A day in the American Health Care system.

[Shardik]

I have insurance. Supposedly "good" insurance.

Earlier this week, right after I got hit with some sort of bug that entailed a dry cough and a serious fever. The next day, I started coughing up blood. I looked it up on the Internet and was told ZOMG!!!! YOU ARE FUCKING DOOMED! Go to a Dr. or an Emergency room. I hadn't seen my Dr. in over five years and when I called them I found out that I was no longer considered one of their patients. They suggested a "Doc-in-a-box" or an ER. I tried calling other Docs but none were taking new patients. So, I bundled myself up and set out in some very cold weather for the ER.

By the time I got there, I was shaking like a leaf, still hacking up blood and hurt like hell.

I proceeded to wait for five hours with no food or liquids, then they drew blood, did some chest X rays, put me in a room and told me to take my clothes off and wait for the doctor in a cold room for another couple of hours without a blanket. I'm a smoker, so all sorts of terrible things were going through my head as to what the blood coming from my lungs was all about. I started thinking of changes I might need to do in my will.

All this time, I was still shaking and spewing blood.

The Dr. finally came to my room, said that my lungs were clear and it was just bronchitis. "See ya later!"

Still dizzy and ill, I went to discharge and had to pay $175 to get out and was told that I would be receiving 40 other bills for items not covered or deductibles hadn't been met. I'm guessing it's going to be around $1K by thetime all is said and done which is at this point of my life just about a month's salary. Add to that another $100.00 for a Z-Pac and some hydrocodone cough syrup (Yes, I even have prescription coverage).

I started to drive home and planned on picking up my scripts, but was too sick to do a wait at the pharmacy, so just drove straight home and slept 12 hours between coughing fits. By the time I got up I was sicker than I had been with this illness to date and got my mother to go pick up my prescriptions (God love her).

So, now I am still coughing up blood, running a fever and have pulled a muscle somewhere on the left side of my chest. If I am up to it later, I hope to start calling trying to find a Dr. who will take me. Which I figure will not be easy.

I really can't imagine a worse health care system in the industrialized world.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. We have to start using this internets thing to our advantage.

When you're feeling better you have to make a video for YouTube.

I am sure there are other people in your exact situation who would be more than happy to give such a video attention.

I get bronchitis every year like clock work. What you have doesn't sound like bronchitis (why yes I do know Bill Frist, why do you ask?)

I hope you get better.

[Shardik]

2. Agreed.

I think I will try a vid and see how it comes out. When I get beck up to snuff, I'm going to need a significant rant.

[elleng]

3. which should include

'Everyone, get and keep an internist for you and your family.'

[izquierdista]

4. Bypassing the system

There is a way to beat the system and even get a better result. No, not get on the webcam to be seen by a doctor in Bombay. Use one of the artificial intelligence programs that are developing a better diagnostic track record than board certified internists. If you check out this link: http://www.openclinical.org/aisp_iliad.html, you can find out about ILIAD, and in the sidebar to the right are a couple dozen more such programs.

If the medical establishment is going to price itself for only the top 1%, and if the entrenched interests don't make health care available to the masses, then the masses are going to have to do what Skype and e-mail and document scanners have done to the phone company, the post office, and fax machines: make them obsolete. The only hurdle remaining is to get these AI systems out of the hands of the medical profession and into open source software.

I know I would much rather be seen by an expert system on-line, at home, than wait 5 hours in an emergency room.

[Joe Steel]

5. I'm no defender of the American health care system.

I really can't imagine a worse health care system in the industrialized world.

I'm no defender of the American health care system. Nevertheless, I have to ask how you think some other way would have served you better. Even if we had universal single-payer, you probably would have faced the same difficulties, maybe even greater. Your problem seemed to be related to a lack of capacity not affordability and I can't imagine a publicly supported system with more providers than we have now.

[eridani]

6. Consumers Union would like to hear about that

Thank you again for sharing your story with us. We just put it up on the web for other people just like you to read!

Just go to http://www.prescriptionforchange.org/story.html#12409 . You can even tell your friends and family that this is you! Then maybe they too will share their stories.

If you ever have any other experiences you want to share on this or healthcare issues, feel free to send us a note telling us about them.

It is consumers like you who are making the marketplace better for everyone.


Thank you!


Sincerely,


Vickie Valadez
Share Your Story Intern
valavi {at} consumer.org

And

Morgan Jindrich
Online Outreach, Education and Recruitment
Consumers Union
Publisher of Consumer Reports
506 West 14th Street , Suite A
Austin , TX 78701
[phone] x111
jindmo {at} consumer.org

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Hope you're not developing Pleurisy. It is very painful. I was like you, coughing up a storm

and thought I'd either pulled a muscle or broken a rib from the coughing. Turned out to be pleurisy. And, yes, our healthcare system is terrible. My trip to the ER resulted in the 'doctor' telling me that my rib wasn't broken and they didn't know what was wrong, but I should see a doctor!!

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. We don't have health insurance, have been unemployed for over three months and

my husband has been sick for three days now. He is at the clinic, $146 +zpak $130 + a steroid injection $?. x(

I hope you feel better soon!

[pnutbutr]

9. non emergency

er visits are generally not covered by most health insurance. You may want to contact your health insurance provider and speak with them about filing a claim yourself since you did go in coughing up blood and honestly thought it was an emergency.