I keep reading people saying that our healthcare is the "best in the world", that may be true, but if you can't afford it, or don't have insurance, it doesn't matter. To try to make the argument about quality is silly at best, and disingenuous at worst. If you have no insurance, and/or no money, you can go to the Top Tier, A-1 Hospital, with the Best Trained, Most Qualified doctors in the world, you aren't going to get beyond emergency care.
Emergency care is another issue, there is a myth out there that if you go to the ER they HAVE to treat you. They do NOT, they have to STABALIZE you. They have to set a broken bone, they have to perform emergency surgery (IF transfering you to another hospital would be to dangerous, AND you can prove that the move caused damage), they have to help a pregnant woman in distress. HOWEVER, they CAN refuse you treatment, I was left screaming and vomiting in an ER bay for over 8 HOURS and when I FINALLY saw a doctor, I was offered FOOD, that's it. 5 months, 4 GIs, several trips to a DIFFERENT ER later, I was diagnosed with SOD (Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction). A relatively simple procedure (ERCP with sphincterotomy) later, I'm fine.
I hope this clears up some misconceptions.
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Comments: 28
A friend of mine became homeless last summer. She showed up at my door one day looking like death. I took her to a nearby ER. She was having kidney stone blockage problems. They stabilized her and put her on the bus back to my house. (I was at work and she didn't want to be a "bother" by calling me.)
Since she had been seen at that hospital in the past, they had record of her. She told them she was homeless. They sent a bill to her former address. Since the mail service hadn't yet stopped delivering her mail there, she found it when she went back to check for something else. They billed her because they had an address for her. They didn't waste any time either, and they did not do anything more than make her comfortable until the next attack hit her.
By that time she was in another state and in another ER. Since she has family that lives in the area, they sent the bill to them.
I feel for your friend, they originally thought that I had kidney stones. Once everything was said and done, I found out that what I did have was a sphincter totally compacted with "sand and sludge" the sand being the crystals that eventually turn INTO stones, and the sludge being the backed up bile that had congeled. Unfortunately, crystals in your Sphincter of Oddi don't show up ANYWHERE, and without a gallbladder they'd never go anywhere and never get big enough to be seen.
(Please adjust your sarcasm meter accordingly)
We have different standards of care depending on what a person can afford or not afford and different levels of access. There are even different prices for the exact same thing whether or not you're talking about meds or a med procedure with prices negotiated by the individual insurance company. If you're uninsured or under insured you're toast. We have medical care that is piece meal instead of organized. Patient care depends on what the market will bare instead of patient needs.
If we really had a medical system we wouldn't have the crazy quilt medicine we now have.
I hope that clarifies my previous statement.
1)I'm a hommaker and stay at home mom, while I realize this is a job, I do not receive payment for my services.
2)THEY told me that my account was "on hold" while they decide about aid for the OTHER account, hence the lack of payments.
Even with the financial aid we currently have, we owe WELL OVER $6000.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5nu9OGiG0w
As for your fiance, that's GOT to be the hospital, I went there with a vomiting just over 1yo baby and not only did we have to wait to be seen (by then he was SEVERLY dehydrated) we had to fill out paperwork, show proof of insurance, both of our liscences, etc. I went there with a fever over 104, having had a seizure at home, and vomiting, and (from what I've been told) we waited several hours to be seen.
I have migraines, in fact, I had one today. Imitrex has been a GODSEND, when I was little the only thing they had was Caffergot, this stuff has saved my life.
They thought because I see a pain specialist (IF I wanted drugs, wouldn't I try to get them from HIM) and had been in with the same problem several times, and the last time, right before telling me that I was going through withdrawl from the Dilaudid during my Mengitis/Encephalitis they saved some 18yo from ODing on Heroin, that I MUST be a drug seeker and marked my file accordingly. So, when I went BACK they thought I was a drug seeker and treated me as such. They were WRONG.
As for the SOD, that's FINALLY taken care of, and I'm FINALLY over the surgery and everything. Things are starting to get back to normal.