A bunch of questions - Page 10

 



Too bad we didn't follow the lead of every other modern nation on the
planet.  National health care would have spread those costs across our
society.  Yes, some of us would have paid a little more, but in a great
society the poorest should have food, clothing, housing and health care.

 

Bill wrote:

Looking to win a vacation in Azerbaijan courtesy of CIA Rendition
Travel, Inc. are you, Mr. Enemy of the State and friend of Bin Laden?

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

 



They used to deduct the cost of these vacations from our pay but now China
pays for them and puts it on our tab.

 


If he had been under national health care he would not have been approved
for the hospital stay and would have died a few years later when the effects
caught up with him - 100% certainty, according to the doctor, who convinced
us we had to do what we had to do. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
That is why my insurance company (BCBS) only preapproved 3 days and approved
day by day, then cut off coverage after 8 days. He wasn't critically ill but
was on no fewer than 17 medications, managed by the best allergy practice in
Phoenix. The doctor knew most of the medications weren't helping and some
were probably hurting but couldn't back off in an outpatient setting. Within
the first month in the hospital he was down to about a half dozen meds and
was off prednisone for the first time in 6 years. At the end of is stay he
was down to something like 4 or 5 meds and only inhaled steroids. More
important, his asthma could be considered managed for the first time in his
life. That is what managed health care, either HMOs or socialized medicine,
do worst of all.

About ten years ago he moved to Washington state with his fiancee. While
there the back pain he had been fighting for a couple years became
disabling, so he turned to Medicaid. So few options were approved for his
treatment that he deteriorated, was put on morphine and switched to
methadone. When he returned here 3 years ago he was in pain, addicted to
methadone and had been unemployed for 5 years. We spent $
K from our own
pockets in the first few months to pursue effective treatment - something
Medicaid never did. Finally a single appointment with a physical therapist
got him the first accurate diagnosis and the first effective treatment he
had ever had: a pinched nerve in his middle back caused by the effects of
prednisone while he was growing. A couple chiropractor sessions and some
prescribed exercises worked the miracle he was hoping for. He has been
working in an eyeglass lab for two years now and has not yet missed a day of
work because of back pain. It took two years to wean from methadone, but he
has completely recovered now from the mess Medicaid made. God only knows how
much money the state of Washington wasted doing nothing good at all. Now he
is a taxpayer instead of a dependent of the state.

I know this whole subject is completely off-topic, but the hoax of public
health care hits too close to home for me.

Mike

 

Michael Pardee wrote:

That's the point. What you described is not the American national
health care system. It's America without a national health care system.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com