Comments on: Welcome to the Death Panel.

By: curiouser

curiouser — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:34:12 +0000

Great news! Wishes for her speedy return to strength and stamina…soon to finish mowing the rest of her lawn.

By: Photo-Chimp.com - Photography in Alaska and around the World » Blog Archive » OT: Private Health Care in the US

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:47:43 +0000

[...] a nagging question that I’ve been mulling over, which came back to me after reading a post on the AK Muckraker today: in this whole argument of government vs. private health insurance, the Republicans keep [...]

By: dee

dee — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:51:04 +0000

There are, fortunately, many good people practicing medicine out there. In 1992 my husband was dying of kidney cancer which had spread to his bones. He had several lesions in his spine and was soon to be, not only bedfast, but paralyzed. A very caring surgeon performed 12 separate procedures on his spine,at a cost of $12,000 each,and our insurance company said they would not pay for “experimental treatment”. This surgeon ,personally, rewrote what he had written for the insurance company or maybe he just stated so the poor schmuck in claims could understand what had been done, and the claim was settled and paid for.
At the time, I had excellent insurance, and it covered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of treatment in the nine short months he lived after diagnosis,but still, I paid 10s of thousands of dollars more out of pocket for prescriptions drugs, nursing care (I was teaching full time) and other expenses associated with a catastrophic illness. I was lucky, I was able to pay and not lose everything. Others are not so fortunate and illness such as my husband’s would put them into debt for the rest of their lives.

By: curiouser

curiouser — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:23:07 +0000

Thanks for the update on your friend, AKM. Thoughts continue and will check back tomorrow.

By: jojobo1

jojobo1 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:56:37 +0000

My sister a younger one lost her job when her plant shut down,She has a pension that she earned after 30 years of working there,but it does not have any insurance and is not enough to pay for her own insurance even if she could get it.She is diabetic.So far her Doctor has been giving her samples,she is on pills not shots.But her doctor knows her situation and helps as much as she can.I know my sister has cataracts on one eye but even before she lost her insurance the eye doctor wanted money for the procedure upfront in case insurance would not cover it and of course with knowing her plant was going to close she could not afford it.So she lives with it. There are many Doctors that are disgusted with insurance companies and that includes the Va and medicare because of having to have everything just so one number or letter different and you could be denied.Even when I had regular insurance instead of medicare I always told the receptionist what to code my appointment as so it would be paid for.

By: SecretShopperforHungryChildren

SecretShopperforHungryChildren — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:20:10 +0000

Best of luck to your friend! She truly is very lucky.

Here’s a touching TRUE story for you, courtesy of my husband who is a physician:

Recently he saw a young man who had a pre-existing condition and had been denied health insurance. He is a shift-manager at a fast food establishment and a father of two young children.

My husband determined he needed medication or he would die. Period. He didn’t have enough money to buy the drug he needed, and wouldn’t have time to try to qualify for assistance. Seriously, he probably wouldn’t have survived another month.

My husband went downstairs to the ATM and came back and handed him $100 dollars so he could get the medication.

Please, for those of you who have had bad experiences with physicians, don’t lump them all together. There are lots and lots of good ones out there who share the same issues with health insurance companies. I personally have had nightmare experiences with health insurers. No special treatment here.

By: Elrond Hubbard

Elrond Hubbard — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:26:40 +0000

Praise be to that cardiologist who paid for the test! I will post this article on my facebook page too.

By: CO native living in NC

CO native living in NC — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:36:34 +0000

My thoughts are also with your friend. My current job involves getting authorizations from insurance companies for inpatient treatment. I’m impressed the cardiologist was willing to pay for testing instead of just giving up in the face of insurance company opposition. As I said on another blog, people who are afraid of government death panels have never spoken to insurance companies to precertify care.

By: 1smartcanerican

1smartcanerican — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:13:49 +0000

AKM, my thoughts and prayers are with your friend – and you. No one should be fighting for life through health “insurance” companies. Only qualified medical staff should be making health decisions along with the patient him/herself. Kudos to the doctor in this case.

Read and posted at HuffPo to “progress” the story – sorry, just never used a noun as a verb before and it fit I am obviously having some serious mental issues today.

By: MadCity Chick

MadCity Chick — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:53:53 +0000

Infuriating! I’m so sorry for your friend AKM but thanks for sharing with us. Perfect example of why health care under Obama must be passed with the public option.

AKM please tell your friend to also have her Dr. check for Factor V (5) Leiden. Genetic blood disorder discovered in 1994 by Sweedish docs. People with F5L tend to ‘over’ clot leading to miscarriages(clot blocks flow thru umbilical chord), heart attack, stroke, dvt(deep vein thrombosis,etc) Some people carry a gene from each parent, some from one. My doc tells me it is probably the ‘unknown’ culprit in a lot of cases. 1) b/c it’s still fairly news to docs, 2) b/c unless you know of another family member that has it you would never be tested. Some Docs to this day still don’t know what it is.

Most people never discover they carry this but could be the reason for heart attack, stroke, etc. People with F5L should NEVER receive clotting meds if they are in a situation w/heavy bleeding. Also should or can be taking aspirin a day or blood thinner (if necessary).

Women who have had seveal miscarriages should also be checked b/c it could be why. There is treatment for women so they don’t develop clots in chord if it turns out they carry gene.

Doc can find it with simple blood test. My doc also checked my C protein levels b/c levels because the levels C protein plays a part in this disorder. She said checking both assured her that a positive or negative result was more credible.

http://www.fvleiden.org/index.html