The health system sucks
by Matt | January 27th, 2008 |So for the past few months I’ve had this recurring sore throat/swelling of the tonsils. Looking at pictures online of tonsillitis, I’m pretty darn sure that I have it. During the swelling, my throat looks exactly like the photographs of others with bacterial tonsillitis.
I don’t have health insurance. When I moved out of my mother’s house and came to Charlotte, I was taken off her health insurance plan. So, these past few months I’ve suffered in silence every time my throat swells up. It usually only lasts about five-six days, then I’m feeling better again (although the redness and some swelling is always present). The pain wasn’t all that bad… until this time.
I woke up this morning and it felt like half my throat was swollen shut. It hurts to swallow and it hurts to drink my coffee (and friends, you know just how much I love my coffee).
The point is, I need medical care NOW. Not later when I get my health insurance at work (which is why I’ve suffered in silence, just biding my time until it comes). I know that while an emergency room can’t turn you away, I’ll end up getting a bill that is $400, $500, $600 or more later. That is one option, but one that makes me just take on one more bill added onto paying back student loans and college-age stupidity otherwise known as credit card debt (although I’m not so bad off, compared to some of my friends debts racked up into the tens of thousands).
The second option is an urgent care center. I called them and asked how much it would cost to see a doctor. Just to be seen costs just over $190, and that doesn’t include any tests or cultures they may have to do. The kicker is that they don’t do billing. All money is due up front with costs for tests and cultures due at the end of your visit. But if you have health insurance, they’ll bill you then.
My point is that our health system sucks. This is one of the reasons why I have supported John Edwards for president. No one should be refused urgent care simply because they can’t pay up front. They offer billing to those with health insurance, which really doesn’t help folks like me: People who could pay the costs, if given the option of being billed and fitting it into a budget.
Alas, I’ll just suffer in silence some more and hope the infection doesn’t spread to other parts of my throat or mouth.
As for today and through this next week… No prolonged speaking for me. I have to save my throat strength for my coffee.
13 Responses to “The health system sucks”
Not to be mean, but a huge chunk of the “uninsured” population that you liberals wail and gnash teeth over consists of precisely your demographic: young people who make a conscious, if reckless, decision not to have health insurance.
There are plenty of affordable health insurance options out there, especially for the young and healthy. You just chose not to seek them out. You rolled the dice and took your chances.
I empathize with you for your aching throat, but not for your aching wallet.
(I am not saying the current system, a throwback to WWII — i.e., Democrat-crafted wage and price controls — is optimal. Tax-code-based employer-provided health benefits are an undeniably sub-optimal paradigm. But that does not mean the answer is socialized medicince, especially of the John “livers for everyone” Edwards variety.)
Get well soon.
By KipEsquire on Jan 27, 2008
Matt - you are right about the F*ed up medical system, but still if you can’t find a decent free clinic, shell out the bucks and get a throat culture right away.
It could be more serious that you realize, like a strep infection that will cause you serious heart problems.
Do it
By Patrick ONeill on Jan 27, 2008
Thanks for the concern Kip and Patrick. Kip, you may be (actually, probably are) right (you usually are).
Patrick… to “shell out the bucks” and then miss rent, credit card or loan payments is a really tough decision to make.
By Matt on Jan 27, 2008
Kip to the contrary, people who don’t have health ins. forego coverage because they can’t afford it.
I’d like to get hold of some of these affordable plans, as I can’t find one.
The health racket in this country is totally out of control.
By Daniel on Jan 27, 2008
Have you called the Charlotte Meck Health Departnent? They may be able to refer you to a lower cost option. My doctor, when I was in Rock Hill, would see patients without insurance for $50. I don’t know where he is now, last time I heard, he was in Georga. Also some churches have Nurse Practitioners who can prescribe antibiotics, you probably have a bacterial infection. I have a friend in Tenn. who is a NP for his Episcopal Church. I believe you are Baptist? Have you talked to folks at Myers Park Baptist? Get some help! Your health is important. A throat infection that lasts this long is serious! And you are important to us!
Randy
formerly of Rock Hill, now in Walterboro, SC
By Randy on Jan 27, 2008
Just as a side note? Kip? Not all of us are uninsured because we’re reckless. My office won’t give you health insurance until you’ve worked there for three months, and no one will insure me short-term for less than 300 a month because I have a “pre-existing condition” (I’m diabetic. The kind you take insulin for, not the kind that can be avoided. So yeah, you’re kind of unfairly lumping everyone together, and that sucks.
Matt, you really should have that looked at. Throat problems can, long-term, affect other things, and you don’t want that. (Obviously.) Hope you get to feeling better!
By Sarah on Jan 28, 2008
It’s sad to read things like this - being that the U.S. is one of the last of the Western industrialized nations not to consider the health of it’s citizens a *basic human right.* Sigh - (another) reason I’m looking to emmigrate. It’s such a far cry from the experiences I have when I visit friends in say, Canada or the U.K.
Health care shouldn’t have to be a choice or a priviledge. But most logical people understand this.
At any rate, Matt, I wish you a speedy recovery and as others said you really should try to get it looked at before it becomes more serious!!
By Adam R. on Jan 28, 2008
KipEsquire -> What planet are you on? I’ve loads of friends who couldn’t afford the rent, bills and food let alone a crumby health care plan that won’t give you jack except a billion form to fill out only so you can be denied care or be told you owe everything you will earn for the next 5 or 10 years to pay for your treatment.
Heck, even on salery I can’t afford it. Many jobs now won’t cover jack and contribute next to nothing to the monthly $200, $300, $400, $500 or more a month.
Yeah, being alive is reckless alright…especially in the good ol’ USA where by law you can sit there and rot to death because you can’t afford health insurance but if you try to take your own life then that is illegal. In other words you can rot just don’t die because we don’t want to help people out we just want their taxes to help the government out to have wars and spend money on other countries health care.
I love this one –> “Tax-code-based employer-provided health benefits are an undeniably sub-optimal paradigm” Sub-optimal. HA HA HA… that is great. Makes sound like you just need to tune it in a bit to get it right or something. Sub-optimal is so far from the reality of it. Start with complete sh!t as a descriptor or how about ’sub-human’ or ‘total wreck’ or ‘falling apart at the seems’ or how about that the USA medical system is contributory to family destruction, financial ruin, sever mental health deterioration and creating hordes of really really pissed off people that are being pushed to the breaking point.
in the USA it is more affordable to commit a crime, go to jail and get prison medical then to get normal medical for many people. Yeah that is definitely sub-optimal. Welcome to the new low class American medical system… PRISON.
By Dude23 on Apr 19, 2008
Dude23… I think Kip had some good points, mainly that it was my choice not to look into affordable health care plans (there are some good health care plans, especially for young people… some of them only $50 or so per month… sometimes less than most folks’ cell phone bill, lol).
By Matt on Apr 19, 2008
My husband(and over 30 other management employees), lost their jobs when the hotel company they worked for fired them due to high labor costs(the fired employees had used their health benefits for a major illness in the past year and the company CEO said since it was a self funded plan, sick employees and sick families ran up the cost for everyone–plus the health plan was just to be used to attract employees, not meant to be used). We payed 30% of his salary for the plan that stopped would not pay when I got sick! 90 days after firing him, the boss called him back, offered him his job back because now my illness would be pre-existing, and they would not have to cover it! He did not go back!
Mr. Bush, what if a European country invaded the USA becasue it health care system excludes many people from it, benefits the rich& often corupt health insurance CEO’s who make their money by denying coverage to those who pay , and is essentialy what many people feel denying basic human rights? Mr. Bush, you invaded a sovereign nation because you did wanted to bring democracy to them, we can only hope a more civilized country invades the USA to rebuild the crumbling roads and bridges,aid a public school system that in many communtiies produces more drop outs than grads, protect our pourous borders, and bring a single payer health care system to the average American. Mr Bush, you have a single payer health insurance plan, and with the low preformance you have shown while doing your job, most employeers would have fired you long ago!
By Barbara Calder on May 21, 2008
CAN I GET AMEN! Matt, I can’t agree with you more about the health care system sucking! I read your story and my heart went out to you because I have been experiencing the exact same problem with my health, as well as the problems that are being faced in the current health “care” system. I have been dealing with swelling on the right side of my throat, headaches, fever, pain in my ears/teeth/eyes/sinuses and jaw for almost two years now.
This all started two years ago when I worked for the United States Post Office as a “casual”. This is the slave labor force for the USPS and 90 percent of the reason that mail gets to where it’s supposed to go. Casuals are required to work on average 50-60 hours a week without any medical benefits (or any benefits for that matter). They are often denied days off forcing them to work (in cases I’ve seen and experienced) up to 21 days straight (sometimes more - or be fired) and are only given time and a half pay for work over 40 hours in a pay period (not after 8 hours of work in a day… average day for a casual being 10-12 hours or more). My health started failing after a year of this kind of treatment. When I began calling out, because I thought I had a sinus infection, I was told that I had to supply a doctors note for every call out (over three unexcused in a 6 month period), I told them that I couldn’t keep supplying them with doctor’s notes because each trip to the ER (which inevitably resulted in a failed diagnosis, no diagnosis, or random medications that failed to produce any relief for my symptoms) cost me over $200! So, after a few fruitless trips to the ER, I told my boss, “do what you have to do… I really don’t care anymore.” So, eventually I was let go because I felt it necessary to stay home and try to get some sleep hoping that eventually my immune system would just take over and kick whatever it was that was making me ill.
I live in the great state of Massachusetts which now mandates that all residents of the state MUST have health insurance. The state determines what is “afffordable” for every individual to pay for insurance (monthly) if you are not being provided health insurance by an employer. Then there is “Masshealth” which supposedly has a plan that people who are considered “hardship” cases can apply for at no cost. Well, I’m a 35 year old woman who has been unemployed since 2006 (and desperately looking for work) and I was originally denied Masshealth when I applied for it after losing my job. In an effort to avoid being fined (yes FINED) for not having health insurance, I have since reapplied and have heard nothing to date. Massachusetts FINES the residents who are low income or no income and do not currently have health insurance. Do they go after the USPS, temp agencies who employ people on a full time basis, or other major institutions who are not providing health insurance for their employees who are working 35.5 hours a week or more? Of course not! They go after the little guy who is fighting to make ends meet and who is trying to pay their debts like good, responsible citizens. I can’t tell you how depressing, discouraging, and infuriating my search for proper health care has been.
Since 2006, I have resorted to my own attempts at holistic approaches to fixing whatever the heck is apparently infecting one side of my head and neck (and I have been noticing that it is now spreading to the left side of my throat and jaw region). I have been to the ER over 6 times in the past two years while trying to find an answer. I have either been tossed some benadryl, or told, it’s probably just a congestion due to allergies. Another time, I fell asleep in the hospital waiting room for two hours while waiting to see a doctor. A nice nurse woke me up and tried to kick me out thinking I was a homeless person trying to find somewhere to sleep. On other occasions, I left the ER or signed myself out because they are famous for sticking me in a room and then forgetting about me.
On a trip to my PCP (which I had to pay $100 for an office visit out of pocket) she told me, “there’s something definitely wrong… I’d like to get an MRI done.” I told her that I appreciate that she confirmed I’m not a hypochondriac, but that an MRI would be out of the question as I couldn’t even afford to be in her office in the first place. In an effort to help me, she called a ENT specialist and sent me to him for a second opinion. She told me he was really good and would only charge me $45 for the office visit because I didn’t have health insurance. I spent 15 minutes in his office filling out paperwork and 3 minutes (I kid you not!) in the office. He looked in my ears, nose, throat, eyes, and pressed on my neck and informed me that both myself and my PCP were wrong. There was nothing wrong with me. He said, “your throat isn’t swollen… that’s your carotid artery.” I said, “well, I’ve had it for thirty five years now and up until about a year ago, it was not this size!” He said their was nothing wrong, despite having told me that I have fluid in both ears… doesn’t that generally mean something isn’t right!?! I took one anatomy class in college and I think I have more knowledge about his profession than he does. Then… two weeks later he sends me a bill for an additional $55!! I called the office and told them that the bill was paid in full at the time of “service” and that he’s lucky I paid that much of it!
The upshot of all of this… yes, the health care system absolutely sucks! Massachusetts is leading the way in crappy health care by fining people who can barely afford to put food on their tables, let alone provide themselves with health insurance! I too have resorted to “giving up” and hoping that I can land a job that provides me with health care so I can finally have this issue addressed. I never feel “good” like I used to. I have days that are tolerable, and days where it “flares up” and I end up in pain that spur anxiety attacks over wondering if whatever the problem is doesn’t spread to other parts of my body and eventually kill me (based on the look of my tonsils, I’m assuming it’s undiagnosed tonsilitis). My mother who insisted I see a highly recommended holistic doctor, paid for a visit. He said, “hmm… you have a heart murmur.” I said, “what!?” He claimed it was very obvious and that he’s surprised that nobody ever mentioned it to me. I’ve seen many a doctor in my life when I was under insurance and nobody ever told me I have a heart murmur. So, I can’t help but wonder if that is somehow related to my current lingering/untreated condition. The doctor suggested a sonogram to make sure it’s not anything major, but again, that won’t happen until I have insurance.
Despite a muriad of various random diagnosis from things as simple as a sinus infection to TMJ, to a brain tumor, I have done my own research and feel that I’m potentially looking at a tonsil infection that has run amuck through my ear, nose, and throat. The only control I’ve had over this ailment is a lot of prayer. I can only hope that, like you, this situation doesn’t eventually spread and lead to something potentially deadly.
I wish you the best of luck and health while you struggle with your lack of proper health care and your lingering illness. Hang in there (two years for me and I ain’t dead yet
- Kris
By Kris on Jun 15, 2008
Next time I leave the US, I promise I am not coming back unless the country deports me. It is medical care bullshit like this that has ruined the lives of millions of young and older people in the country and it is simply not worth it. So what if you fucking doctor graduated from Hopkins, if you never get to see him and croak who gives a shit?
Fuck the American Medical System. Fuck their beauracrats and procedures and myraid rules that basically tell young folks to fuck off while our colleagues in other countries are treated much better.
By Anon on Jul 1, 2008