(no subject)

[serene]

I hate the state of health care in this country.

If I had health insurance, I'd be at a doctor's office right now.

Bah.

Comments

[bayarts.livejournal.com]

Is there anything I can do for you?

(((hugs)))

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie. sogwife is going to distract me from it by taking me to the movies and buying me popcorn. :-) Aspirin didn't do anything, but the ibuprofen may be making a dent. It's so weird.

Anyway, thanks!

[flippac.livejournal.com]

I probably mentioned it on MSN, but recently I ended up picking up some ibuprofen gel which did a lot more good than the tablets usually do for me.

Managed to set off a kind of twisted cramp just above my left ankle about an hour ago. Yeesh. Hope the cinema helps!

[tracytreefrog.livejournal.com]

I pretty much live on Aleve. Hope you feel better soon!

[violet-tigress1.livejournal.com]

Even with insurance, I hate that I have to think of a reson to go to the doctor..... like they''ll cover a problem visit, but not a routine check up.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

If you were rich, you'd have the best healthcare in the world right now in this country.

Now if only we could work it out to where most of us were rich, it'd all be fine.

heh.

[firecat]

I don't know where I read this, and I don't know the study methodology, but I read it recently: a study showed that even the rich in the US have mediocre care.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I know there was a recent study that showed we ranked toward the bottom in western nations but I believe that was averaged for all Americans and not broken down by income.

I'm pretty sure that for the rich, we're still up at the top if not the top but on average, we're not so good. Hell, I too don't have insurance

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Here's a good look at the recent WHO study http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf

Elsewhere I saw it explained more simply that we don't have the best healthcare but we have the best emergency healthcare because we have the best technology.

So if you get some kind of an emergency and have a good rich hospital near to you, you can get state of the art treatment but that's the pound of cure without an ounce of prevention.

So we're kind of the best in one way and we're 43rd if you look at us overall.

*hugs*

[tracytreefrog.livejournal.com]

So sorry about your pain wish I could help in any way. Having insurance doesn't always help at least right away. I had to deal with my knee pain for months before the doctor would finally refer me to a specialist. Even then all he did was give me a shot of cortisone. Which finally made the pain go away. But now it seems to be coming back. He wouldn't do an MRI to see if there was anything he could do beyond that. If this keeps up I am afraid I am in for another round of fighting doctors arrgghhhh!Sorry I know I am whining.

Re: *hugs*

[catdeville.livejournal.com]

Having insurance doesn't always help at least right away.

And sometimes it doesn't even work in the long run. I went through 2 years of SNAFU going through Kaiser just to get the referals taken care of to get my knees x-rayed and then never did even get a diagnosis, much less any idea of how to resolve whatever the problem is. Later found out that if it was arthritis, that there was no reason to have gotten the x-ray at all, since arthritis doesn't show up on an x-ray.

All of which is really frustrating since the doctor who initially examined me seemed to know exactly what it was from the symtomology. (Pain - eratic and of varying levels, "popping" noise in the joint, knee just "goes out" occassionally) but wouldn't tell me what she thought it was until I saw the specialist. Specialist wouldn't see me without the x-rays, primary care physician said that the specialist should be doing the x-rays. Ended up with a different primary care physician who just sent me for the x-rays but then didn't give me a diagnosis or refer me back to the specialist, or ever see me again.

At which point I pretty much gave up.

Luckily, since I moved to San Diego the incidents of pain have been much fewer, far between and much less intense.

So I've gotten to the point where I sincerely dislike having to deal with the medical industry - and that's the problem, IMO... that it's an industry.

Re: *hugs*

[tracytreefrog.livejournal.com]

Interesting that supposedly from the x-ray they took they told me I didn't have arthritis on my knee. That is why I wanted the MRI. But according to the specialist he didn't feel he could do anything for me surgically so he didn't feel it was necessary. The only thing he would do was give me the shot and at the time shot and relief of pain was all I wanted to hear! DOCTORS can be so full of it! Sometimes I feel that all insurance does is make it affordable to be exposed to there idiocy!

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

Do you know about all the sliding-scale clinics in the East Bay that will see uninsured people?

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, the USA definitely does not have a civilized health-care system.

Like another person said, are there free clinics in Berkeley the way there are (or at least used to be) in San Francisco?

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I was just remarking to epi_lj that I just don't understand the US healthcare system. I hope our country doesn't move in that direction (although the idiots do look like they are..damn conservatives).

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

it's simple. if you're a good enough person to deserve having your medical problems taken care of, you obviously have insurance and/or (more and than or) money to pay for the care. if you don't have the money and/or insurance, you're not a good person, and don't deserve to have your medical problems taken care of.

wish i was kidding...

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

That's a horrible state of affairs. :/

[maestrodog.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't actually be at a Doctor's office...I don't know of a single one that keeps open office hours on Sundays.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

We have urgent-care clinics that are open on weekends, and if I had Kaiser (I used to), I could see a doctor any day of the week.