Things that make you go 'doh'.

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Morticia

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I am trying to refill a prescription via the auto feature at the pharmacy, which has always worked in the past, including to reorder the dog's 'scrips. So, I call in tonight and someone answers the phone (usually it's an AVR system). I say I want to refill a 'scrip and I'm told there's no pharmacist on duty, call back after 8 PM when the AVR system is on. So, church bells chime the hour and I call. Someone answers the phone and I get the whole spiel again...no pharmacist, they can't take prescription calls. I ask if they can put me thru to the answering machine? They don't know how to do that.
So, apparently, if there is no pharmacist on duty they will not take 'scrip orders. Now I have to wonder what happens next. They have my 'scrip. I can't get it filled elsewhere. It's the weekend and I'm out. I may have to call another pharmacy in that chain and drive somewhere to get the 'scrip refilled. This is just silly.
Last time I called I went to the pharm to pick up 2 'scrips. She gives me 1 of them. I say I called in 2 different 'scrips. 'Oh, yes, we can't give you the other one until tomorrow, insurance regulations.' So she goes to ring up the first one and I say, 'I'll get that tomorrow, no sense in paying twice,' and off I go. I am not taking controlled substances. I am a responsible adult. One day and they can't fill the 'scrip. No, I take that back, they can fill it but they can't charge the insurance so I have to pay the full price if I want to take it home with me right then.
 
I know exactly how you feel. The insurance company will not pay for the big ticket 'script for DH because there are cheaper statens but they affect the liver - already had the higher numbers on the 3 month tests he had to go through with them. Doc prescribed the only non-staten and they said no. You want to avoid liver damage you have to pay for the 'script yourself.
Hate to tell you guys, but this is what National Healhcare will be. The government telling you what meds you can take - not the doctor. They are saying DH can die of liver failure rather than heart failure instead of controlling the heart (cholesterol) problem and retaining a good liver. I know that eventually either way he is going to die - but time line may be very different as well as pain and/or linger factor.
 
I know exactly how you feel. The insurance company will not pay for the big ticket 'script for DH because there are cheaper statens but they affect the liver - already had the higher numbers on the 3 month tests he had to go through with them. Doc prescribed the only non-staten and they said no. You want to avoid liver damage you have to pay for the 'script yourself.
Hate to tell you guys, but this is what National Healhcare will be. The government telling you what meds you can take - not the doctor. They are saying DH can die of liver failure rather than heart failure instead of controlling the heart (cholesterol) problem and retaining a good liver. I know that eventually either way he is going to die - but time line may be very different as well as pain and/or linger factor..
Don't get me started... When Rick was first diagnosed we sat down with the office at MD Anderson to chart a course of treatment. "You have great insurance", they said. "Other than your annual deductibles you'll be covered 100%".
Right. We were covered 100% on those things that our insurance company thought we should be covered for. Certain tests, no. Certain drugs, no. And unfortunately, not being covered for certain tests didn't mean that MD Anderson didn't require them! Out came the credit card, time after time.
We had issues with BC/BS over Rick's pain medications during the last two months of his life. They decided that they needed a special form filed by the doctor stating that Rick needed the pain medication he'd been taking FOR THREE YEARS, and they needed it NOW, before they would fill his RX.
Of course I find this out after driving to four different Walgreens trying to scrounge up enough pain medication to get him through the next couple of days, finally finding a place that had enough pills (you can't get a partial RX of a controlled substance) only to be told that the insurance wouldn't pay for it. Like I was really going to go home without it.
I paid out of pocket that time and two more times because the man was dying and in pain and the necessary papers hadn't yet been processed (were never processed...). The only thing that stopped the financial hemorrhage over pain pills was the fact that he went into hospice and THEY supplied the medication.
For this I paid over $700 a month in premiums plus a $7500 deductible per year.
The system is soooo broken. Doctors don't control your health care, you don't control your health care, the insurance company controls your health care and they don't give a cr*p.
They wouldn't cover Zofran, a very expensive anti-nausea drug but they WOULD pay $60,000 for a hospital stay and then over $500 a day for 60 days for Rick to be on TPN once he lost the ability to eat, which probably wouldn't have happened had they allowed the Zofran.
They wouldn't cover Xeloda, an oral form of 5FU, because it was ORAL, therefore it fell under our RX plan that had a $2000 cap. One 3 week RX was $2100 in the US, $700 if I brought it in from Canada (don't even get me started on THAT topic!) but what a hassle - sometimes we'd get it, sometimes we wouldn't and when we didn't we'd have to fork over the $2Grand or else interrupt a chemo routine which you just do not do.
But they WOULD pay for Rick to go into the hospital for chemo, including 5FU, at a cost of $21,000 a pop. Weekly. For chemo that wasn't as effective.
Sadly, towards the end, we had to make the decision that the Xeloda was beyond our reach and it's too bad. It wouldn't have cured him but it would have given him more time but we just didn't have the money for it.
It's insane and I don't know what the answer is. I only know that it just about broke us and the only way it didn't break us was that he died with life insurance so I could pay most of it off. I still owe MD Anderson $3800 and they'll get it when the house sells.
Bankruptcy isn't even an option, they no longer allow you to walk away from medical bills under bankruptcy laws.
Bitter? Yes. Extremely.
 
Today we are fighting the insurance companies - tomorrow it will be the Government. You have the right to sue the insurance companies and sometimes do get to be the "snowball in hell" and win. You cannot sue the Government.
 
Well, I really started off griping about the pharmacy but I do have to say that I am on a 'gov't' insurance policy and it's the best insurance I've ever had. My deductible dropped from $5000 to $500 and we pay slightly more per month to have both of us on the plan than we were paying with private insurance. Previously only I had coverage. So far they have covered everything I've needed, no 'pre existing conditions' clauses, etc.
Hubs has been on the disabled vets health care program since 1978 and he's had the best health care I've ever seen. And you don't get much more 'gov't' than that. (The reason hubs has both plans is that the gov't doesn't cover accidents, only health issues, as we found out.) So, thank you, one and all, for paying for hubs' heart procedure last year or I'd be doing this alone right now.
 
Well, I really started off griping about the pharmacy but I do have to say that I am on a 'gov't' insurance policy and it's the best insurance I've ever had. My deductible dropped from $5000 to $500 and we pay slightly more per month to have both of us on the plan than we were paying with private insurance. Previously only I had coverage. So far they have covered everything I've needed, no 'pre existing conditions' clauses, etc.
Hubs has been on the disabled vets health care program since 1978 and he's had the best health care I've ever seen. And you don't get much more 'gov't' than that. (The reason hubs has both plans is that the gov't doesn't cover accidents, only health issues, as we found out.) So, thank you, one and all, for paying for hubs' heart procedure last year or I'd be doing this alone right now..
I'm a fiscal conservative when it comes to politics, but I've seen firsthand what a major illness can do to ones finances in this country. The only people who can afford a prolonged illness like cancer are the extremely rich or the extremely poor. The middle class gets a ticket to the latter catagory.
You work, you save, you think you have it covered but no. People have no idea what REALLY happens.
Like I said, the only way we didn't end bankrupt was that he died. How horrible is that? Had he lived I'd have over $100,000 in medical bills still unpaid.
I have a good friend in California whose husband was a computer whiz, had his own consulting firm, and they lived the big life in a big house outside of LA. He got cancer of the throat and tongue. He couldn't work during treatment, and since he was the business they lost the business, the house, everything. She stood in her yard and watched them auction off her belongings because HE LIVED. They lived in a one bedroom apartment while she worked as a secretary for 15 years until her son bought them a house last year.
The self-employed in particular need a safety net. I don't know what that would look like, but I know what it looks like not to have one.
 
Well, I really started off griping about the pharmacy but I do have to say that I am on a 'gov't' insurance policy and it's the best insurance I've ever had. My deductible dropped from $5000 to $500 and we pay slightly more per month to have both of us on the plan than we were paying with private insurance. Previously only I had coverage. So far they have covered everything I've needed, no 'pre existing conditions' clauses, etc.
Hubs has been on the disabled vets health care program since 1978 and he's had the best health care I've ever seen. And you don't get much more 'gov't' than that. (The reason hubs has both plans is that the gov't doesn't cover accidents, only health issues, as we found out.) So, thank you, one and all, for paying for hubs' heart procedure last year or I'd be doing this alone right now..
You're so right - the fact is 45 million Americans have no kind of health insurance whatsoever and would be happy to at least be able to choose some medication on a prescription plan or be able to see a doctor to find out what their problems are before they are so debilitating that it takes an emergency room visit to find out the problem. I'd rather have the government running my healthcare than the big insurance companies, drug companies and the AMA running it, which is what we have today. Other civilized countries make it work.
 
Well, I really started off griping about the pharmacy but I do have to say that I am on a 'gov't' insurance policy and it's the best insurance I've ever had. My deductible dropped from $5000 to $500 and we pay slightly more per month to have both of us on the plan than we were paying with private insurance. Previously only I had coverage. So far they have covered everything I've needed, no 'pre existing conditions' clauses, etc.
Hubs has been on the disabled vets health care program since 1978 and he's had the best health care I've ever seen. And you don't get much more 'gov't' than that. (The reason hubs has both plans is that the gov't doesn't cover accidents, only health issues, as we found out.) So, thank you, one and all, for paying for hubs' heart procedure last year or I'd be doing this alone right now..
You're so right - the fact is 45 million Americans have no kind of health insurance whatsoever and would be happy to at least be able to choose some medication on a prescription plan or be able to see a doctor to find out what their problems are before they are so debilitating that it takes an emergency room visit to find out the problem. I'd rather have the government running my healthcare than the big insurance companies, drug companies and the AMA running it, which is what we have today. Other civilized countries make it work.
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Honestly I am feeling more and more like you. I just cannot believe the cost of health care today. Al's hernia surgery out patient was almost $10,000!!!!! Thank God for our insurance but all of those poor folks with nothing.... And then the drs want you to take every test imaginable...insisted I do a stress test..well finally gave in. That was in Nov...I just now saw the bill $4,000!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK...again. thank God insurance covered it...but more and more you just wonder what they will and won't cover..you never know until the EOB shows up.
That is why i am so paranoid about saving...I can only imagine what it will be like if something doesn't change. Like the others said...savings could be wiped out in an instant!!! GUess I shouldn't worry about stuff like that in the future..but I do:-(
 
Well, I really started off griping about the pharmacy but I do have to say that I am on a 'gov't' insurance policy and it's the best insurance I've ever had. My deductible dropped from $5000 to $500 and we pay slightly more per month to have both of us on the plan than we were paying with private insurance. Previously only I had coverage. So far they have covered everything I've needed, no 'pre existing conditions' clauses, etc.
Hubs has been on the disabled vets health care program since 1978 and he's had the best health care I've ever seen. And you don't get much more 'gov't' than that. (The reason hubs has both plans is that the gov't doesn't cover accidents, only health issues, as we found out.) So, thank you, one and all, for paying for hubs' heart procedure last year or I'd be doing this alone right now..
I'm a fiscal conservative when it comes to politics, but I've seen firsthand what a major illness can do to ones finances in this country. The only people who can afford a prolonged illness like cancer are the extremely rich or the extremely poor. The middle class gets a ticket to the latter catagory.
You work, you save, you think you have it covered but no. People have no idea what REALLY happens.
Like I said, the only way we didn't end bankrupt was that he died. How horrible is that? Had he lived I'd have over $100,000 in medical bills still unpaid.
I have a good friend in California whose husband was a computer whiz, had his own consulting firm, and they lived the big life in a big house outside of LA. He got cancer of the throat and tongue. He couldn't work during treatment, and since he was the business they lost the business, the house, everything. She stood in her yard and watched them auction off her belongings because HE LIVED. They lived in a one bedroom apartment while she worked as a secretary for 15 years until her son bought them a house last year.
The self-employed in particular need a safety net. I don't know what that would look like, but I know what it looks like not to have one.
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springlady said:
The self-employed in particular need a safety net. I don't know what that would look like, but I know what it looks like not to have one.
My insurance is what it looks like. My state has a small business plan, right now it is on the ropes as the insurance company that was the original administer lied to everyone trying to get the policy and told them it was 'too expensive' so there was little buy in. I have no idea what the catastophic care plan would look like (and hope to never find out), but I know the 'everyday' plan is very good. And I know that the VA has submitted claims to the 'private' insurance plan and everything has been covered.
 
Our health insurance was cancelled by the company because the company stopped writing health insurance in Iowa. That happened in 2002. Karl could not get health insurance because of a pre -existing condition. There are many folks in this country who are in the same boat. PRE-EXISTING CONDITION. It is not that we did not want to buy health insurance, the only insurance that we could get was far to expensive. We finally got insurance for him, but it was for " the big ones". Karl went 5 years without insurance. Thank God the big one never happened.
Last year I needed an x-ray. I would not have it until they told me what it cost. If it was too much I simply would not have had it. I think we all need to question needs, costs, etc, if we have insurance or not. We decided to go directly to Karl's cardiologist,not have to pay another doctor to get to the cardiologist. Health care can be less costly if we ask questions it through.
End of the story, Karl is now on Medicare and in 1 week I will be too. I can not wait. Decent health Care again, not having to say do we really need this, what will it cost, etc.
I am willing to give the government a chance. It has to be better than no insurance.
 
Our health insurance was cancelled by the company because the company stopped writing health insurance in Iowa. That happened in 2002. Karl could not get health insurance because of a pre -existing condition. There are many folks in this country who are in the same boat. PRE-EXISTING CONDITION. It is not that we did not want to buy health insurance, the only insurance that we could get was far to expensive. We finally got insurance for him, but it was for " the big ones". Karl went 5 years without insurance. Thank God the big one never happened.
Last year I needed an x-ray. I would not have it until they told me what it cost. If it was too much I simply would not have had it. I think we all need to question needs, costs, etc, if we have insurance or not. We decided to go directly to Karl's cardiologist,not have to pay another doctor to get to the cardiologist. Health care can be less costly if we ask questions it through.
End of the story, Karl is now on Medicare and in 1 week I will be too. I can not wait. Decent health Care again, not having to say do we really need this, what will it cost, etc.
I am willing to give the government a chance. It has to be better than no insurance..
I think it is your story I always remember when people talk about health insurance - weren't you quoted something like $1300/month five years ago for a policy? It is one thing when people choose not to have health insurance, as I know some people do, but it is another thing entirely when you can't have it because you can't afford it. Insurance and drug companies are looking to make huge profits on healthcare; whatever else it is, the government is not maximizing profits for CEOs in the health care business.
I will get off the soapbox now, but I truly believe that healthcare is the single biggest lottery ticket millions of Americans play every day, hoping they won't have an illness before they can afford medical care.
 
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible.
 
Our health insurance was cancelled by the company because the company stopped writing health insurance in Iowa. That happened in 2002. Karl could not get health insurance because of a pre -existing condition. There are many folks in this country who are in the same boat. PRE-EXISTING CONDITION. It is not that we did not want to buy health insurance, the only insurance that we could get was far to expensive. We finally got insurance for him, but it was for " the big ones". Karl went 5 years without insurance. Thank God the big one never happened.
Last year I needed an x-ray. I would not have it until they told me what it cost. If it was too much I simply would not have had it. I think we all need to question needs, costs, etc, if we have insurance or not. We decided to go directly to Karl's cardiologist,not have to pay another doctor to get to the cardiologist. Health care can be less costly if we ask questions it through.
End of the story, Karl is now on Medicare and in 1 week I will be too. I can not wait. Decent health Care again, not having to say do we really need this, what will it cost, etc.
I am willing to give the government a chance. It has to be better than no insurance..
Rick might still be alive today if we'd had better insurance. Why? Endoscopy. It costs $5000 for an upper and lower, which was what his doctor recommended. People I know have them without a second thought because their coverage has a normal annual deduction. I'd pay $250, $500, $750 for one but in our case, with our deductible, we'd have had to pay for the whole enchilada and we just feel like we could afford to do it because at the time, there didn't seem to be any urgency.
Rick started having trouble swallowing. He also was in the furniture business, lifted lots of furniture because we made our own deliveries, so we made a self-diagnosis of hiatal hernia. It persisted, so he saw a doctor who told him he should probably have an endoscopy. We balked at the price since some vague and lower back pain were his only symptoms besides food getting caught occasionally. We'd never even heard of Esophageal cancer.
After 6 months of it getting progressively worse we saw the doctor again, and again he recommended an endoscopy BUT AGAIN, WITHOUT ANY URGENCY. So we passed. Within two weeks it got so bad that Rick couldn't swallow water - that got us running to the doctor begging for a test, pronto.
We still thought it was a hernia. I sat in the waiting room without a care in the world until the nurse called me into a consultation room. I knew then that it was bad - everyone else was getting their results in the waiting room.
The doctor came in and said run, don't walk, to MD Anderson, you don't have a moment to waste. Stage III esophageal tumor. It doubled in size within a week. In the three weeks it took to actually get in to MD Anderson and start treatment it doubled again and was probably a Stage IV but they treated him anyway. (That's where I get kinda p*ssed off, btw. By then I'd done my research and knew that he was pretty much doomed with a 6-12% chance of survival but did they ever actually verbalize that? No. I feel like they wanted the money and they got it. He wanted to live and got three years of hell, which he was grateful for. Me? Not so much. Call me selfish but if it were me I wouldn't have chosen that path and if I'm ever that sick I WILL NOT chose that path. If I'm gonna die anyway don't make feel like death with chemo and radiation, okay?).
In my personal opinion, that's the root of the problem. I'm going to sound harsh here and I apologize...but our medical institutions have become good at prolonging life and we expect it at any cost and the cost is temendous - to us, to the government, to our insurance companies, everyone pays for it! Rick would say he was caught up in the "cancer machine". It's a huge money maker. Call me jaded, but I would bet the farm that there will never be a cure for cancer because that would really be bad for business.
Hindsight is 20/20. The treatment would have been the same had we caught the tumor in April instead of September but the outcome may have been different. Rick died of mets to the colon because the treatment of the original tumor was successful. We would likely have been able to avoid the mets with earlier treatment.
 
Our health insurance was cancelled by the company because the company stopped writing health insurance in Iowa. That happened in 2002. Karl could not get health insurance because of a pre -existing condition. There are many folks in this country who are in the same boat. PRE-EXISTING CONDITION. It is not that we did not want to buy health insurance, the only insurance that we could get was far to expensive. We finally got insurance for him, but it was for " the big ones". Karl went 5 years without insurance. Thank God the big one never happened.
Last year I needed an x-ray. I would not have it until they told me what it cost. If it was too much I simply would not have had it. I think we all need to question needs, costs, etc, if we have insurance or not. We decided to go directly to Karl's cardiologist,not have to pay another doctor to get to the cardiologist. Health care can be less costly if we ask questions it through.
End of the story, Karl is now on Medicare and in 1 week I will be too. I can not wait. Decent health Care again, not having to say do we really need this, what will it cost, etc.
I am willing to give the government a chance. It has to be better than no insurance..
Rick might still be alive today if we'd had better insurance. Why? Endoscopy. It costs $5000 for an upper and lower, which was what his doctor recommended. People I know have them without a second thought because their coverage has a normal annual deduction. I'd pay $250, $500, $750 for one but in our case, with our deductible, we'd have had to pay for the whole enchilada and we just feel like we could afford to do it because at the time, there didn't seem to be any urgency.
Rick started having trouble swallowing. He also was in the furniture business, lifted lots of furniture because we made our own deliveries, so we made a self-diagnosis of hiatal hernia. It persisted, so he saw a doctor who told him he should probably have an endoscopy. We balked at the price since some vague and lower back pain were his only symptoms besides food getting caught occasionally. We'd never even heard of Esophageal cancer.
After 6 months of it getting progressively worse we saw the doctor again, and again he recommended an endoscopy BUT AGAIN, WITHOUT ANY URGENCY. So we passed. Within two weeks it got so bad that Rick couldn't swallow water - that got us running to the doctor begging for a test, pronto.
We still thought it was a hernia. I sat in the waiting room without a care in the world until the nurse called me into a consultation room. I knew then that it was bad - everyone else was getting their results in the waiting room.
The doctor came in and said run, don't walk, to MD Anderson, you don't have a moment to waste. Stage III esophageal tumor. It doubled in size within a week. In the three weeks it took to actually get in to MD Anderson and start treatment it doubled again and was probably a Stage IV but they treated him anyway. (That's where I get kinda p*ssed off, btw. By then I'd done my research and knew that he was pretty much doomed with a 6-12% chance of survival but did they ever actually verbalize that? No. I feel like they wanted the money and they got it. He wanted to live and got three years of hell, which he was grateful for. Me? Not so much. Call me selfish but if it were me I wouldn't have chosen that path and if I'm ever that sick I WILL NOT chose that path. If I'm gonna die anyway don't make feel like death with chemo and radiation, okay?).
In my personal opinion, that's the root of the problem. I'm going to sound harsh here and I apologize...but our medical institutions have become good at prolonging life and we expect it at any cost and the cost is temendous - to us, to the government, to our insurance companies, everyone pays for it! Rick would say he was caught up in the "cancer machine". It's a huge money maker. Call me jaded, but I would bet the farm that there will never be a cure for cancer because that would really be bad for business.
Hindsight is 20/20. The treatment would have been the same had we caught the tumor in April instead of September but the outcome may have been different. Rick died of mets to the colon because the treatment of the original tumor was successful. We would likely have been able to avoid the mets with earlier treatment.
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I totally agree, there will be no cure for Cancer because it is a BIG MONEY MAKER. Understand that I am a medical person and I still make that comment.
Also the Dr. does not sound like he was very persuasive. No do it now, have these tests, or else. Dr's need to listen but also need to be persistent.
 
I understand where everyone is coming from. I have a syndrome called Marizzi's Syndrome and its the bile duct collapsing. I had my galbladder out about 5 years ago and it happend as soon as we bought the B & B and had no insurance. The first time I was so yellow that I could have died, went to the Emergency room, they didn't know what I had eventhough I told them, its a small area so they gave me every test under the sun eventhough I told them what was wrong. They probably thought I was lying since I was yellow and they may have thought I was a drug addict or sumothing. Anyway, they had to take me to another hospital in the city and then in the pain I was in and to have the emergency doctort come in and ask me "what was wrong" by this time I had had enough---I mean he had the damn folder right on his lap, I said "read the chart" then they wanted to give me the same damn tests that they gave me at the other hospital...why?!!? I told them no more tests to read the tests that the other hospital gave me. I had no insurance and had it taken care of although the doctor that did the endoscopy did not put me all the way out and said that I was "moving too much" to take care of the problem...so they sent me home.
Two weeks later here they want to do another endoscopy, well I could not afford it and did not do it. Not three months later I ended up in the same place only this time they treated me like a dog, the nurses where rude, the doctor pretty much came into my room the day of the surgery and told me off...imagine that, I was in pain, didn't know when the surgery was taking place and it was not an option not to have this sting in my bile duct removed, I was yellow and in pain. I almost had a nervous breakdown, husband on his way to hospital and hospital was about 2 hours away. I could not believe that these professional people that took an oath to help sick people where treating me worse than a dog. It was such a bad experience.
Needless to say I am now in terrible financial mess and I could not get any kind of help since I own too much and like someone said, you either have to be super rich or super poor to get anything. Something has to be done about people that just simply can't afford insurance its sad, I pray every single day that something catastrophic does not happen to us because I would loose everything.
The insurance companies make all the money and they won't share in the profits to help the uninsured. There are insurances for children, but what happens when the parent gets a terminal sickness? And like others said, what if that patient lives?
Its sad that we live in the most prosperous country but there are so many that are so greedy (insurance companies) that they would not give a rat's ass about a sick person with no insurance and to boot treat them like crap.
 
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible..
1linda said:
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible.
If your present insurance covers eyecare, get your check up before you hit Medicare. My mom's dr says they can't get paid from Medicare for eye exams or eye care (like the surgery my mom had done last year) so mom has to pay up front and get the insurance refund herself.
 
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible..
1linda said:
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible.
If your present insurance covers eyecare, get your check up before you hit Medicare. My mom's dr says they can't get paid from Medicare for eye exams or eye care (like the surgery my mom had done last year) so mom has to pay up front and get the insurance refund herself.
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Thank you for the heads up, but my insurance does not cover eyes or dental.
 
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible..
1linda said:
Yes you are correct, but it was worse than that......7 years ago and the highest was $1,500 / month. Now just get me through this next week. Yes I have health care, but a very high deductible.
If your present insurance covers eyecare, get your check up before you hit Medicare. My mom's dr says they can't get paid from Medicare for eye exams or eye care (like the surgery my mom had done last year) so mom has to pay up front and get the insurance refund herself.
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Thank you for the heads up, but my insurance does not cover eyes or dental.
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1linda said:
Thank you for the heads up, but my insurance does not cover eyes or dental.
Well, then, the Medicare will be a bit of an improvement as they DO cover eye care, just not very much. My mom needs to have the other eye done now but she's been using the same glasses as before because, hold onto your hat, Medicare will only do ONE pair of glasses, ever. So, no sense for her to get new glasses when she still needs the eye surgery on the other eye. After the second surgery, she'll get the new glasses and hope they last her the rest of her life.
 
I am older than most of you. I have not had insurance for most of the last 15 years. I am in a different category because I live with the Spector of Alzheimers.
DH wants to live forever (if you want to call denying yourself the things that make life worth living as in real food and railing at the world for this things you can no longer do because of failing muscles - living). HE goes to doctors and takes their prescriptions and does their don't do this.... I just live with it and pay the bills from it. His diet of non-real-food is a lot more expensive!
I do not go to a doctor for any reason. To pay insurance, for me, would be a waste of money. IF I break something, I will make payments until I die. My daughter is worried that i could lose everything. As long as I make payments they cannot do me in. But THINGS no longer mean that much to me. I am enjoying my life as it is and am at peace enough that I will have no regrets if I die tomorrow.
I agree that medical science is keeping people alive too long. My poor Mother is an example. She had no mind left yet when she got pneumonia, they rushed her to the hospital. I have heard pneumonia referred to as the old people's friend. I loved my Mom enough to not wish her to have to exist if she could not LIVE. Live means read a book, have a conversation, understand the music and know that it is music...
In Medieval times they had bubonic plague. Then it was cholera, typhoid, whooping cough, infuenza.... then it was heart attacks and now it is cancer. Has anyone considered that all the preservatives and additives in the food chain might be a large part of the problem? Or that all our "gotta be careful" sanitizing is not letting bodies build up a natural immunity? And rather than allowing nature to take its course, we have nursing homes fill with people who would rather be left alone but are hooked up to machines or lying in bed in fetal position but as long as they have their medication will continue to breathe whether they can do anything else or not.
I am not advocating euthanasia - do not misunderstand - but I am saying that being kept alive by feeding tubes and meds is not life. Let nature decide. And do you notice how many "possible side effects" are listed with these meds? How many people got over one disease only to get another from the side effects? And how many antibotics no longer work because all the anti-bacterial everything has created mutant strains of viruses and eliminated our resistance to bacteria. Remember, as we discussed with the septic system threads - not all bacteria is bad.
This is a very coimplex issue. My feeling on the national health issue is who is going to decide when I am sick enough to receive treatment, am too old to bother with, or too sick to be treated? Yes, as of now the insurance company is deciding - up to a point. You can, as of now, change insurance company (and yes, I have lived through the pre-existing condition question with my DH) or change a plan or just get what you need and pay for it. Once it is national and government controlled there will not be an option of change and a good doctor can look forward to earning the same money as the guy who barely graduated from med school - so also consider who will be your doctor. Will there still be a choice or will we be assigned. Will it be like the HMO (remember those horror stories of trying to get approval for treatment)?
 
I am older than most of you. I have not had insurance for most of the last 15 years. I am in a different category because I live with the Spector of Alzheimers.
DH wants to live forever (if you want to call denying yourself the things that make life worth living as in real food and railing at the world for this things you can no longer do because of failing muscles - living). HE goes to doctors and takes their prescriptions and does their don't do this.... I just live with it and pay the bills from it. His diet of non-real-food is a lot more expensive!
I do not go to a doctor for any reason. To pay insurance, for me, would be a waste of money. IF I break something, I will make payments until I die. My daughter is worried that i could lose everything. As long as I make payments they cannot do me in. But THINGS no longer mean that much to me. I am enjoying my life as it is and am at peace enough that I will have no regrets if I die tomorrow.
I agree that medical science is keeping people alive too long. My poor Mother is an example. She had no mind left yet when she got pneumonia, they rushed her to the hospital. I have heard pneumonia referred to as the old people's friend. I loved my Mom enough to not wish her to have to exist if she could not LIVE. Live means read a book, have a conversation, understand the music and know that it is music...
In Medieval times they had bubonic plague. Then it was cholera, typhoid, whooping cough, infuenza.... then it was heart attacks and now it is cancer. Has anyone considered that all the preservatives and additives in the food chain might be a large part of the problem? Or that all our "gotta be careful" sanitizing is not letting bodies build up a natural immunity? And rather than allowing nature to take its course, we have nursing homes fill with people who would rather be left alone but are hooked up to machines or lying in bed in fetal position but as long as they have their medication will continue to breathe whether they can do anything else or not.
I am not advocating euthanasia - do not misunderstand - but I am saying that being kept alive by feeding tubes and meds is not life. Let nature decide. And do you notice how many "possible side effects" are listed with these meds? How many people got over one disease only to get another from the side effects? And how many antibotics no longer work because all the anti-bacterial everything has created mutant strains of viruses and eliminated our resistance to bacteria. Remember, as we discussed with the septic system threads - not all bacteria is bad.
This is a very coimplex issue. My feeling on the national health issue is who is going to decide when I am sick enough to receive treatment, am too old to bother with, or too sick to be treated? Yes, as of now the insurance company is deciding - up to a point. You can, as of now, change insurance company (and yes, I have lived through the pre-existing condition question with my DH) or change a plan or just get what you need and pay for it. Once it is national and government controlled there will not be an option of change and a good doctor can look forward to earning the same money as the guy who barely graduated from med school - so also consider who will be your doctor. Will there still be a choice or will we be assigned. Will it be like the HMO (remember those horror stories of trying to get approval for treatment)?.
Well we have obviously hit a HOT BUTTON here today. Everyone has such horror stories. Is it any wonder then WHY something...ANYTHING else just has to be tried because it has to be better than what is happening out there today. I am so saddened to hear some of your stories and it makes me all the more concerned but...what to do????? PRAY I guess.
 
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