plutherus | Entries tagged with health care

So... my doctor referred me to a physical therapist for my knee. The pain is enough that it's keeping me awake at night now.

They wouldn't give me the name or number of the PT they referred me to - "They'll call you within the next couple of days to schedule an appointment."

They didn't call. Didn't call. I called my doctor's office back last week, and they told me they'd follow up and have the PT call me no later than Jan 2nd.

They did not.

I called my doctor's office back again today. This time, the receptionist asked me how come I didn't call the PT myself. "You mean the PT whose name and number you wouldn't give me?" I asked her.
She then gave me the name and number of the PT. It turns out they're part of the same organization.

So... why couldn't they have just made the appointment directly from my doctor's office in the first place? (Hell, my dentist and endodontist could do that and they're not even affiliated.)

Anyway, yes, I finally got an appointment. For the 18th. More than a month after the initial visit. I am not happy with you today, Oregon Medical Group.

Good thing I have really good private insurance through my work. ("What insurance do you have" was the very first question the receptionist asked me - even before my name or why I was calling.) I've heard horror stories of countries where they have socialized medicine and it can sometimes take up to two weeks to see a specialist!

Current Mood: annoyed
Crossposts: https://plutherus.livejournal.com/763699.html

Who's a socialist? Well, according to most of today's politicians, the 1954 Chamber of Commerce were socialists!

I've mentioned this video to several people after I first saw it a few years ago, and wanted to put it up on YouTube, but couldn't figure out how because it was too long.

This is an animated short (about 20 minutes long) that the Chamber of Commerce put out in 1954, extolling the virtues of capitalism and the American business system.

But, in 1954, they meant something somewhat different than the Republican/Libertarian/Randroid/Tea Party means today. The movie talks about not just the importance of making money, but of supporting America by doing so. (And by America, they meant the whole country, not just the richest 1% and a bunch of Cayman Island bankers).

Some quotes from the film:

While we invest part of our savings to help finance the world's most efficient business system, we also pay taxes to government to finance many kinds of services which also contribute to our way of life.

Among these essential services are included the "necessary funds to expand and improve our school system" and "City streets, health, fire, and police protection, and, of course, aid to the needy."

That's right. Health care and aid to the needy were considered, by the 1954 Chamber of Commerce, as essential parts of government services without which the American Way of Life was threatened.

Oh, yeah, they also mentioned the importance of government financing of scientific research that could improve everybody's way of life. Socialism, I tell you! Every Republican candidate for government would pitch a fit if they saw this film now. (Well, those who could understand it, anyway, so I guess Ron Paul.)

Along with extolling the virtues of paying taxes to support the country that makes your business possible, it also lists among the essential rights of an American "The right to bargain with your employer." That's right - the Chamber of Commerce is saying, in 1954, that Unions are essential to the American Way Of Life!

Other essential rights are the right to work in the job of your own choosing, and the "Right to free speech, right of assembly, and the right to privacy". That's right, privacy is a fundamental essential right of every American. Hear that, Homeland Security?

And the purpose of business? To make money for its own sake? Why no, it's to improve America and its way of life. One example it gives:

Only half a century ago... many men had to work 10 hours a day, six days a week to provide his family with only the bare essentials. A half century later, we had invested ... enough to allow the average worker to make twice as much in only 40 hours a week.

Then goes on to discuss the importance of leisure time and the availability of public education for everybody.

After explaining how new businesses are often started with loans from banks, which the banks can give because people have invested their money in them in the form of savings accounts, the film makes the claim:

Our rising standard of living depends on a constant flow of savings dollars into our business system each year.

The American Way of Life is dependent on sufficient wages to support both leisure AND savings! Wow, these guys really are socialists!

Anyway, I could go on at length, and explain exactly why I think capitalism really is an excellent choice for an economic system, but only when done properly, but it's late. Maybe later.

The film is available online in its entirety (it's about 20 minutes long) at: http://toonheads.tv/view/1420/its-everybodys-business-1954/

Universal health care. Every time it's ever been implemented anywhere - and this includes parts of the United States as well as every single industrialized nation other than the United States - but, every single time, it has given wider access to health care, with less bureaucratic interference, and at a lower overall cost, than individualized for-profit health care systems have.

This is not an opinion. This is not theory. This has been done. That has been the result. In every single case.

Which means, if you are against universal health care, what you are saying is that you are willing to actually pay more for a system that insures some people don't have access to health care.

Paying extra money for no purpose other than hurting several people is, at it's very best, downright cruel

Just thought I'd point that out.

In other news, in 60 days I'll be able to visit a doctor again.

If you believe that poor women should not get treatment if they get breast cancer...
If you believe that poor people should not get screened for cervical cancer...
If you believe that disadvantaged mothers should not get pre-natal care...
If you believe that a young couple who isn't ready for children should not get birth control pills...
If you believe that men without good health insurance should not be allowed vasectomies...
If you believe that men and women who don't have insurance that covers it should not be treated if they get a urinary tract infection...

If you believe all that, then you should support the Republican's demand that we stop funding Planned Parenthood, because those are the kinds of things your federal tax dollars have been providing.

One of the things that Planned Parenthood has never spent any federal money providing: abortions. And yet, whenever the Republican congressmen or their mouthpieces at Fox News mention the organization, it's always "Abortion Provider Planned Parenthood."

If you believe that treatments for the above should continue to be provided, even to poor people, then you need to let your representative know this, and to stop attacking Planned Parenthood.

You also need to stop believing people who are using lies and disinformation to get your money while pretending to represent you, but that's another argument.

So, after a year of working here, my employer finally agrees to provide health insurance (after I threatened to quit if they didn't).

Last week, I called to make an appointment with a doctor. I got a list of doctors from my insurance company. There were a total of 10 in my local area After checking variious review sites, I found one who looked like they'd be a good fit, and gave them a call.

They are not currently accepting new patients.

So, I went back to the list and found my second choice doctor.

They are also not taking new patients at this time.

Number three doesn't actually take Blue Cross/Blue shield, though they do have agreements with the company to limit prices on certain procedures they do for their customers.

Number four, the same.

Number five is apparently out of business. Google lists the same number that Blue Cross does, but it gives a disconnected message when called.

Number six is not taking new patients.

Number Seven, finally, is taking patients and does take Blue Cross.

So I make an appointment.

The earliest they can see me is three weeks, on the day before Thanksgiving.

The receptionist reminds me twice that I need to bring my insurance card with me or they'll be unable to see me.

And that they require a $100.00 deposit for all new patients. Cash up front, no checks.

Good thing we don't have Universal health care in this country, otherwise there might have been bureaucracy involved!

The large insurance companies currently spending millions a day on ~~bribes~~ lobbying and PR tell us that in some countries people have to wait a week to see a doctor, and often won't get their first choice.

I'll respond with words their followers may be familiar with: "Bring it on!"

Current Location: US, Oregon, Washington, SW Burlington Dr

Other things I don't want my tax dollars spent on.

I have health insurance through my work, because I negotiated for it. Why should my tax dollars pay for other people to have health insurance when they're not working, or didn't negotiate health care?

I'm also fairly healthy, so if I want to live without insurance and take the risks myself, I should be allowed to do so.

I live in a low-crime area of town. Why should the government take money from me to spend on increasing police presence throughout the rest of the city?

I don't have any children, nor do I intend to. So why should my property taxes be going to pay for the education of other people's children?

My house has good wiring. I don't smoke, have a fire place, own any candles, or engage in any other behaviors that people do that increase the risk of fires. And I'm willing to assume the risk myself if my house burns down. So why should my tax dollars go to paying for a public fire department.

I don't live in a hurricane zone, or in an earthquake-prone area, or near frequent tornadoes, or on an active volcano, so how come my tax dollars are spent on federal agencies that help people recover when these things inevitably cause damage?

I have friends who are vegetarians. I bet they're pissed that the government is stealing their money and using it to inspect meat that they will never eat just to keep the rest of us safe. If you want to be safe from contaminants in meat, don't eat it.

I drive up and down I-5 a lot, mostly between Portland and Eugene. I only occasionally drive down into California or up to Seattle. I'm willing to pay extra just those times I do that, so I don't think my tax dollars should have to go to pay for upkeep on the entire road.

I've never driven on Interstate 12 in my entire life, nor do I ever intend to do so. So why are my tax dollars being spent there, too?

We need to stop all this socialist spending on programs that don't benefit me.

I'm in pain
I can hardly walk because I get too dizzy
This has been building for two weeks
I haven't gone to a doctor because I'm waiting for my medical insurance to kick in
I can't use it for another two weeks

Because they have to make sure I don't have any conditions that could cost them money
So I've put off going to the doctor for two weeks

And now i'm in too much pain to stand up
I can't go to the emergency room because I already owe them fifteen fucking hundred dollars for three stitches to my finger

And whatever the fuck this is going on in my sinus causing it to swell up like this and press on my teeth making it feel like several massive fucking toothaches going on at once is going to be a lot more complicated than three stitches

and it doesn't matter anyway because I can't stay upright for that long enough to drive myself all the way up to the hospital anyway

So fuck you if you think this is good
Fuck you if you've ever voted against universal health care
Fuck you for not letting me go to the doctor without going into debt for years to come

Fuck you if you think that Jesus was a robber baron
If you think Christianity means you have to support major corporations but not your fellow man
If you think "oh, well, this is a capitalist country, so people who can't afford to go to the doctor shouldn't"

I spent $40,000 in taxes last year but I can't go to the goddamn doctor because I didn't work directly for a major corporation

Fuck you if you think I deserve to spend this night in pain before I start calling around for doctors tomorrow
If I can even fucking FIND one that will see me that day wihtout an appointment three fucking weeks in advance

And if they'll see someone without insurance

Fuck you if you voted for this
You deserve to have your jaw broken
Your fingers smashed
Your eyes gouged out

You deserve it because you've voted that other people have to suffer so that you can feel all self-righteous "I've got mine, screw you" - I don't care if you're a libertarian or a republican or just someone too goddamn lazy to bother voting against this gang of criminals who've decree that I have to suffer so that THEY can make a couple billion more dollars

If you've every supported these people, if youve ever argued against health care in this country then FUCK YOU. This is your fault.