I went through what my husband paid for HI with BCBS for the last 12 years

[RodISHI]

Actually you are wrong that everyone can get medical insurance. According to what I found when I made application the poor are not eligible for Obama care. Their response was we were eligible for Medicare which was a lie. My husband would have died of a heart condition or I could die from damages incurred from being covered in toxic chemicals back in 2008 before ever receiving adequate medical care if we depended on the current system solely for our health requirements.

What needs to happen is an independent audit of the current medical system and food supply. Every water system needs to be either cleaned up or provide an affordable means for people to clean their drinking water as it is all polluted. FDA and EPA both need a good shake down. I doubt you will even get half a start on what needs to be done to straighten this whole mess up before a lot more people are seriously affected negatively health-wise.

Those who are genuinely poor are eligible for Medicaid.

Anyone whose income is less than 400% of the federal poverty guideline is eligible to apply for a subsidy via the PPACA.

The only way you'd fall into a gap between the two is if you're unfortunate enough to live in a state whose legislators refused the Medicaid expansion.

Whoever told you otherwise (did you apply directly through the insurer or through a broker, by any chance?) is not being honest.

I went through their online websites. This state supposedly has a program where you can go to the University hospitals too for medical treatment which was also bs due to the corrupt politics here and the majority of those who are corrupt are the Democrats. That is fact. When my personal physician referenced me to the university they refused treatment claiming it was a work related injury. The WC carrier refused adequate treatment and sent me to a quack that had already previously had his license pulled for being a nutjob and then again they pulled his license for being a nutjob and a drug addict. Regardless not everyone gets insurance or proper medical care. The SOB's were actually going to let me die and my husband wasn't sure I was going to make it either for several years. He still wonders because I have asthma attacks now that could very easily be killers. He threw out carpets, furniture and anything he could find that would cause an asthma attack. This is how corrupt your whole medical and insurance system is at this point.

A forty year old single male pays over $1,800.00 a month for required medical care insurance (I know this as I know this person personally very well).

I know a guy that is a diabetic on twenty-three different medications. The diabetes shots alone cost $1,800.00 a month but he does have disability and medical coverage to cover some of those med cost because he had a heart attack and nearly died. One of those meds are Statins. Statins are known to increase the chances of diabetes. Its down right abuse what some of these standards of care are, what the insurance companies and these pharmaceutical companies are doing to both people and the economy.

Okay, back up a minute. If a patient is already diabetic and is put on statins, the statins didn't cause his diabetes. Can we start with that and work through the rest slowly?

Statin first, diabetes followed shortly there after. I have an entire list of his meds he had me share with a dr. friend I have.

 

[dblack]

Penelope, I'd recommend you start here to see how much you might be able to save:

Subsidy Calculator Widget

And don't forget to mention that A-rod sent you, for the commission.

 

[Arianrhod]

Actually you are wrong that everyone can get medical insurance. According to what I found when I made application the poor are not eligible for Obama care. Their response was we were eligible for Medicare which was a lie. My husband would have died of a heart condition or I could die from damages incurred from being covered in toxic chemicals back in 2008 before ever receiving adequate medical care if we depended on the current system solely for our health requirements.

What needs to happen is an independent audit of the current medical system and food supply. Every water system needs to be either cleaned up or provide an affordable means for people to clean their drinking water as it is all polluted. FDA and EPA both need a good shake down. I doubt you will even get half a start on what needs to be done to straighten this whole mess up before a lot more people are seriously affected negatively health-wise.

Those who are genuinely poor are eligible for Medicaid.

Anyone whose income is less than 400% of the federal poverty guideline is eligible to apply for a subsidy via the PPACA.

The only way you'd fall into a gap between the two is if you're unfortunate enough to live in a state whose legislators refused the Medicaid expansion.

Whoever told you otherwise (did you apply directly through the insurer or through a broker, by any chance?) is not being honest.

I went through their online websites. This state supposedly has a program where you can go to the University hospitals too for medical treatment which was also bs due to the corrupt politics here and the majority of those who are corrupt are the Democrats. That is fact. When my personal physician referenced me to the university they refused treatment claiming it was a work related injury. The WC carrier refused adequate treatment and sent me to a quack that had already previously had his license pulled for being a nutjob and then again they pulled his license for being a nutjob and a drug addict. Regardless not everyone gets insurance or proper medical care. The SOB's were actually going to let me die and my husband wasn't sure I was going to make it either for several years. He still wonders because I have asthma attacks now that could very easily be killers. He threw out carpets, furniture and anything he could find that would cause an asthma attack. This is how corrupt your whole medical and insurance system is at this point.

A forty year old single male pays over $1,800.00 a month for required medical care insurance (I know this as I know this person personally very well).

I know a guy that is a diabetic on twenty-three different medications. The diabetes shots alone cost $1,800.00 a month but he does have disability and medical coverage to cover some of those med cost because he had a heart attack and nearly died. One of those meds are Statins. Statins are known to increase the chances of diabetes. Its down right abuse what some of these standards of care are, what the insurance companies and these pharmaceutical companies are doing to both people and the economy.

Okay, back up a minute. If a patient is already diabetic and is put on statins, the statins didn't cause his diabetes. Can we start with that and work through the rest slowly?

Statin first, diabetes followed shortly there after. I have an entire list of his meds he had me share with a dr. friend I have.

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

And don't forget to mention that A-rod sent you, for the commission.

What does Alex Rodriguez have to do with the KFF subsidy calculator?

 

[RodISHI]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

 

[dblack]

And don't forget to mention that A-rod sent you, for the commission.

What does Alex Rodriguez have to do with the KFF subsidy calculator?

Oh, sorry, I was referring to you. And it was only a joke. I don't seriously think anyone would pay you to post this drivel.

 

[Arianrhod]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

 

[RodISHI]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Yes it was for five years ago.

 

[RodISHI]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

 

[Arianrhod]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

 

[RodISHI]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

Maybe.

 

[Arianrhod]

Okay, so he had a heart attack and was then put on statins. Have I got that right?

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

Maybe.

Meanwhile, one of the long-term goals of the PPACA is to motivate healthcare professionals to guide patients toward exactly the kind of lifestyle changes you've mentioned.

 

[RodISHI]

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

Maybe.

Meanwhile, one of the long-term goals of the PPACA is to motivate healthcare professionals to guide patients toward exactly the kind of lifestyle changes you've mentioned.

Seems like a very screwed up way to go about it all.

 

[dblack]

Correct.

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

Maybe.

Meanwhile, one of the long-term goals of the PPACA is to motivate healthcare professionals to guide patients toward exactly the kind of lifestyle changes you've mentioned.

My long-term goals include losing fifty pounds, making millions of dollars and convincing Scarlett Johansen to marry me. Point being, "long-term goals" are moot if you don't have a realistic plan to achieve them. ACA is utterly lacking in that regard. The only thing it motivates healthcare professionals to do is lobby Congress for preferential treatment.

 

[Arianrhod]

Okay, so if he was put on statins, it was to control his hypercholesterolemia to prevent a second MI. That's standard of care.

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

Maybe.

Meanwhile, one of the long-term goals of the PPACA is to motivate healthcare professionals to guide patients toward exactly the kind of lifestyle changes you've mentioned.

Seems like a very screwed up way to go about it all.

If it hadn't, like most bills wending their way through Congress, been hacked at, revised, re-revised, redrafted, and re-re-revised, it would have been more proactive than it is, but it was a start.

Now that insurers can't set lifetime caps or refuse people with preexisting conditions, they're more motivated to find ways to keep their customers healthier so they'll live longer and keep paying premiums. They'll also put pressure on pharma companies to stop their ridiculous price-hikes, and on hospitals and physicians to reduce waste and focus on prevention rather than treatment.

It's a backwards way of doing it, but it has to be done.

 

[RodISHI]

Arianrhod, we could go through this step by step in history on this person but truth is at the moment and for the last few years it has been medical abuse. What you have is a disjointed system. No one explained to him how and why he should change his diet. Instead they just medicate the shit out of him and give him meds to offsets the other meds he takes. I went through a similar situation with my dad.

I agree that many patients are mismanaged this way, and so many factors are involved. Worth starting a thread in the other forum?

Maybe.

Meanwhile, one of the long-term goals of the PPACA is to motivate healthcare professionals to guide patients toward exactly the kind of lifestyle changes you've mentioned.

Seems like a very screwed up way to go about it all.

If it hadn't, like most bills wending their way through Congress, been hacked at, revised, re-revised, redrafted, and re-re-revised, it would have been more proactive than it is, but it was a start.

Now that insurers can't set lifetime caps or refuse people with preexisting conditions, they're more motivated to find ways to keep their customers healthier so they'll live longer and keep paying premiums. They'll also put pressure on pharma companies to stop their ridiculous price-hikes, and on hospitals and physicians to reduce waste and focus on prevention rather than treatment.

It's a backwards way of doing it, but it has to be done.

Well I suppose the more backwards things get the more the people will be crying out and eventually they will go into full revolt as they learn what is being done to them.

 

[Arianrhod]

Well I suppose the more backwards things get the more the people will be crying out and eventually they will go into full revolt as they learn what is being done to them.

I think if you look at the history of patient/doctor relationships over, say, the past 50 years or so, it makes a bizarre sort of sense. What I've heard from older relatives is that up until about the 1990s, many doctors gave patients only minimal information, and patients tended to be passive and do whatever the doctor said.

(Cancer patients, in particular, were not told that they were dying. The doctor would tell the family so that they could prepare, but not the patient. There'd often be this vast conspiracy between family members coming to the hospital and pretending "Oh, everything will be fine," and patients feeling themselves deteriorating but putting on a brave face so they wouldn't upset the family. Horrible!)

Contrast that with today, where there's actually too much information (drug companies hammering consumers with TV ads, sketchy "medical" websites, brochures promising "miracle cures," and don't get me started on Jenny McCarthy and her ilk). Some patients spend their lives scouring the Internet but don't know what's reliable and what isn't. Others, like your unfortunate friend, may still have that "doctor knows best" attitude.

Also, given the patchwork availability/affordability of the U.S. healthcare "system" - and also human nature - a lot of people are not proactive about their health. They wait until something goes wrong (like a heart attack) and figure "Doc'll give me a pill for that," where they'd likely have been much better off exercising, watching what they eat, etc. than ending up on a raft of medications.

In a society where health started with good prenatal care and where good health habits were taught even in pre-K, wiser choices, better quality of life, and lower medical costs would be the norm.

 

[RodISHI]

Well I suppose the more backwards things get the more the people will be crying out and eventually they will go into full revolt as they learn what is being done to them.

I think if you look at the history of patient/doctor relationships over, say, the past 50 years or so, it makes a bizarre sort of sense. What I've heard from older relatives is that up until about the 1990s, many doctors gave patients only minimal information, and patients tended to be passive and do whatever the doctor said.

(Cancer patients, in particular, were not told that they were dying. The doctor would tell the family so that they could prepare, but not the patient. There'd often be this vast conspiracy between family members coming to the hospital and pretending "Oh, everything will be fine," and patients feeling themselves deteriorating but putting on a brave face so they wouldn't upset the family. Horrible!)

Contrast that with today, where there's actually too much information (drug companies hammering consumers with TV ads, sketchy "medical" websites, brochures promising "miracle cures," and don't get me started on Jenny McCarthy and her ilk). Some patients spend their lives scouring the Internet but don't know what's reliable and what isn't. Others, like your unfortunate friend, may still have that "doctor knows best" attitude.

Also, given the patchwork availability/affordability of the U.S. healthcare "system" - and also human nature - a lot of people are not proactive about their health. They wait until something goes wrong (like a heart attack) and figure "Doc'll give me a pill for that," where they'd likely have been much better off exercising, watching what they eat, etc. than ending up on a raft of medications.

In a society where health started with good prenatal care and where good health habits were taught even in pre-K, wiser choices, better quality of life, and lower medical costs would be the norm.

I agree with you on the trust issue people seem to have with what a doctor tells them. Rod was shot up back in 1985 with a mix that damaged his back beyond repair by a neurologist. That guy came unglued when I questioned what he was doing. It was typical he started going on about how he spent eight years in school and who was I to question his authority concerning what he was doing to my husband. Its a good thing I did as he would have done even more damage than the bus transmission that fell on him and the shit mix the doc had shot him up with already.
My dad was a thirty year cancer survivor. Dad would have never made it through that second round if he not been blessed enough to 1. get a doc that was an expert (the first doc almost killed him. the guy's name was Cutler and it fit to a tee. after dad we learned he had butchered a lot of people over the years). 2. have a naturalist as a neighbor.
Dad was bleeding to death internally in 2010. The deterioration in his internal organs came from environmental factors that virtually everyone is facing in some form or another right now throughout the country, tainted water, lack of proper nutrition and food with poisons in them. Dad's doctors were very nice and truthful when I got there initially. He'd been in the hospital slowly bleeding to death for ten days. The doctors decided to send him home to die in peace. When we got home with him he told me he wasn't ready to die and asked me to find a way to stop the bleeding. Short of it is we stopped the bleeding with local herbs. He lived for an extra year.
Rod's mom was not as fortunate. The surgeon got all the cancer but the secondary treatment (radiation) fried her. They literally cooked that poor woman from the inside. She died a miserable death a few years after the bad treatments. Incompetence was the major factor in her death.

I think what you have in the medical field is a lot like what I explained a friend shared with me back in the 90's about the legal field. Schools went for money and lowered the standards in favor of money. The best and the brightest is no longer how positions are decided in many areas. Not everyone is meant to be a doctor, lawyer, etc...

A degree hanging on a wall doesn't mean another can make the best choices for you or a loved one concerning personal health. I agree with you on the patchwork but I don't think it will be solved trying to nationalize it all. Its too easy for commercial interest to sway the organizations and corrupt the system (as we have now).

The Internet; a lot of people do not or will not take the time to search. Some do not have Internet or the know how to search. Some on the other hand will search but are unsure what they are looking for and end up giving up. Then again I have found an immense amount of information online from all sorts of websites but that has taken 9 months and some do not have that kind of time to devote to staying with the search. It does appear that some of our national sites are improving as far as finding information. In eight years without full time Internet of our own things have changed. I see a lot more information online that was not available eight years ago. A lot of good stuff available if a person can devote the time to learn. I sure hope that continues.

You are correct on many people do wait until the last moment and something goes wrong but then again you have a lot of doctors that are unaware or are not updated. In my case the insurance doctors all made the claim that chemicals could not do that much damage. The company and insurance company lied about what I was covered in. Their doctors were either worried the boogy insurance people would go after if they did not do their will or were totally ignorant about skin being the largest organ in the human body. Fact is most people do not know that and they put all sorts of shit on themselves, makeup, lotions, etc. not knowing it enters into their whole system. The legal profession is the same way. They get all worried about pissing off the wrong people and ignore things they shouldn't. Few are honest about it if they think it will hurt their bottom line or maybe affect future cases so they leave innocent people hanging.

 

[Arianrhod]

^Thank you for sharing all of that. I've got some horror stories of my own (friends and relatives), but I'm not willing to share them here. IMO, almost everybody does have stories about incompetent medical professionals. Whether they're incompetent because they're lazy or simply uninformed is the question, but both can have a disastrous effect on patient outcomes.

Agree with what you say about the national websites improving and expanding. One of the (probably the) biggest is Medscape, and one of their main goals is to provide continuing education online for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.

(All of these folks are supposed to get continuing education every few years, but many, particularly in rural areas, weren't able to travel to onsite programs. Being able to learn online, and have their learning reinforced, is helping them stay updated.)

 

[RodISHI]

^Thank you for sharing all of that. I've got some horror stories of my own (friends and relatives), but I'm not willing to share them here. IMO, almost everybody does have stories about incompetent medical professionals. Whether they're incompetent because they're lazy or simply uninformed is the question, but both can have a disastrous effect on patient outcomes.

Agree with what you say about the national websites improving and expanding. One of the (probably the) biggest is Medscape, and one of their main goals is to provide continuing education online for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.

(All of these folks are supposed to get continuing education every few years, but many, particularly in rural areas, weren't able to travel to onsite programs. Being able to learn online, and have their learning reinforced, is helping them stay updated.)

Our personal physician is too far away to visit now personally but when I really need something I call him. He and I share back and forth a lot of info. Its really a shame more doctors cannot be like he is but the system is too corrupt for an honest doc right now. Maybe that will change in the future.

 

[RodISHI]

^Thank you for sharing all of that. I've got some horror stories of my own (friends and relatives), but I'm not willing to share them here. IMO, almost everybody does have stories about incompetent medical professionals. Whether they're incompetent because they're lazy or simply uninformed is the question, but both can have a disastrous effect on patient outcomes.

Agree with what you say about the national websites improving and expanding. One of the (probably the) biggest is Medscape, and one of their main goals is to provide continuing education online for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.

(All of these folks are supposed to get continuing education every few years, but many, particularly in rural areas, weren't able to travel to onsite programs. Being able to learn online, and have their learning reinforced, is helping them stay updated.)

I also found some smaller universities have put a lot of biological information online. I think that is great to but other universities may bitch about it.