Your Health Care In The USA: Tales From Your Sick Bed… (V)
Monday, August 24, 2009Posted in: Health care in America, Tales from your sick bed
Readers share their experiences of health care in the USA.
A KKB regular writes:
Here in America, I called a highly recommended doctor in the spring because my heart was racing. The receptionist said “Why do you need the doctor?” I replied “Heart.” She told me the first open appointment for a new patient was a week and a half out. I wonder where the urgency for heart was. Sent for blood tests, my private insurance wouldn’t cover the bloodwork because they were routine. Lost the job and insurance due to back problem.
Ended up in hospital and was approved for medicaid. Thryoid, lymphodema and who knows what else. Bills still aren’t paid and guess what? My medicaid only covers family planning prescriptions. *sigh* What I don’t need. Meantime, I have pain medicine and anxiety medicine prescriptions that I can’t get filled. And when the thyroid is gone, guess I won’t afford that pill either. Bah.
If you would like to share your own health care in America experiences, please email me at Hairylemony @ gmail.com
Teresa C
August 25
1:08 am
Just an FYI, but if you totally lose the function of your Thyroid, please look into the generic Levothyroxine tablets. I know that WalMart, Target, and King Soopers, offers them for $4 a month.
I lost my Thyroid to cancer, and one of the treatments requires you to be off of your meds for 6 weeks. You would not believe how awful you feel when extremely hypo-thyroid. Also, you cannot survive without Thyroid hormone replacement therapy.
Lynne
August 25
5:49 am
I second what Teresa said. Don’t let your hypothyroidism go untreated. It will screw up everything, including your heart. It leads to congestive heart failure.
And be careful about your dosage of levothyroxine. Too much of it can cause rapid heartbeat. The generics are cheaper, certainly, but if there’s any way you can get Synthroid instead, it’s well worth your while. The concentration of levothyroxine in the generics can vary by as much as 25% from batch to batch, which can make getting your levels calibrated really difficult.