Man, I got really frustrated just reading what you went through. I've been in that situation, too, and it reduces me to tears every time. They make everything so much harder than it has to be. I'm glad you wrote about it.
Thank you and I'm sorry you had to endure that. There are people who read this and say, "well, that couldn't have happened," and there are people who read it and say "that happened to me." I wish we could find some middle ground and bring about some changes. We shouldn't have to be hoarding our medications because we're afraid we'll never get a refill.
So totally agree with you about the horrible Health Insurance problems in the USA. I too have asthma & was prescribed Trelegy...for asthma by 2 different doctors. I then moved from New York State to NJ - when applying for a Medicare Supplemental Plan in NJ was screamed at by a medical underwriter that I had COPD or Emphysema. I said that I have never been diagnosed with those. She screamed at me again. I reported this 3 times to United Healthcare through AARP. The absolutely worst and most horrible Insurance Company - yet endorsed by AARP. Ultimately I don't have a Medicare Supplemental Plan because I have "chronic conditions " - as if I chose to have a chronic condition at age 4 when I was diagnosed with Asthma. I can remember my mother crying even then because she could not arrange for proper treatment for me at that time. I could go on with the details but I totally agree with you - this country doesn't care whether we live or die - especially when we are seniors & no longer have jobs. Insurance companies are then petrified that we will need surgery and don't want to insure us - because it might cost them money. Another note to make - Insurance coverage varies from State to State - something I did not know until I moved from NYS to NJ - a very bad thing to do. And then my Primary Care Doctor said that she could not help me with the denial of United Healthcare - endorsed by AARP - to approve Insurance coverage for me. So now I might have to move back to NYS. At this point I am looking forward in some ways to dying - Only if you are very wealthy in this country do you receive good Healthcare.
The denial of healthcare across state lines makes me afraid to go on vacation. We live in a dystopian hellscape and everybody acts like it's okay. It's stunningly bad.
I'm sorry for the issues you mention. They gave me Ipratropium Bromide that I take with a nebulizer. It's a cheaper alternative to Trelegy. You should ask your doctor about it. Best to you!
I would rather sit down and try to understand a Calculus textbook (which I've done), than navigate the impossible knot of American healthcare. I am not without problem solving skills, and situations like this make me cry with frustration.
Not to butt in again but I should also mention I have a CNA equivalent level of medicial self-study that at least makes doctors treat me as equals or at least "worth their time."
That is the word my friend used when I ran into trouble during the pandemic in NYS. I have seen almost all the allergists and endocrinologists in a large city and they just flat out tell me they can't help me (I have a mast cell condition that effects immune and endocrine function). One Dr, after hearing I was referred from a cancer specialist, said he couldn't run the labs needed to diagnose my condition in NY unless there was an active research study, then asked if I had already pd my copay, then refunded my money and took me off the schedule so there was no proof he'd seen me. This is despite coming with gold standard labs from another state and my former MD being willing to script treatment for me with local oversight. Not one Dr here of dozens would call her to discuss my condition. One Dr said "what do you want me to do?" I almost said "your effing job". I worked as a clinical consultant for Drs in functional medicine and I know more about my condition than the Drs here do, and if I didn't I wouldn't know what medical advice NOT to follow and I'd be dead. No hyperbole, I almost died in 2021 and learned the hard way not to be compliant here. They really don't know, and they don't get paid to care if you end up on a slab. Every lawyers office I called said they represented the Drs. Some Drs are great and have a moral compass and make an honest effort but it's a small fraction in some systems/states. I regret leaving IN for NY, but I also had money to pay cash to see the Dr with a clue then, and now I'm broke and on Medicaid because of medical care in NY, so when they tell me the treatment I used to receive is not legitimate or 'proven' I can point out the proof is in the disparate outcomes...I pray for SSDI every day so I have the money to leave NY snd get back to my old dr...
I'm sorry you have to go through that. That's truly horrific. When doctors start lecturing you about how a treatment is "unproven" but they won't listen to reason, you know you're living in a corrupt world.
Walter, I feel your pain. Be glad that you are not a woman who needs hormones after a certain age. I saw 4 different gynecologists and none of them would give me hormones. 3 of those gynecologists were women and were just as dismissive as the lone male that I saw. I heard over and over again, "Oh, You'll just have to deal with it because I can't help you. It's just part of being a woman." Really? I bet if I wanted a boner pill as a dude I'd get it immediately! I'm so angry and I'm not giving up. Older women are not something to be just thrown away onto the trash heap. We have a lot to offer society and don't deserve to suffer all these miserable conditions that comes with the loss of hormones. I'm still searching for a Doctor that will prescribe me bioidenticals. The misogyny in this society is astounding!!
Yes, and I'm also aware that my health issues are minor compared to others. We've got to stand up for each other. The lack of dignity in this country is disgusting. We're human beings.
Yes, it's pretty awful in the moment. I worry about people who need a heart pill or something and only have a few hours to live. I guess that's a "medical emergency" and they have to protest at the emergency room until they're attended (probably arrested). But I mean... the scenarios you can imagine are horrific.
Heart complaints are the top tier of most ED admissions of people not already in critical condition or something.
It is usually "the worst" thing physically speaking you can walk in with under your own power is chest pain complaints. Some EDs will pause other people mid-admission to tend to this.
The six deaths were from the second coronary. I know a bit about heart issues. Everyone was surprised when my first coronary was in my 30s. From excessive work. Trying to pay those bills and have money left over.
Taking my family line - that is, now, solely me - back to Europe may be the best decision I ever make.
Maybe the world will convince me it's safe to continue the line in some genetic fashion rather than metaphysical.
They are all predatory- there are a few that seem semi okay though. I am using ageless rx for b12 and GSH injections. Expensive but I have to try something. Also check out personal labs and sesame
Dona google search too - lots of direct to consumer healthcare labs and scripts are popping up. Some are rapacious some are reasonable- they all are there to make money - but if you can get what you want . . .
Checked this out and found out they do not accept my insurance and will not accept me as a patient even if I self pay. Will continue to search and post anything I find. Thank you for sending this along though.💙
Health care in the U.S. is beyond 3rd World in terms of access and the debt that it creates. People have been tricked that we have the best system in the world.
I'm a Type 1 diabetic of 45 years. Most people have no idea what that means. I once got in an argument with a medical assistant in NYC who threatened to change my med chart to say Type 2 because even though I didn't fit the prototype of most, not all, Type 2s, she didn't think an adult could be a Type 1. And 90-95% of diabetics are Type 2s so she'd probably never met a Type 1. I explained the differences in the diseases. She refused to listen. I finally told her if she changed my chart, I'd take that chart from her and smack her with it. It got real ugly real fast because she kept saying, "I'm from the Bronx, I'll whip your ass" and stuff like that. Well, I didn't back down. A doctor heard us arguing and came in; broke up the argument because it was going to come to blows. He later apologized to me. It's unbelievable it came to that. I wasn't trying to score painkillers or insisting on some weird diagnosis. I was just discussing my medical history. And this wasn't even a Type 1 check-up. It was a gyno appointment.
I also had a medical assistant say, "Type 1 who?" when I told her that I'm a Type 1. It's laughable.
Now I have a good doctor but insurance is still a nightmare. My doc helps me get the things I need because he knows how to explain to insurance what I must have. My mother was a pharmacist and diabetes educator. She's been helpful for me in terms of trying to see through the bullshit. On my end of things, Type 1s have gotten some breaks due to Eli Lilly's $35 insulin cap, but it's still a nightmare in other ways.
Gosh, what a nightmare. The situation you describe should be grounds for a lawsuit. Doctors pay these obscene bills for malpractice insurance. The idea that somebody would decide to just "change your chart," is offensive. Thankfully they at least mentioned it, or who knows what kind of problems you'd have had to navigate.
Grrr...
These are the type of questions that need to be asked to political candidates at town hall meetings... but all our politicians are bought and paid for.
Yes, I'm doing better, thanks for asking. I hope you are doing better too!
These are the types of issues and questions that should be asked in congressional hearings by serious legislatures. But this congress is too busy trying to impeach POTUS, limit voting rights, and promote whatever trump and $$$ tells them.
Holy shit. Unconscionable any medical staff in any practice doesn't know the difference between 1+2. The DR knows That's a fatal error if it's misrepresented in your chart and someone else acta on it in an emergency situation. That's horrifying.
Hiiiiii I've been on 39 medications in the last 10 years. No more than 18 at any one time, have no worries.
One of which four different doctors have tried prescribing me, which my insurance allegedly covers but for some nebulous and ever-changing reason they can never quite approve.
So I regularly have to go get fucking samples from my cardiologists office effectively fucking black market.
Thank goodness you have a doctor that seems to actually care a bit, at least enough to get you samples.
The reality is I'm fully aware my healthcare problems aren't all that serious, so my heart really goes out to people who are looking at life or death on a weekly basis. It's pure cruelty. Best to you!
Right. I know you were blatant about not trying to misery poker with anyone. And yes look that up if you need to. Incredible phenomenon.
But yeah I have stories. I've had a growth spurt in middle age. I am having another. I have died six times. No one wants to study any of these repeated impossibilities. There's no profit in it unless they con a writer into ghostwriting them a book that gives the doctor all the credit.
What in the nine fucks? I am hoping European doctors can be concinced to give two shits. It doesn't even have to be all at once, I'm okay with two bimonthly installments or whatever.
Have you checked out the undiagnosed disease network? Google their site, call and speak to the program coordinator, he's really great. He spent an hour with me on the phone and they wanted me to join the program to get medical reviews. They work through 12 NIH sites across the US, have teams of Drs eval your case and then run it through their database at Harvard and try to figure out what's going on. You don't have to be on death's door or a child to participate, you just need a Dr to write a referral and get accepted. Your sitch sounds like a shoe-in.
I feel the frustration. I went to my doctor for some information on fertility since my wife and I would like to conceive and haven't yet. I went through some tests to let me know that I'm completely healthy but each visit felt like asking to be punched.
How much will this visit cost?
No one knows.
What's covered by insurance?
Some but not all of the unknown cost.
Will you have to go somewhere completely out of the way because your insurance doesn't cover nearby options?
Yes. I've often framed it in the form of a free market. "Let me check your competitor's prices" except we're not ALLOWED TO DO THAT! All these "free market" dupes just get all quiet when you mention there is no free market in healthcare to keep the prices down. Grrrr.... I might have to write 10 more articles. Sorry for your experience but thank you for sharing.
If it weren't so serious, this would actually have a humorous side. I have asthma, so I completely understand. They do have reports. I actually asked for a copy of my report from my doctor's office. I don't remember the actual words, but a couple of things come to mind. "She seems depressed."
Of course, I was depressed. I couldn't breathe!
Another time, I asked my doctor to look at my badly infected finger. Yup, you guessed it. "She actually asked ME to look at her finger."
That was the worst/ most interesting article I've read in a long time. I've been following the Gaza Genocide for several months, and I am hardly exaggerating when I compare your situation as almost as bleak. If you swap out with the pain of being crushed under buildings with the agony of being crushed by greed, it's of a similar nature
'Evil' is word that shouldn't be tossed around blithely, yet it's hard not to see its tentacles rise out of religious mythology and choke the living daylights out of us on a mundane level.
I am so sorry you have to go through this kind of nightmare.
I'm Canadian, so don't have the same problems with medical care. What we have isn't perfect, by a long shot, but it's ever so much better than your, dare I say it, demonic system.
I’m so sorry. I hope you are feeling better/ok?! It’s an absolute mess out there and it’s awful you had to go through that to BREATHE. 🙏😔
My husband’s Dr prescribed a blood pressure medicine that tanked his pressure so low he fainted at work - then wouldn’t take his call because “you should have received our letter, I’m no longer in your network” so we just googled and asked friends and figured things out and now looking for a new baloney Dr.
I do hold the Drs responsible too, because they don’t even CARE. So scary. My hubs and I are working on managing our health ourselves.
I wonder if they'd start to change if there were a few more lawsuits? Probably not, but it seems to me that if a doctor tells you to perform a crime (as my doctor did), he should be held legally accountable. I did eventually resolve this case by sending a written complaint to the hospital, but another doctor attended me, not the one I complained about.
The worst part about this is that if you do complain you can get blackballed by the Drs (according to my atty) and then nobody will treat you. It's ok for hospitals to sew you up and send you home to die. I had an ER Dr tell me that 20 yrs ago to never go without insurance. When I called around town about andr who recommended an Rx with a black box warning that likely would have killed me because it was contraindicated with my core condition and our notes in the record that were wrong and could be dangerous later if they were followed by another MD, all the legal firms I calles said they represented drs. So much for trying to get representation to just resolve a records issue.
Just a final note - It is only my asthma doctor who has tried to help me sort out all of these issues. Final issue - Trelegy is a very expensive prescription but is advertised on TV for being prescribed for Asthma. So now the prescription plans no longer cover the less expensive medicines for asthma such as Symbicort. So the insurance companies now have realized that they can make extra money by approving Trelegy - so that the medical underwriters can deny us coverage regarding Supplemental Plans. Now I am also on medications for Depression because this entire horrible mess with different rules in different states and doctors who won't help and employers who will not hire people above the age of 65 ....have made me feel totally hopeless and in despair.
I have COPD and had been on Symbicort for over 10 years. With the price hike, I found a generic drug, exactly the same as Symbicort, that my insurance will cover. It's called Breyna. You might check with your dr or pharmacist about it.
Thank you so very much for this recommendation. I will definitely talk with my doctor and pharmacist about it. I hope that you are doing well. Thank you for taking the time to send this information!
It's still a high co-pay, but much less than Symbicort. I'm doing well, thanks - just learning to take a little more time to do certain things! You're welcome. I hope it's helpful.
I’m in the social safety net : ironically the very poor get free healthcare via Medicaid etc : the rich can pay for anything they need. It’s the vast middle that are screwed. Even us providers can’t figure it out and get screwed!
You're in it for now, but unless we all actively work in pursuit of justice, it will be taken from you. The oppressors lure us into a false sense of security, but none of us is secure until everyone is. Thanks for the comment!
Medicaid is by no means free to the receiver, it comes with endless waits for appte due to rationing of slots on the provider calendar, it comes with limited access due to the rationing of care and approvals for treatments/Rx/equipment from the insurance co taking their share off the top to a admin the 'member benefit's, it comes with limited access to more qualified physicians who can't/won't accept the below average reimbursement rates from Medicaid, it comes with the judgement of many providers who know nothing about you for the prior 50 yrs than the day they met you but assume you have been an unemployed slug all your lazy life or have never cared for your health...your comments are part of the problem. As a modest six figure earner I had insurance that was partially subsidized by my very wealthy employer, and I spent most of my disposable income on health care coats that weren't covered by my good plan. Then I got sick during the pandemic and spent my entire retirement on gvmt subsidized exchange insurance which also never covered the half of what I needed to stay upright. Now I'm on Medicaid and the rationing and refusals continue and I am declining precisely because I haven't had the care I used to be able to pay for that was keeping me upright. It's a rigged system. Universal catastrophic care with forced compliance by INS cos is a first step. Price regulation is a second. Tax free medical savings for lifetime is a third . There are many possible adjustments that could improve outcomes but I don't hear any of this in the political banter. Medicare for all is meaningless if the insurance co hmos keep taking money and rationing care. They are the bane of the system and until that changes the macabre dance will continue.
Exactly. Then do doctors in western societies have to choose? And if so, doesn't the "head" win? Bottom line, that's what the newsletter was about. Doctors may have gone to med school, found their way through the long hours, the unending tuition costs, all to get out on their own and find that medicare doesn't pay them enough to stay afloat. A doctor in CA told me, "it's beautiful here, I would love to stay, but I can't eat the view." Other countries seem to manage the dichotomy - Canada, Denmark, Norway etc. Why can't we?
I consulted with physicians for almost two decades in allopathic and functional medicine and some physicians care a great deal, and others are locked into a perspective that keeps people sick and the cartel afloat, and still others really don't even pretend to care. Until you're a woman past childbearinf age and have been told you are anxious instead of being dx with a heart condition...our system rewards incuriousness and punishes Drs who step out of the model and seek better clinical solutions, which is why it's $650/hr to see someone with a a clue about complex or chronic illnesses. The system I'm in is - by admission of the Drs here - is 30 years behind mayo clinic. They are literally operating on science from a lifetime ago, and they know it. How much can the patient be responsible for the outcome when the Drs are burying their head in the sand because it just too hard to buck 'the system' if you're in debt up to your eyeballs. You want an eye opener, look up the crack medical teams from Cuba that are sent all over the world in medical crises because they are so good. It's a profession. Medical training is completely subsidized and they do what they were born to do and don't have to worry about being in debt to an insurance co that's grifting for allowing them to receive patient referrals snd penalizing them for administering care. All the wrong behaviors are incentives in our system.
I am sorry that you have received the short end of the healthcare systems biases with respect to treatment versus profitability. But the system that we have, as bad as it is, is better than what we had 100 years ago. And the healthcare systems companies know that they only have to be better than what is expected from the ordinary patience point of view, but this denies the essential point of healthcare. That is that whether or not the healthcare system is adequate for the majority is it sufficient for the particular person which is important at any given moment.
This means that your perspective is extremely valuable but you have made certain assumptions in your argument which are not valuable. However, the current setup of the healthcare system in America is sadly wanting in healthcare when there is a profit motivation. For example, $650/hr is nothing if you have the top 1% of income: a person in that income bracket will happily pay the amount of money for the information that it gives. But as I feel that most people would agree 1% is sadly wanting as a track record for advice. See: https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare for how the wealthy spend. Eat your food first.
And reading this again, do you think I'm a 1% earner so my viewpoint is biased? 650$/hr is not much to a 1% person but I haven't had an income since 2018, so I'm broke because the tens of thousands of dollars spent to insurance companies that haven't resulted in adequate care. 650$/hr is the cash-basis fee for a Dr with a clue who doesn't take insurance, and when I had that Dr and paid out of pocket for medical care instead of having a new car, I was healthy enough to drive and work. Now I have 'free' care and these specialists are deliberately not treating me because they don't have to, but they keep billing to tell me they don't know anything. Your ave specialist can charge the insurance co $1450/hr, take a reduced rate and see 4 patients per hr as still come out ahead. The Drs are pickle in the middle. I could argue all day long that good Chinese medicine is better for chronic illness than allopathic medicine, and it's been around a few thousand yrs. And yes the cost does come out of everyone but the capitalist pockets, so it might as well be universal.
I agree 100%. We are at their mercy, and they know it, why would they care?
Maybe because there is such thing as The Hippocratic Oath, the historical oath of ethics taken by physicians. I believe they don't even know what it says.
The Hippocratic Oath is meaningful. Who knows if doctors remember it. ("By all that I hold highest, I promise my patients competence, integrity, candor, personal commitment to their best interest, compassion, and absolute discretion, and confidentiality within the law.") It's interesting though not correct to think that hypocrisy sounds suspiciously like Hippocrates. The two are not related - only insofar as "hypocrisy" has a Greek derivation: "Hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "jealous", "play-acting", "acting out". So they are related only by pronunciation and sometimes the behavior of some doctors.
Man, I got really frustrated just reading what you went through. I've been in that situation, too, and it reduces me to tears every time. They make everything so much harder than it has to be. I'm glad you wrote about it.
Thank you and I'm sorry you had to endure that. There are people who read this and say, "well, that couldn't have happened," and there are people who read it and say "that happened to me." I wish we could find some middle ground and bring about some changes. We shouldn't have to be hoarding our medications because we're afraid we'll never get a refill.
So totally agree with you about the horrible Health Insurance problems in the USA. I too have asthma & was prescribed Trelegy...for asthma by 2 different doctors. I then moved from New York State to NJ - when applying for a Medicare Supplemental Plan in NJ was screamed at by a medical underwriter that I had COPD or Emphysema. I said that I have never been diagnosed with those. She screamed at me again. I reported this 3 times to United Healthcare through AARP. The absolutely worst and most horrible Insurance Company - yet endorsed by AARP. Ultimately I don't have a Medicare Supplemental Plan because I have "chronic conditions " - as if I chose to have a chronic condition at age 4 when I was diagnosed with Asthma. I can remember my mother crying even then because she could not arrange for proper treatment for me at that time. I could go on with the details but I totally agree with you - this country doesn't care whether we live or die - especially when we are seniors & no longer have jobs. Insurance companies are then petrified that we will need surgery and don't want to insure us - because it might cost them money. Another note to make - Insurance coverage varies from State to State - something I did not know until I moved from NYS to NJ - a very bad thing to do. And then my Primary Care Doctor said that she could not help me with the denial of United Healthcare - endorsed by AARP - to approve Insurance coverage for me. So now I might have to move back to NYS. At this point I am looking forward in some ways to dying - Only if you are very wealthy in this country do you receive good Healthcare.
The denial of healthcare across state lines makes me afraid to go on vacation. We live in a dystopian hellscape and everybody acts like it's okay. It's stunningly bad.
I'm sorry for the issues you mention. They gave me Ipratropium Bromide that I take with a nebulizer. It's a cheaper alternative to Trelegy. You should ask your doctor about it. Best to you!
These things make me glad to be living in Canada. We have issues with our system as well, but not at this Kafkaesque level...
I would rather sit down and try to understand a Calculus textbook (which I've done), than navigate the impossible knot of American healthcare. I am not without problem solving skills, and situations like this make me cry with frustration.
Not to butt in again but I should also mention I have a CNA equivalent level of medicial self-study that at least makes doctors treat me as equals or at least "worth their time."
That may be a differing factor in our car.
That is the word my friend used when I ran into trouble during the pandemic in NYS. I have seen almost all the allergists and endocrinologists in a large city and they just flat out tell me they can't help me (I have a mast cell condition that effects immune and endocrine function). One Dr, after hearing I was referred from a cancer specialist, said he couldn't run the labs needed to diagnose my condition in NY unless there was an active research study, then asked if I had already pd my copay, then refunded my money and took me off the schedule so there was no proof he'd seen me. This is despite coming with gold standard labs from another state and my former MD being willing to script treatment for me with local oversight. Not one Dr here of dozens would call her to discuss my condition. One Dr said "what do you want me to do?" I almost said "your effing job". I worked as a clinical consultant for Drs in functional medicine and I know more about my condition than the Drs here do, and if I didn't I wouldn't know what medical advice NOT to follow and I'd be dead. No hyperbole, I almost died in 2021 and learned the hard way not to be compliant here. They really don't know, and they don't get paid to care if you end up on a slab. Every lawyers office I called said they represented the Drs. Some Drs are great and have a moral compass and make an honest effort but it's a small fraction in some systems/states. I regret leaving IN for NY, but I also had money to pay cash to see the Dr with a clue then, and now I'm broke and on Medicaid because of medical care in NY, so when they tell me the treatment I used to receive is not legitimate or 'proven' I can point out the proof is in the disparate outcomes...I pray for SSDI every day so I have the money to leave NY snd get back to my old dr...
I'm sorry you have to go through that. That's truly horrific. When doctors start lecturing you about how a treatment is "unproven" but they won't listen to reason, you know you're living in a corrupt world.
Walter, I feel your pain. Be glad that you are not a woman who needs hormones after a certain age. I saw 4 different gynecologists and none of them would give me hormones. 3 of those gynecologists were women and were just as dismissive as the lone male that I saw. I heard over and over again, "Oh, You'll just have to deal with it because I can't help you. It's just part of being a woman." Really? I bet if I wanted a boner pill as a dude I'd get it immediately! I'm so angry and I'm not giving up. Older women are not something to be just thrown away onto the trash heap. We have a lot to offer society and don't deserve to suffer all these miserable conditions that comes with the loss of hormones. I'm still searching for a Doctor that will prescribe me bioidenticals. The misogyny in this society is astounding!!
Yes, and I'm also aware that my health issues are minor compared to others. We've got to stand up for each other. The lack of dignity in this country is disgusting. We're human beings.
Not being able to breathe is not minor at all! Thank you for writing about our health system. And yes we must stand up for each other.
Yes, it's pretty awful in the moment. I worry about people who need a heart pill or something and only have a few hours to live. I guess that's a "medical emergency" and they have to protest at the emergency room until they're attended (probably arrested). But I mean... the scenarios you can imagine are horrific.
Heart complaints are the top tier of most ED admissions of people not already in critical condition or something.
It is usually "the worst" thing physically speaking you can walk in with under your own power is chest pain complaints. Some EDs will pause other people mid-admission to tend to this.
The six deaths were from the second coronary. I know a bit about heart issues. Everyone was surprised when my first coronary was in my 30s. From excessive work. Trying to pay those bills and have money left over.
Taking my family line - that is, now, solely me - back to Europe may be the best decision I ever make.
Maybe the world will convince me it's safe to continue the line in some genetic fashion rather than metaphysical.
Women over 50 are totally expendable. We could write a book on this. It's horrifying how they don't even pretend to care...
You can get online scripts for hormones.
Where? I have found a few predatory online companies that have nothing truly helpful to offer. Would appreciate any help.💙
They are all predatory- there are a few that seem semi okay though. I am using ageless rx for b12 and GSH injections. Expensive but I have to try something. Also check out personal labs and sesame
Thank you. Will let you know what I find as it may help others as well.
Dona google search too - lots of direct to consumer healthcare labs and scripts are popping up. Some are rapacious some are reasonable- they all are there to make money - but if you can get what you want . . .
Found this : https://www.joinmidi.com/hrt6?campaignid=21213632335&adgroupid=&utm_term=&matchtype=&network=x&device=m&extensionid=&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=menopause_pmax_matchnode_test&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw97SzBhDaARIsAFHXUWB6ai89HWIBt2w5TuyKPhT81Raaiba7RsRx9c-bI61BG9xAHPYgULIaAmiGEALw_wcB
Checked this out and found out they do not accept my insurance and will not accept me as a patient even if I self pay. Will continue to search and post anything I find. Thank you for sending this along though.💙
Health care in the U.S. is beyond 3rd World in terms of access and the debt that it creates. People have been tricked that we have the best system in the world.
I lived in Peru for 10 years and their healthcare system was far superior.
I'm a Type 1 diabetic of 45 years. Most people have no idea what that means. I once got in an argument with a medical assistant in NYC who threatened to change my med chart to say Type 2 because even though I didn't fit the prototype of most, not all, Type 2s, she didn't think an adult could be a Type 1. And 90-95% of diabetics are Type 2s so she'd probably never met a Type 1. I explained the differences in the diseases. She refused to listen. I finally told her if she changed my chart, I'd take that chart from her and smack her with it. It got real ugly real fast because she kept saying, "I'm from the Bronx, I'll whip your ass" and stuff like that. Well, I didn't back down. A doctor heard us arguing and came in; broke up the argument because it was going to come to blows. He later apologized to me. It's unbelievable it came to that. I wasn't trying to score painkillers or insisting on some weird diagnosis. I was just discussing my medical history. And this wasn't even a Type 1 check-up. It was a gyno appointment.
I also had a medical assistant say, "Type 1 who?" when I told her that I'm a Type 1. It's laughable.
Now I have a good doctor but insurance is still a nightmare. My doc helps me get the things I need because he knows how to explain to insurance what I must have. My mother was a pharmacist and diabetes educator. She's been helpful for me in terms of trying to see through the bullshit. On my end of things, Type 1s have gotten some breaks due to Eli Lilly's $35 insulin cap, but it's still a nightmare in other ways.
I hope things work out for you.
Gosh, what a nightmare. The situation you describe should be grounds for a lawsuit. Doctors pay these obscene bills for malpractice insurance. The idea that somebody would decide to just "change your chart," is offensive. Thankfully they at least mentioned it, or who knows what kind of problems you'd have had to navigate.
Grrr...
These are the type of questions that need to be asked to political candidates at town hall meetings... but all our politicians are bought and paid for.
Yes, I'm doing better, thanks for asking. I hope you are doing better too!
These are the types of issues and questions that should be asked in congressional hearings by serious legislatures. But this congress is too busy trying to impeach POTUS, limit voting rights, and promote whatever trump and $$$ tells them.
Absolutely.
Holy shit. Unconscionable any medical staff in any practice doesn't know the difference between 1+2. The DR knows That's a fatal error if it's misrepresented in your chart and someone else acta on it in an emergency situation. That's horrifying.
Hiiiiii I've been on 39 medications in the last 10 years. No more than 18 at any one time, have no worries.
One of which four different doctors have tried prescribing me, which my insurance allegedly covers but for some nebulous and ever-changing reason they can never quite approve.
So I regularly have to go get fucking samples from my cardiologists office effectively fucking black market.
I bet we could talk alllll day, my dude.
Thank goodness you have a doctor that seems to actually care a bit, at least enough to get you samples.
The reality is I'm fully aware my healthcare problems aren't all that serious, so my heart really goes out to people who are looking at life or death on a weekly basis. It's pure cruelty. Best to you!
Right. I know you were blatant about not trying to misery poker with anyone. And yes look that up if you need to. Incredible phenomenon.
But yeah I have stories. I've had a growth spurt in middle age. I am having another. I have died six times. No one wants to study any of these repeated impossibilities. There's no profit in it unless they con a writer into ghostwriting them a book that gives the doctor all the credit.
What in the nine fucks? I am hoping European doctors can be concinced to give two shits. It doesn't even have to be all at once, I'm okay with two bimonthly installments or whatever.
Fuck this culture.
Have you checked out the undiagnosed disease network? Google their site, call and speak to the program coordinator, he's really great. He spent an hour with me on the phone and they wanted me to join the program to get medical reviews. They work through 12 NIH sites across the US, have teams of Drs eval your case and then run it through their database at Harvard and try to figure out what's going on. You don't have to be on death's door or a child to participate, you just need a Dr to write a referral and get accepted. Your sitch sounds like a shoe-in.
I think I need to listen to the planet. People are only getting more imcompetent, I fear.
Look around, look around...at how lucky we are to be alive right now.
I feel the frustration. I went to my doctor for some information on fertility since my wife and I would like to conceive and haven't yet. I went through some tests to let me know that I'm completely healthy but each visit felt like asking to be punched.
How much will this visit cost?
No one knows.
What's covered by insurance?
Some but not all of the unknown cost.
Will you have to go somewhere completely out of the way because your insurance doesn't cover nearby options?
Of course.
Yes. I've often framed it in the form of a free market. "Let me check your competitor's prices" except we're not ALLOWED TO DO THAT! All these "free market" dupes just get all quiet when you mention there is no free market in healthcare to keep the prices down. Grrrr.... I might have to write 10 more articles. Sorry for your experience but thank you for sharing.
If it weren't so serious, this would actually have a humorous side. I have asthma, so I completely understand. They do have reports. I actually asked for a copy of my report from my doctor's office. I don't remember the actual words, but a couple of things come to mind. "She seems depressed."
Of course, I was depressed. I couldn't breathe!
Another time, I asked my doctor to look at my badly infected finger. Yup, you guessed it. "She actually asked ME to look at her finger."
Our healthcare system is in dire straits.
That was the worst/ most interesting article I've read in a long time. I've been following the Gaza Genocide for several months, and I am hardly exaggerating when I compare your situation as almost as bleak. If you swap out with the pain of being crushed under buildings with the agony of being crushed by greed, it's of a similar nature
'Evil' is word that shouldn't be tossed around blithely, yet it's hard not to see its tentacles rise out of religious mythology and choke the living daylights out of us on a mundane level.
I am so sorry you have to go through this kind of nightmare.
I'm Canadian, so don't have the same problems with medical care. What we have isn't perfect, by a long shot, but it's ever so much better than your, dare I say it, demonic system.
The scary part is Americans are too brainwashed to see it.
I’m so sorry. I hope you are feeling better/ok?! It’s an absolute mess out there and it’s awful you had to go through that to BREATHE. 🙏😔
My husband’s Dr prescribed a blood pressure medicine that tanked his pressure so low he fainted at work - then wouldn’t take his call because “you should have received our letter, I’m no longer in your network” so we just googled and asked friends and figured things out and now looking for a new baloney Dr.
I do hold the Drs responsible too, because they don’t even CARE. So scary. My hubs and I are working on managing our health ourselves.
Sending you loads of patience and positive vibes.
I wonder if they'd start to change if there were a few more lawsuits? Probably not, but it seems to me that if a doctor tells you to perform a crime (as my doctor did), he should be held legally accountable. I did eventually resolve this case by sending a written complaint to the hospital, but another doctor attended me, not the one I complained about.
The worst part about this is that if you do complain you can get blackballed by the Drs (according to my atty) and then nobody will treat you. It's ok for hospitals to sew you up and send you home to die. I had an ER Dr tell me that 20 yrs ago to never go without insurance. When I called around town about andr who recommended an Rx with a black box warning that likely would have killed me because it was contraindicated with my core condition and our notes in the record that were wrong and could be dangerous later if they were followed by another MD, all the legal firms I calles said they represented drs. So much for trying to get representation to just resolve a records issue.
Sounds about right😕 Our so called "healthcare" system is garbage. I've had more incompetent and arrogant doctors than I've had good ones.
Same here, for 30+ years 💙🌊
🫂
Just a final note - It is only my asthma doctor who has tried to help me sort out all of these issues. Final issue - Trelegy is a very expensive prescription but is advertised on TV for being prescribed for Asthma. So now the prescription plans no longer cover the less expensive medicines for asthma such as Symbicort. So the insurance companies now have realized that they can make extra money by approving Trelegy - so that the medical underwriters can deny us coverage regarding Supplemental Plans. Now I am also on medications for Depression because this entire horrible mess with different rules in different states and doctors who won't help and employers who will not hire people above the age of 65 ....have made me feel totally hopeless and in despair.
I have COPD and had been on Symbicort for over 10 years. With the price hike, I found a generic drug, exactly the same as Symbicort, that my insurance will cover. It's called Breyna. You might check with your dr or pharmacist about it.
Thank you so very much for this recommendation. I will definitely talk with my doctor and pharmacist about it. I hope that you are doing well. Thank you for taking the time to send this information!
It's still a high co-pay, but much less than Symbicort. I'm doing well, thanks - just learning to take a little more time to do certain things! You're welcome. I hope it's helpful.
I’m in the social safety net : ironically the very poor get free healthcare via Medicaid etc : the rich can pay for anything they need. It’s the vast middle that are screwed. Even us providers can’t figure it out and get screwed!
You're in it for now, but unless we all actively work in pursuit of justice, it will be taken from you. The oppressors lure us into a false sense of security, but none of us is secure until everyone is. Thanks for the comment!
Medicaid is by no means free to the receiver, it comes with endless waits for appte due to rationing of slots on the provider calendar, it comes with limited access due to the rationing of care and approvals for treatments/Rx/equipment from the insurance co taking their share off the top to a admin the 'member benefit's, it comes with limited access to more qualified physicians who can't/won't accept the below average reimbursement rates from Medicaid, it comes with the judgement of many providers who know nothing about you for the prior 50 yrs than the day they met you but assume you have been an unemployed slug all your lazy life or have never cared for your health...your comments are part of the problem. As a modest six figure earner I had insurance that was partially subsidized by my very wealthy employer, and I spent most of my disposable income on health care coats that weren't covered by my good plan. Then I got sick during the pandemic and spent my entire retirement on gvmt subsidized exchange insurance which also never covered the half of what I needed to stay upright. Now I'm on Medicaid and the rationing and refusals continue and I am declining precisely because I haven't had the care I used to be able to pay for that was keeping me upright. It's a rigged system. Universal catastrophic care with forced compliance by INS cos is a first step. Price regulation is a second. Tax free medical savings for lifetime is a third . There are many possible adjustments that could improve outcomes but I don't hear any of this in the political banter. Medicare for all is meaningless if the insurance co hmos keep taking money and rationing care. They are the bane of the system and until that changes the macabre dance will continue.
Medicare for all is an initiative that would reform all the exploitative and oppressive elements of American healthcare.
It is not true that you Dr. does not care. Even you supervisor cares. There is no way to squeeze profit out of the dead.
They care about the profit, that's true
Doctors care about life which puts them in bind - life and profits don't have the same outcome. See head/heart dichotomy.
Exactly. Then do doctors in western societies have to choose? And if so, doesn't the "head" win? Bottom line, that's what the newsletter was about. Doctors may have gone to med school, found their way through the long hours, the unending tuition costs, all to get out on their own and find that medicare doesn't pay them enough to stay afloat. A doctor in CA told me, "it's beautiful here, I would love to stay, but I can't eat the view." Other countries seem to manage the dichotomy - Canada, Denmark, Norway etc. Why can't we?
Medical care is always a hot potato in every country. Because heath care is a cost. An essential cost.
The US has added the problem of adding "profit" to the equation.
I consulted with physicians for almost two decades in allopathic and functional medicine and some physicians care a great deal, and others are locked into a perspective that keeps people sick and the cartel afloat, and still others really don't even pretend to care. Until you're a woman past childbearinf age and have been told you are anxious instead of being dx with a heart condition...our system rewards incuriousness and punishes Drs who step out of the model and seek better clinical solutions, which is why it's $650/hr to see someone with a a clue about complex or chronic illnesses. The system I'm in is - by admission of the Drs here - is 30 years behind mayo clinic. They are literally operating on science from a lifetime ago, and they know it. How much can the patient be responsible for the outcome when the Drs are burying their head in the sand because it just too hard to buck 'the system' if you're in debt up to your eyeballs. You want an eye opener, look up the crack medical teams from Cuba that are sent all over the world in medical crises because they are so good. It's a profession. Medical training is completely subsidized and they do what they were born to do and don't have to worry about being in debt to an insurance co that's grifting for allowing them to receive patient referrals snd penalizing them for administering care. All the wrong behaviors are incentives in our system.
I am sorry that you have received the short end of the healthcare systems biases with respect to treatment versus profitability. But the system that we have, as bad as it is, is better than what we had 100 years ago. And the healthcare systems companies know that they only have to be better than what is expected from the ordinary patience point of view, but this denies the essential point of healthcare. That is that whether or not the healthcare system is adequate for the majority is it sufficient for the particular person which is important at any given moment.
This means that your perspective is extremely valuable but you have made certain assumptions in your argument which are not valuable. However, the current setup of the healthcare system in America is sadly wanting in healthcare when there is a profit motivation. For example, $650/hr is nothing if you have the top 1% of income: a person in that income bracket will happily pay the amount of money for the information that it gives. But as I feel that most people would agree 1% is sadly wanting as a track record for advice. See: https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare for how the wealthy spend. Eat your food first.
Again, in America we have profitized our healthcare which means that we pay 100% more for the delivery mechanism that we have. See https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/#GDP%20per%20capita%20and%20health%20consumption%20spending%20per%20capita,%202022%20(U.S.%20dollars,%20PPP%20adjusted) and that cost goes out of everyone's pocket whether they know it or not.
And reading this again, do you think I'm a 1% earner so my viewpoint is biased? 650$/hr is not much to a 1% person but I haven't had an income since 2018, so I'm broke because the tens of thousands of dollars spent to insurance companies that haven't resulted in adequate care. 650$/hr is the cash-basis fee for a Dr with a clue who doesn't take insurance, and when I had that Dr and paid out of pocket for medical care instead of having a new car, I was healthy enough to drive and work. Now I have 'free' care and these specialists are deliberately not treating me because they don't have to, but they keep billing to tell me they don't know anything. Your ave specialist can charge the insurance co $1450/hr, take a reduced rate and see 4 patients per hr as still come out ahead. The Drs are pickle in the middle. I could argue all day long that good Chinese medicine is better for chronic illness than allopathic medicine, and it's been around a few thousand yrs. And yes the cost does come out of everyone but the capitalist pockets, so it might as well be universal.
I agree 100%. We are at their mercy, and they know it, why would they care?
Maybe because there is such thing as The Hippocratic Oath, the historical oath of ethics taken by physicians. I believe they don't even know what it says.
Our whole society violates the Hippocratic Oath. Nobody cares, and it's a disgrace. Thanks for the comment!
The Hippocratic Oath is meaningful. Who knows if doctors remember it. ("By all that I hold highest, I promise my patients competence, integrity, candor, personal commitment to their best interest, compassion, and absolute discretion, and confidentiality within the law.") It's interesting though not correct to think that hypocrisy sounds suspiciously like Hippocrates. The two are not related - only insofar as "hypocrisy" has a Greek derivation: "Hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "jealous", "play-acting", "acting out". So they are related only by pronunciation and sometimes the behavior of some doctors.
I have always thought about that coincidental fact.