fire you. Think long and hard, are you really that important of an employee that your company can’t afford to let you go? They started the company to make a profit and you are killing that profit with insurance cost. Greed sucks but it seems to play an important roll in the American way.

Our entire lives are run by lawyers and insurance companies but that is a topic for another thread.

[blebs]

I’m sure some people have seen this already. The cost is stupid high. It will bankrupt your family and put you in the poor house. Yet still some people wonder why a person applies for Social Security. Sure there are some people who abuse the system but there is that with any system set up to help people. There is always freeloader, lazy ****s. They feel like they hit the lottery, I feel like I’m selling my soul to the devil. Have to keep in mind though that the system was set up to help those in need in the first place. I got my Social Security statement in the mail the other day. If I was to draw SS right now, I would get less then 2/3’s of what I was making when I worked. Then it goes down more if and when I hit 65. Look around your house, could you survive easily if suddenly 2/3’s of your stuff disappeared?

Social Security Disability is a joke. Anyone who thinks a person receiving it is half way well off, are so full of it. What I get for the entire month is what I made in 1.5 weeks working. There is no way I could keep this place if my wife weren't out there busting her butt. It won't even pay all the bills!

The insanity doesn't stop there either, then they take nearly $100 of that for Medicare, then you still have your copayments to Doctors, hospitals, labs, etc, then there's medications each month. Very quickly, your monthly check is gone gone gone.

Like you Roundeye, I wouldn't have any internet if it weren't for Hank from the other site paying for it as a way to pay me to be an administrator on his site. Just no way would it fit in the budget.

[RoundEye]

...There is no way I could keep this place if my wife weren't out there busting her butt...

That’s what I’m afraid off. The collateral damage to my family because of this. If it wasn’t for my wife I’d probably be swinging by my neck from a tree right now.

Keep an eye out for the name Lydia Rollins. I seen her on the news this morning. People get fired everyday when they get sick. She’s terminal and doesn’t have the time to run through the Social Security system nor does she have the money, now that she has been fired, to get the surgery she needs that might save her life.

Kidney patient says ACS fired her for getting sick: Now she has no job or insurance for transplant.

Yep, we have the best healthcare in the world in America. Just hope that you never need it. If you develop a sudden illness your job security is screwed and you are bankrupted. Don’t get sick and you are fine.

[CiscoKid]

My dad was diagnosed with Alzhiemers January of 2004, I've posted about it before. In the last two yers, he's gone down hill pretty fast...he hasn't made much sence when he tried talking. He's gotten SO aggressive, my mom had stopped sleeping in the same room as he would, she's slept on the couch since April. About a month ago he had a stroke, it was pretty mild as far as a stroke goes and he's been in a convolecent hospital ever since. Now, if the insurance which they pay almost 1000 a month for wasn't covering it in fulle for a max of 100 days, we'd be ****ed. My sister wants to get him moved, but if we do, we 're out of pocket 100% for that. To that end, my sister wants my mom to move in with her and take ALL that money to apply it towards that new convalecant. Even then, that wouldn't cover the entire cost of most of the residential programs available around here when that total cost is anywhere from 2000 to 5000 bucks a month

Why does the cost need to be so high?

[blebs]

I’d probably be swinging by my neck from a tree right now.

Funny you should use that analogy. Every time someone asks how I'm doing, I tell them I'm hanging from a rope and the knot is getting tighter and tighter against my neck.

[RoundEye]

...Why does the cost need to be so high?...

That’s what I’m trying to get through to people. The outrageous cost of care. It’s not the availability, it’s the cost.
You know its way too high when your job is in jeopardy should you get sick.

One day we all get old and feeble, by then it’s too late for any thing to change.

[RoundEye]

Funny you should use that analogy. Every time someone asks how I'm doing, I tell them I'm hanging from a rope and the knot is getting tighter and tighter against my neck.

swing low, sweet chariot.............................

[tr87526]

I blame our health care situation on lawyers. The lawsuits are ridiculous. Unless a doctor screwed up (being drunk, doing drugs, etc) stuff happens. If they did everything possible and things turn out the bad, why sue??

As for the pharmaceutical industry. I don't believe they made a drug knowing that 10 years from now was going to damage some other part of you.

15 million lawsuits were filed last year. That cost has to be passed on somewhere.

[blebs]

I blame our health care situation on lawyers. The lawsuits are ridiculous. Unless a doctor screwed up (being drunk, doing drugs, etc) stuff happens. If they did everything possible and things turn out the bad, why sue??

As for the pharmaceutical industry. I don't believe they made a drug knowing that 10 years from now was going to damage some other part of you.

15 million lawsuits were filed last year. That cost has to be passed on somewhere.

But this is only part of the overall problem. Until it affects the very affluent, there is going to be no change.