Your Health Care In The USA: Tales From Your Sickbed… (IV)
Sunday, August 23, 2009Posted in: Health care in America, Tales from your sick bed
Readers share their experiences of health care in the USA.
A KKB reader writes:
Apparently I’m in the minority group who has health insurance that they really like.
Although we’re covered by entirely different plans, both my son and I have federally funded insurance. Because I am a veteran and my ex-husband is still active duty Navy, my son is covered under Tricare, which is the military’s medical plan. There’s no deductible, no co-pay for office visits, no cost for prescription medications. Everything is provided completely free of charge. He absolutely adores his pediatrician, and we’ve never had any problems getting an appointment with either his primary doctor or any of the specialists he’s had to see for his allergies.
For myself, I was allowed to pick what insurance I wanted from about 100 that the government was willing to pay for. There is an option that would provide care free of charge, but I already have a primary care physician I’m comfortable with, so I opted to stay with her. I pay $45 a month for the premium. My office visits cost $8, my prescription co-pay is $2.50. When I had to do pre-op bloodwork, I got a bill for $1.82 for the twenty some-odd tests that they ran. I’m also covered for dental and vision, although I rarely use vision and only go to dentist to get my teeth cleaned twice a year. There’s no minimum I have to pay before my insurance kicks in. I was overweight before I got the insurance, but that didn’t stop them from covering me, nor did they charge me more because of it.
I had surgery in February (one month after my insurance started, btw. pre-existing condition? obviously). I had consults with several in-network surgeons and didn’t feel comfortable with them, so I asked to see someone else. My insurance paid for me to fly to ANOTHER STATE to have surgery with a doctor who didn’t act like a jackass. My plane ticket, hotel stay, surgery, 3 days in the hospital recovering…everything you can think of was covered. I did have to pay 10% of the surgeon’s fees, which would have been completely covered had I had the surgery in my home state, but it was a price I was willing to pay for my own comfort.
I like my doctors. Every time I’ve had to call my insurance company for questions, they’ve been kind and curteous. They didn’t completely flip out when I asked to see a doctor in another state, or make me jump through hoops and cut read tape. It took them exactly 5 days from the time they got the request for surgery for the approval letter to be sent to my surgeon.
All in all, while getting surgery itself wasn’t a pleasant experience, I have to say that the doctors, nurses, hospitals…and even the insurance company have been a pleasure to work with.
If you would like to share your health care in America experiences, please email me at Hairylemony @ gmail.com
Karla
August 23
2:50 pm
OMG, you have one of the scary, government-run health insurance plans. It works, it’s affordable. Obviously, we can’t allow more of that.
Karla (who finally crawled out of lurking)
Cindy
August 23
3:29 pm
And why are all of these people protesting us having access to something like this? Man. I could do this plan. I could use this plan.
kirsten saell
August 23
10:09 pm
Yup, sounds a lot like Canada style health care to me. Well, except for the whole “universal” thing…
Lorraine
August 24
3:06 am
I’ll never understand why we can’t all have coverage like that. Sign me up.
Emmy
August 24
4:02 am
Incidentally, this is the same insurance Congress gives themselves. So ask your congressman why you can’t have the same thing they do.
Casee
August 24
9:52 pm
Am I the only one that read the part about her being a veteran and he ex-husband being active duty Navy?? They DESERVE that coverage.
AztecLady
August 24
10:10 pm
Casee, I don’t think anyone is begrudging them the coverage–we only wish everyone had access to something like it without mortgaging their soul, you know?
Casee
August 24
10:16 pm
AL, I’m not saying that anyone is begrudging the coverage. What I disagree w/ is this attitude that everyone has a right to that coverage.
Contrary to widespread belief, there is health care out there for everyone. Sure, it may not be as good, but it’s there.
AztecLady
August 25
12:43 am
Why should people who pay taxes have to make do with “not as good” health care, Casee?
Particularly when we are talking health conditions that would be perfectly manageable–and so much less expensive–with some preventative care.
When having access to that preventative care, without having to choose between health coverage or housing, can make the difference between continuing to be a productive member of society or not.
That is what I don’t get.
Ann Bruce
August 25
12:47 am
Casee, am I correct in assuming you value some people more than others? According to you, some people deserve to live more than others–and, yes, I do mean live because if the US health care system performed as well as France, Japan, Australia, etc., it would prevent over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND deaths each year.
So, the single mom who works two jobs but still can’t afford decent health care for her and her kids is at fault because the current system makes it too difficult, too time-consuming, and too unaffordable for her to get it? She and her kids are less deserving of access to health care than this family because of her JOB?
There are many things that shouldn’t a right (e.g. home ownership), but health care isn’t one of them.
Ann Bruce
August 25
1:07 am
One more point then I have to stop reading these health care posts because they’re not good MY health:
If you’re a taxpayer, politicians and military personnel and all those other government employees are YOUR employees. You pay their salaries, their benefits, their pensions, their holidays, their expenses, everything. Why should they get better health care coverage than you?
Emmy
August 25
1:08 am
What I’m suggesting is that this coverage be expanded and offered to the public, instead of being hoarded for government employees.
AztecLady
August 25
1:29 am
(Emmy, I did get that from your previous comment–one of those rare times we are in complete accord đ )
Casee
August 25
1:39 am
Point taken, AL. I agree to a certain extent. However, being a productive member of society isn’t contingent upon having health care. You’re saying that you have to be healthy to be productive, right? That may be true, but you have to be productive to be healthy. There’s always a flip side to every argument.
Preventative means that you have to get ahead of the game. Do you have any idea how long that would take? We’re talking the children of my children. For every article you give me about the US being the worst in preventative care, I’ll give you one that shows that the survival rate for cancer and heart disease are higher in America than anywhere else.
What about the single non-working, drug addict mom who got pregnant by her drug dealer? Should I pay for health care for her? My sister was that mom and I still don’t think I should be responsible for her situation.
Like you, I generally try to avoid joining in these discussions b/c they are such hot button issues for me. I take it too personally.
Ann Bruce
August 25
2:00 am
Argh! I still have the comments sent to me via e-mail.
US health care is great…if you have it. However, there are 47 million people in the US without it, so that great medical expertise does squat for them.
Yes because her son or daughter shouldn’t be made to pay for her mistakes–and inmates in the US get doctors who make “house calls.”
(Now disabling comments update feature to save my sanity.)
Lynne
August 25
5:57 am
Providing health care to someone isn’t the same as being responsible for her situation. That’s a leap, IMO.
I believe in universal health care for everyone, period. It’s a basic human right.
Roslyn Holcomb
August 25
6:09 pm
There is? Would you mind telling me where? I’ve applied to more than a dozen companies. Even with deductibles as high as 10k (No, I have no idea where I’d get that kind of dough from), nobody, NOBODY will cover me. I’m not talking about doctor’s visits or little boo-boos. All I’m asking for is catastrophic coverage so I don’t end up bankrupting my family and losing our house. No, it cannot be had. Why? Because I have cysts on my ovaries, and no I didn’t get them from fucking a drug dealer. I have no idea why they’re there, but they are, and because I take medication to keep from getting diabetes NOBODY will cover me.
AztecLady
August 26
7:14 pm
From Senator Edward Kennedy’s obituary on Newsweek:
Indeed.
Rest in Peace, Mr Kennedy.
5Cents
August 27
12:22 am
My mother has Medicare and Tricare. She recently had a short stay in an assisted living facility. When we gave them her insurance information, the administrator said “Tricare? That’s fantastic! You can’t buy insurance that good.” Interesting. You can’t buy insurance that good in the US, if you can buy insurance at all.
Simply put, health care is a basic human right, and every citizen deserves coverage.