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unfair health care system hits home (Read 5658 times)
saxman
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unfair health care system hits home
Dec 29th, 2009 at 3:07am
 
A few months ago I was offered a management position (a move up for me from sales) at a new company. The package that I accepted included a 6 month waiting period before being eligible for their health plan. My cycle started 2 months in.

I left behind my health coverage from previous job. I do take responsibility for not continuing it with cobra, but the costs in my case were roughly a 600% increase in premiums.

What is hitting home to me now is the inhumanity of a system that faced with two identical CH patients with K10 hits, one with means and the other without; that their horrible pain would be dealt with differently.

The cher with means, gets imitrex for example, with relief in minutes where the cher without can't afford imitrex and has to substitute cheaper meds that result in being in pain longer and more often.

Am I a commie now to think that when it comes to pain, wealthy or poor, insured or not, whatever technology might exist to ease suffering should be available equally and without  prejudice!!

This notion, when thought of in terms of one isolated hit, doesn't seem to me so awful, but this inequity must exist now, right here in the US(in my case), for many CHers entire lives!!

I'm imagining the two sufferers on you tube with their k10s being treated with different meds while standing next to each other. The well dressed one showing relief in a few minutes, while the other in shabby clothes, treated with a cheaper less effective med, squirms and moans in agony for  another 30 minutes.

Just a thought

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seaworthy
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #1 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 6:21am
 
Quote:
The well dressed one showing relief in a few minutes, while the other in shabby clothes, treated with a cheaper less effective med, squirms and moans in agony for  another 30 minutes.


In Massachusetts the exact opposite scenerio may be true.
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #2 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 8:51am
 
Eat some seeds and get yourself a big ol' welder's bottle of O2. Cheaper than most co-pays.
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #3 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 11:21am
 
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  Angry
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #4 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 4:07pm
 
As one who went without insurance for over twenty years and learned to deal with the issue on my own I note that YOU made the choice.  You chose to take the new job knowing you would be without coverage for 6 months unless you were willing to cover COBRA.  While I feel for your pain I don't have much sympathy for your suffering.  Sorry, but I don't think it is my responsibility to pick up the cost for your health care when you made the choice to forego the coverage.  (BTW, I had CH for all of the years I was without ins, 5 of them as a chronic.)

Jerry
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #5 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 4:23pm
 
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
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #6 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 4:36pm
 
And the title of your post keeps making me think of the phrase, "Fair is a ball that lands between two white lines."

If you extrapolate, life itself isn't fair. Once you embrace that concept, it's much easier to get along.
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #7 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 8:20pm
 
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.

Grin
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #8 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 8:24pm
 
Gena,

You are right on the money there!  That is what we need instead of the government getting further into running our lives.

Jerry
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #9 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 8:53pm
 
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
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« Last Edit: Dec 29th, 2009 at 8:59pm by Charlie »  

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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #10 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 9:06pm
 
I'm 56 years old and in good health with the exception of 13 years of being chronic. With the exception of seeing my Neuro ONCE in 18 months - no doctor visits.

I lost a great paying job in January of this year so I've been making COBRA payments all year. When it timed out, I applied at the SAME insurance company I've been with for over 9 years (employed and COBRA time periods) for a catastrophic plan with a $5K deductible. Guess what - they won't take me because of "your headaches."

Going through O2 at record rates without my girl Vera Calan now and no Zomig NS for the occasional midnight monsters.

Looks like it's back to COBRA at twice what my mortgage payment is, if I don't want to run barefoot.

Marc
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« Last Edit: Dec 29th, 2009 at 9:10pm by Marc »  
 
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #11 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 9:14pm
 
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
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #12 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 10:04pm
 
Don, to be clear.

I am covered under Cobra. I applied for a new individual policy for which I was rejected.

I believe your reference is for new group coverage.
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« Last Edit: Dec 29th, 2009 at 10:24pm by Marc »  
 
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #13 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 11:17pm
 
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
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #14 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 11:47pm
 
Well wake her up, dammit! This is important stuff!

Just kidding. She Who Must Be Obeyed must also not be disturbed.
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #15 - Dec 29th, 2009 at 11:51pm
 
Brew wrote on Dec 29th, 2009 at 8:51am:
Eat some seeds and get yourself a big ol' welder's bottle of O2. Cheaper than most co-pays.


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"
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« Last Edit: Dec 29th, 2009 at 11:56pm by -johnny- »  

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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #16 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 12:20am
 
I reread my post I could not find where I thought babies and old people should be left to die!

I know that now days it is the thing to blame big business for everything but please. Think for just one moment. Right now if you only have access to 5 competing companies for your business and in some states that is being GENEROUS. They are setting the prices high because they can.

Now if you could cross state lines and they had to compete with all 1500 companies across the USA DO YOU NOT THINK PRICES WOULD DROP!!!!!

That is simple economics!
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #17 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 2:00am
 
Marc wrote on Dec 29th, 2009 at 10:04pm:
Don, to be clear.

I am covered under Cobra. I applied for a new individual policy for which I was rejected.

I believe your reference is for new group coverage.


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 Login or Register; There is even a link to get assistance on your COBRA payments if your job loss was involuntary.

Hope it helps.

DD
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #18 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 6:38am
 
Quote:
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.

I wonder if this is because of Govt. regulation or do the insurance companies choose this to avoid Govt. regulation (Congress has the power to regulate commerce among the states but can they regulate you if you don't go accross state lines).

Insurance companies only have a 3.4% profit margin.  Hospital landlords have a 24% profit margin.  I think Congress has brainwashed us into making the insurance companies the badguys!
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #19 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 6:55am
 
Marc wrote on Dec 29th, 2009 at 9:06pm:
I've been making COBRA payments all year. When it timed out, I applied at the SAME insurance company I've been with for over 9 years (employed and COBRA time periods) for a catastrophic plan with a $5K deductible. Guess what - they won't take me because of "your headaches."


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.

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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #20 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 8:11am
 
Yeah, I was a bit surprised. I was only trying to get catastrophic coverage with a $5K deductible - and I wouldn't care if they excluded CH's.

Donna, yep - I saw the pool and may have to go that way. Looks like I have until June/July.

My wife and I started a new small company after I realized that nobody loved me out in the job market, so I'm going to explore the small company co-op insurance group market next.

Marc
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #21 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 8:54am
 
saxman wrote on Dec 29th, 2009 at 3:07am:
A few months ago I was offered a management position (a move up for me from sales) at a new company. The package that I accepted included a 6 month waiting period before being eligible for their health plan. My cycle started 2 months in.

I left behind my health coverage from previous job. I do take responsibility for not continuing it with cobra, but the costs in my case were roughly a 600% increase in premiums.

What is hitting home to me now is the inhumanity of a system that faced with two identical CH patients with K10 hits, one with means and the other without; that their horrible pain would be dealt with differently.

The cher with means, gets imitrex for example, with relief in minutes where the cher without can't afford imitrex and has to substitute cheaper meds that result in being in pain longer and more often.

Am I a commie now to think that when it comes to pain, wealthy or poor, insured or not, whatever technology might exist to ease suffering should be available equally and without  prejudice!!

This notion, when thought of in terms of one isolated hit, doesn't seem to me so awful, but this inequity must exist now, right here in the US(in my case), for many CHers entire lives!!

I'm imagining the two sufferers on you tube with their k10s being treated with different meds while standing next to each other. The well dressed one showing relief in a few minutes, while the other in shabby clothes, treated with a cheaper less effective med, squirms and moans in agony for  another 30 minutes.

Just a thought


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.
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #22 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 11:25am
 
Bob P wrote on Dec 30th, 2009 at 6:38am:
Quote:
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.

I wonder if this is because of Govt. regulation or do the insurance companies choose this to avoid Govt. regulation (Congress has the power to regulate commerce among the states but can they regulate you if you don't go accross state lines).

Insurance companies only have a 3.4% profit margin.  Hospital landlords have a 24% profit margin.  I think Congress has brainwashed us into making the insurance companies the badguys!


Bob,
I agree wholeheartedly with you about the profit margins.   Most insurance companies are not showing that large of a profit margin, so they can't be as *ebil* as people paint them to be.

I do think there has to be a better solution than the one offered by Congress, I just can't tell you what it is.
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #23 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 2:11pm
 
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
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Re: unfair health care system hits home
Reply #24 - Dec 30th, 2009 at 8:03pm
 
Quote:
Bob,
I agree wholeheartedly with you about the profit margins.   Most insurance companies are not showing that large of a profit margin, so they can't be as *ebil* as people paint them to be.


They're worse!

Charlie
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