Quote:


In Massachusetts the exact opposite scenerio may be true.

It's what we are stuck with in this country that worships fee for service, rather than results. We're stuck with blackmailing doctors forcing unnecessary expensive appointments to write refills. It's borderline criminal. They tell us that it's because they can help more people....sure. No better way has been found to make medicine like your electric bill.

For now, you have to wait for Medicare or the demise of the medicine for profit system here.

Charlie 

On rethinking my last post I felt I may have come across as uncaring.  That is not the case, and I hope you didn't take it as so.  I really do care about your health and your pain, I just have trouble with a mentallity that has been fostered in this country in the last few years that it is the government's responsibility to care for us.

As Brew suggested get the O2.  In the meantime, grab some energy drinks and slam one down as quickly as you can drink it at the very first sign of a hit.  I can usually abort within 5-8 mins if I get to it early on.  It will knock it down to a manageable level at least if it gets a hold on me before getting the drink down.  My personal preference is 5Hr Energy because it is small and I don't have to chug down 16 oz, plus it doesn't tear up my stomach as badly.  It also contains B complex that helps keep my nerves in check and settles down the irritability that comes along with CH.

As a preventative you might want to try using Kudzu.  You can get it at Health Food stores that specialize in organics, or you can find it online.  I have been buying mine from Swanson's online because of the price differential and have been impressed with their service.  I find it works as well as did Verap and Lithium and without the side effects.

Jerry

Couple of facts: There are over 1500 insurance companies in the United States. As a citizen of any given state you personal with out know which state have on average access to maybe 5 of these companies. Which by the way is why your cobra is so expensive.

If we were to not only DEREGULATE but put a stop to ALL of the State mandates you would be able to afford your insurance all by yourself. You would not need your employer or your government to pay for it.

As much as I appreciate Libertarian ideas surrounding medicine...and it sounds great, I'm not about to let children and poor people die to preserve the American bootstrap esthetic. 

Insurance companies are evil as are drug companies. They are not on our side. There is nowhere near enough regulation. Making big money on medicine should be as hard as it is for us to get serious care.

Charlie

Marc, if you were covered under the Cobra when you applied for new coverage it is illegal for an insurance co. to deny coverage for pre-existing.

Hope this helps, Don

I'll have to ask the wife about that. That is her job. I know it's under the HIPPA rules. She's the expert though, and she's asleep.

Don

Brew wrote on Dec 29^th, 2009 at 8:51am:


i second that. being in that much pain and not having insurance you learn these things. i just now got insurance and i'll still revert back to the methods i learned back then. 

i remember jonny once told somebody on the board " you dont need no stinking doctor"

Marc wrote on Dec 29^th, 2009 at 10:04pm:


The rules don't apply for individual policies. 

Marc, when your COBRA runs out you may want to check out Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or ; There is even a link to get assistance on your COBRA payments if your job loss was involuntary.

Hope it helps.

DD

Marc wrote on Dec 29^th, 2009 at 9:06pm:


Same here, Marc.  Paid the full 18 months allowed on COBRA and then applied for an individual policy.  Rejected, they covered me for seven years (plus 18 months COBRA) under a company's group coverage. 
  It was surprising, when COBRA ended, I had requested a "certificate of prior coverage", which states a right to individual health coverage under HIPAA, I'm eligible without a preexisting condition exclusion if I've had coverage for at least 18 months without a break in coverage of 63 days or more, which I made sure happened, a copy of the certificate was mailed with my application.
Nonetheless, rejected.  Fortunately coverage began from my new job soonafter.

I took my present job knowing insurance would be granted in the future and in the meantime paid COBRA.  Getting a job was the MAIN challenge, I thought it not a problem getting an individual policy until insurance would be granted at my first evaluation.  Nope.

saxman wrote on Dec 29^th, 2009 at 3:07am:

Callico? You hope I didn't think you uncaring? (I'm not sure how do the the quote thing, but I think your quote was " I'm not sympathetic") I did read your next post as well.

I thought my language " I take responsibility" would have been clear enough to indicate that I wasn't seeking a handout, rather my post was intended to make the point that there were probably folks out there, that for whatever financial reasons were being prescribed less expensive, less effective treatments resulting in more hits!!!
This seems inhumane to me, regardless of politics.

As far as you paying for my health care is concerned; just know that if you were standing next to me and we were both being hit, I would share my abortive with you.

Saxman,

It all boils down to who pays for it.  You said if I was standing next to you and got hit you would share your abortive with me.  As would I, and I have, and will continue to do so.  The difference is I choose to do so because i see a need, not because the government comes and reaches into my wallet and takes it from me to give to someone else based on their concept of need.

I have never used imitrex.  Couldn't afford it, and now even with insurance can't afford the copay.  I've had to learn to deal with it anyway.  Because of that I had to do some research on my own and find methods that were far less expensive, and as effective (from what I hear from those using trex), and don't cause rebounds or extend cycles.  i was offered trex at the first Davcon when I got hit and turned it down because I didn't want to take it once and then feel sorry for myself because I couldn't get it in the future.  I learned to cope.

Are there inequities in the system?  Yes there are, but as President Kennedy said, (one of the very few things I agreed with him on) "Life is not fair".  My experience has been though that many of the inequities we complain about are brought about by choices we have made in the past.  My current financial condition is a result of choices I made when younger.  Some of them foolish and some of them business decisions that didn't go the way I wanted them to go.  Should someone come along now and make things equal for me?  I would not have it that way.  I made the choices, now I reap the results.  My having to deal with the results of my choices in the past has made me a much better person than if I had not had those failures that put me where I am. 

To put it in context my quote was "While I feel for your pain I don't have much sympathy for your suffering".  I stand by that.  If we were close by I would do what I could to alleviate your pain (as do many here.  you wouldn't believe the care packages that go around.) but the suffering because of allowing insurance to lapse was a matter of choice on your end.  We all make choices.  We all live with the results.  My grandmother used to tell me, "You've made your bed hard, now you have to lie in it."

Jerry