In the US medical system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: the HMO’s, who perpetrate crime, and the pharmaceutical companies that profit from it. These are their stories.
I mean its like being in tech support. Losing weight and not eating shit is the equivalent of “Have you tried turning it off and on again” it should be obvious but its not.
I actually know people who died because they had cancer, but the doctor kept refusing to do actual examinations and just said “Oh uhh… just get more potassium or something…”
Not bothering to look further until it was too late… It’s very sad
Tell that to the doctor that said I had a blocked salivary gland and to “just suck on some sour candy”. I had a tooth abscess (I even told the doctor that) and ended up in the ER for nearly a week. Costed insurance 28 thousand dollars for a procedure that normally costs a couple hundred at most (tooth pull).
Costed insurance 28 thousand dollars for a procedure that normally costs a couple hundred at most (tooth pull).
Would a doctor do a tooth pull, or a dentist? I don’t think it’s a reasonable expectation to expect a doctor to pull a tooth, but instead a dentist would do so.
Also, one thing you have to realize is that they don’t look at the cost just at the atomic per incident level, but they look at it through the whole life of the customer/patient.
They play the odds, and they do literal risk management, when deciding how to spend money and when to spend money, specially for big money spending like operations.
So in your case it might have been a matter of a risk management decision, of the odds of you getting better without having to have the tooth pulled and spending the money to do so would be good, but you just got unlucky.
I was even thinking of deleting my previous comment because I figured someone would try to explain how my awful experience was normal and justified from the perspective of doctors/insurance, but I left it, and here we are. Go figure. I gave you the summary. There’s some important context left out, but I didn’t wanna write a book, so maybe just understand that people aren’t putting their whole life story into each and every comment.
There was no risk management involved, just shitty doctors, and shitty insurance companies. I went to urgent care, then a dentist, then urgent care again. Every time explaining that I had a bad tooth, was eating, cracked it, and was in immense pain since that point, with swelling to follow. None of them gave a shit, no referrals, no antibiotics, nothing. I got in with an oral surgeon without a referral, only because my mom knows that guy, and he told me to immediately go to the ER where he personally would come pull my tooth.
Is that enough context for you? Or do I need to continue justifying my experience like I had to with my doctors in this exact story?
so maybe just understand that people aren’t putting their whole life story into each and every comment.
I’m aware, but you can only have a conversation based on what’s actually said, or in this case, written.
There was no risk management involved, just shitty doctors, and shitty insurance companies.
The shitty insurance company does risk management.
I got in with an oral surgeon without a referral, only because my mom knows that guy, and he told me to immediately go to the ER where he personally would come pull my tooth.
I’m truly glad to hear that you got treated.
My point was never to excuse bad doctoring, or to challenge your story, but just to say that medical insurance companies don’t just look holistically at the patients well being, when deciding what to spend on. There’s factors, including business factors, that they look as well. Their top priority is not to heal, but to manage. Healing is a bonus for them.
And yes, there’s idiot doctors out there. Trust me, I know. I have one of them in my network.
Sleeping more isn’t always possible, but if you haven’t tried diet and exercise, that should be your first move.
People think that question is not taking their disease seriously, but it’s the other way around. People don’t take diet and exercise seriously enough. They’re ultra powerful determiners of health, including mental health.
There are a bunch of House, MD scenes where he’s doing boring consults and we get the “Stop eating shellfish if you’re allergic to shellfish” bits and gags.
I had a couple seizures several years ago. Full on grand mal with an ER trip and all that fun.
The response from doctors has consistently been “yeah, sometimes people just have seizures.” They did CT scans, didn’t see anything abnormal and aren’t really interested in investigating more. Solution was that I’m just going to take anticonvulsants for the rest of my life.
Yeah - as long as I’m on Keppra I don’t have them.
It was just terrifying to wake up out of nowhere being carried by EMTs, spend a day in the hospital, be told “yeah idk go see a neurologist” and then just have to figure it out? Follow up with a neurologist was “yeah sometimes it happens, just don’t drive for the next six months.”
I’m going through a very similar thing except with blood clots and anticoagulants. I was in the hospital for 3 days for a pulmonary embolism, but the docs couldn’t figure out why. Instead, they just put me on the blood thinners for life.
This is a big bummer because I have a pretty active lifestyle (cycling, caving, scuba) and being on the meds means I can’t feel safe doing these things anymore.
I’m trying right now to talk to different doctors and see if there’s a way to safely stop the meds but I’m fighting against their flow charts that simply say this is the reality from now on.
It’s far from only in the US. In my experience, hospitals in Germany are far worse in this regard. It depends greatly on who is getting paid how much for what. The US is far better for this, but unfortunately it is not affordable for most.
YMMV. American doctors are an absolute crap shoot in terms of expertise and bedside manner. For any kind of surgery, you really need to shop around and interview and get referrals, because there’s a real chance you end up with a guy who has half a dozen lawsuits pending for malpractice if you’re not careful.
I assume that you are german? I have experienced similar here with dermatologists but for allergies. I went to 4 different allergists over a 8 month period to simply get tested to be able to get an epipen which could potentially save my life. This in the US took one next day visit with a doctor. Later (in the US) I saw specialists that put a lot of research into my allergies and time and attention into it. I got nothing here in Germany.
As mentioned before, despite this, I would rather support the german system though. It has its problems like everywhere, but it is at least available to everyone at more affordable prices.
I was in all three healthcare systems, the Army’s freie Heilsfürsorge, private insured as a child over my dad and now with statutory health insurance and let me tell you, the differences are jarring.
10% of my wage before taxes go away for my health insurance and all I get are doctors and specialist who don’t care and do the absolute bare minimum for me. Of course I’m complaining on a higher level but it’s fucked nonetheless.
I have often wondered about the private insurance (not that I can afford it). I’ve only been on AOK I can only assume that the care is much much better with private insurance?
I only know private insurance is more expensive, has shorter waiting times and better care but can only be done if you’re a public servant or have an income above a certain treshold. Also private insurance can say no and it’s very difficult to go back to statutory health insurance from private insurance.
Imo, you’re dead wrong. Doctors in the US have no incentive to actually cure anything. They spend minimal time with patients and try to cram as many appointments into a day as possible. I’m the type of person that only goes to the Dr if there’s something seriously wrong. I had an ear issue. Took 3 months to see an ENT after multiple failed urgent care visits and an ER visit. The audiologist (not even the Dr) is the one who pointed out I had something clogging my ear canal after multiple Drs and PAs said it was fine. She thankfully got the Dr to pull out a big ole wad of dead skin and wax. Dr says it was likely infected at some point, and my ear made all that dead skin, and that caused that. Have a follow up appointment scheduled which he said I could cancel if the pain went away. The pain went away temporarily, but came back. Follow up is with a completely different dude, and he tells me my ear is fine, and I need to see someone about “pain management”. It’s very clearly not fine because I’m still seeing you doc. I don’t need 600 mg ibuprofen tablets, I need my ear to not hurt.
My theory is that either the ear is still infected, and the drops I had weren’t penetrating the ear canal due to the big ole wad that was blocking my ear, or there’s still a bit more wad blocking the ear that they need to pull out. I’m ready to self prescribe my old eardrops which I still have leftover to see if it works.
Doctors in the US love to kick the can down the road. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly diagnose that, you need to see a specialist. Let me give you a referral.” Then you see the next dickhead who says oh actually u need this other specialist, let me give you a referral.
I’m not in some podunk town either. This is a world renowned hospital I’m talking about. Our healthcare system in the US is absolute ass.
I can’t comment on the state of the German system, but agree with everything you said otherwise.
One of the worst parts is that in the absence of critical thought by doctors, it feels like the only choice I have as an individual is to try and figure things out myself. But God forbid I actually mention thinking deeply about the issue to a doctor - I’m immediately labeled non-compliant / hypochondriac. You can’t fucking win.
Sorry about your ear problems. That sounds bad and a terrible thing to live with.
The US heathcare systems have many problems as you pointed out. I also am well aware of them as I lived there for 30 years both with and without insurance. The only thing that I can give is my lived experience in both systems. The problems that you pointed out among many others exist in most health care systems globally. Despite and including these problems in my experience the US still gives better care. That may be hard to hear (no pun intended) but the grass is not always greener.
Now don’t get me wrong. I prefer the system here in Germany but not because it’s better, but because it is available to everyone. People here don’t go bankrupt with medical debt like in the US.
I am not doing well at all healthwise due to a now possibly diagnosed illness. A few weeks ago, I was at the Mayo Clinic, one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country for rare illnesses, the sort of place you would expect House to work.
I was there ten days and saw three doctors for about an hour each. As I said, it’s now possibly diagnosed and, therefore, there’s a possible route to go down, but that and a bill were all I got.
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