The Medical Field

With all this hubbub about the universal healthcare I want to discuss the state of American healthcare in general and why people are so disgusted.

First off, we already have a program in place to cover everyone who can't afford private healthcare, its called Medicaid or some other type name in each individual state. Why do we need a complete and separate program that does the exact same thing that we already have? Oh that's right because the one we have doesn't work! The monetary levels you must live under in order to qualify are so low you basically have to shine shoes for a living on the sidewalk in Ohio (and even that's debatable) before you can fully qualify for Medicaid. Then if you do qualify, the majority of doctors won't accept it. Great. Program works like a dream doesn't it. Another brilliant idea, here in California to qualify for certain special needs programs you must have Medical (CA's version of Medicaid) EVEN if you have your own insurance. What? You mean to tell me that a person who is already covered under a medical plan and has to get a waiver due to income HAS to have MediCal in place in order to qualify for a program? Yup. And they wonder why CA is so broke. You have to fill out 40 pages of info on your income, holdings etc, just for you to hand them a waiver and some worker who rarely speaks English to stamp the whole packet Waived in big red letters (takes weeks) and give you MediCal. How much did that cost? Paper, mailing costs, worker to process at DHS, Worker to process waiver at Regional Center, multiple resends because they forgot to send you sheet 53, 56 and 91, and of course every other year your MediCal gets dropped because they change workers so they have to rush things through. I'm figuring each case must cost the state in excess of $2-3000 just in paperwork a year! Now multiply that by the amount of special needs persons in the state of California that already have private medical insurance. Why didn't we just overhaul Medicaid to a sliding scale and require Docs to accept as part of their licensure? Too simple, I know.

Medical industry part 2- So I have had some significant health issues this year and have been doing my best to follow the rules and try and get it figured out. So I switch to an off-base general practitioner misguidedly thinking that would mean it would be easier for me get in to see my doc since I live 1.5 hours from base. Well that was fine until after I switched and they game plan changed. Originally I could see her in the office 15 miles from my house, but then only I could see her in Urgent Care there but if I wanted a regular appt. I had to drive 45 minuted to their other office. Do what? Um, ok. So I sucked it up since this GP had privileges at the only decent hospital around, as in the only one not at risk of losing its license. But then, I couldn't get an appt. with her so most of my care was done at said hospital's ER. Which after awhile made them think I was after pain meds. Seriously? No, I have plenty. I want to know why I feel like I'm dying. After a nice vacation (extended stay in the cardiac wing) we figured out it wasn't my heart. So I finally get into the GP and she refers me to follow up with cardiology. K. And? More pain meds. WTH? And so we go for another few weeks. More ER visits. Again track the GP down, she's now only working half days at the office closest to me so we converse by phone. More pain meds. GRRRRR. She refers me to endocrinology, have appt, endo goes on maternity leave, seriously? Why the hell did you take me as a patient if you were not going to be here? Come to find out she pops them out annually. Call GP. Now she only works half days period anywhere. WTF??????? This is within 3-4 months of switching to her as my GP. So I ask for a referral to neurology, pain management and physical therapy, yeah me, the laymen. Ok sure and guess what, she puts in more pain meds. Still no resolution. Oh and a new referral to a new endo, preferably a guy, no babies. Through all this I've been having chest pain, numbness and weakness on the left side, disorientation, fatigue and the list goes on. Get in to see neuro, he thinks ms, orders mri, takes a month and half for the referral to get through. Pain management referral takes a month to get through, maybe because the GP didn't put the damn thing in. Get in to see PM doc, he orders MRI of neck, I'm called in 2 days. hmmmmm, something weird here. Get MRI's done same day, get slides, get dizzy, falling down, neuro says I can see you in a month and a half. WHAT? New doc at GP's office see's me that afternoon. PM doc calls back in 15 minutes. Go to ER. Ok so now the point of all this..... where is the standard of care?

What is the standard of care and why are all doctors not abiding by it? If you commit to taking a patient as your responsibility then should you not be absolutely responsible for that patient? After going to over 50 doctor and ER visits I finally found 1 doctor that looked at me and said I get it. My question was if I am getting dizzy and falling down, what will it take, me driving my kid to school and wrapping my truck around a tree before you people pay attention and realize something is wrong? It should not take 6 months to diagnose a slipped disk in ones neck with a pinched nerve. REALLY???? Why are we not holding these people to a higher standard? Hopefully that is all that is wrong and we will see but I know now at least what's causing the dizziness.

The point in this whole blog post is just because they are doctors doesn't mean they are God. Don't be sheeple. Question, get answers. Hold them accountable. It's your life and others on the line. Universal healthcare isn't going to fix the problem if the doc's don't give a crap about what they are doing or who they are working on.

So I'm here....

Let me start by giving you some idea what this blog will not include. Kitten pictures, yeah probably none of those. Nor will there be and fluffy bunnies or lollipops. I'm writing this blog to discuss things that in general piss me off, and many other folks. Typically, those things folks don't generally want to discuss openly or that they won't point out. Yup, that's what I want to do. Point out the general stupidity of humanity, call someone on it and say hey you, look at yourself, did you realize that what you are doing looks/sounds as stupid as it does or did you just miss that this morning before you walked outside your house? I'm going to probably rate this as PG-13 level writing. If its worse I will absolutely warn you in the title. I want to write about things that many people think they know but generally don't research before they open their mouths as well, like you know, horse slaughter. OOOOOOOHHH gotcha on that one. Lotsa misinformation on that subject out there. But that will come later. Lets see, why is it so damned important what our potential politicians or anyone else does in their bedroom? Again, gotcha, another good question. And so forth and so on. If you have any ideas shoot them my way, I'll try my best to research them and present both arguments but I have to say I will always take the side of good decent common sense.