Posted on 04/10/2011 9:11:27 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
Crossville, Tenn. - A Cumberland County family blames the state's healthcare system for the death of their son.
Frank and Ann Zingheim's 48-year-old son, Scott, committed suicide on March 31st.
On Sunday, his obituary appeared in The Tennessean, with a tribute to his life, and also a message for state lawmakers.
"No one listens, no one listens," said Frank Zingheim. "There are major cuts being made in Nashville right now."
Scott Zingheim was diagnosed as a Paranoid Schizophrenic when he was 15-years-old. His parents say he was in and out of hospitals for most of his life, until one program was finally able to make a difference.
Through TennCare, Scott was able to take part in PACT, or the Program of Assertive Community treatment. The Zingheims say it changed his life and taught him how to cope with his mental illness.
"For the first time in years, he was hospital free," said Frank. "He didn't go to the hospital because they monitored and took care of it."
But in 2005, cuts to TennCare made Scott ineligible for the PACT program.
(Excerpt) Read more at newschannel5.com ...
They’re angry and have to find someone to blame. But their was off the program they claim did so much for him for six years. There is something else at work here, not his being taken off the TN Medicaid program.
I’ve worked with poor, disabled clients in D.C. who have both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicaid picks up what Medicare doesn’t. Since Medicaid is a state program, I suppose eligibility and the rules change from state to state. And it seems TN decided they couldn’t have both back in ‘05. One client told me that when/if you are listed as permanently disabled for two years, you automatically get Medicare and it’s a far better program.
What in the Sam Hill does this have to do with my Post?
I pinged everyone on the thread, it has to do with the subject of the story.
He was no more responsible for what ended his life than the budget cuts.
Frank and Ann Zingheim, once you learned that tax payer funds were no longer going to pay for your sons needs, what did YOU PERSONALLY do to save your son’s life....... over the next 6 years?
You said, “No one listens, no one listens”.... did YOU listen? Did you see what was coming and did you not lift a finger, because it would cost you more than you were willing to pay out of your pocket?
I'm disabled myself as is my wife and live in Tennessee. What likely happened is one or a combination of several things. The first is if he lived with his parents THEIR income would also factor into his Tenncare elgiability with Tenncare covering till year two of disability and Medicare coverage. Yes if you meet the poverty level you can also actually have all three meaning Tenncare, Medicare/Medicaid.
To a certain extent Tenncare replaced most of Medicaid in the state and became a semi stste universal health care program. A Dem governor Ned Ray McWherter with the help of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton got the corruption and scandal ridden program going. It got worse under the RINO who took McWherters place for 8 years. The past 8 under a semi fisical conservative DEM did address some of the coruption. Or at least more so than before.
Tenncare does try from time to time to boot the disabled off. Trying to get health care insurance when being disabled is almost impossible or cost prohibitive. Medicaid was first intended for the working who became disabled or died and a survivor net for family. It kinda sounds like to me that his Disability payments was high enough it disqualified him from Tenncare.
Tenncare also handled much of the mental health patients at one time. Another problem is the agency who was overseeing his care could had the authority to do for him what family could not. It is difficult at best for family to get someone mental health help because of permission laws.
I'm also guessing his Medicare HMO did not have a contract with that program. To his credit to get disability and Medicare it does sound like he held employment at some point for a considerable time and that's not too far fetched either.
40 years ago his family could have had him committed and gotten him help. The laws of today on mental health intervention stink and yes they can get persons killed for much less severe and preventable problems.
A lesson the parents failed to learn. TennCare was first with government healthcare, replacing medicare with a gold-plated health care system that rapidly drove the state into debt.
Signed into law by a democrat (who else?), it was a runaway success for those in the program but a nightmare for those of us paying for it. In 2005, another democrat was the one who finally had to start making cuts or the state would go broke.
Maybe the parents ought to see where ObamaCare is headed. Promising everything at the beginning only to make cutbacks more and more as the money runs out. It is where we are headed and SOON!
Here is the problem. The man was considered an adult. I'll explain it like this. Let's say you spouse sufferers from mild depression and a doctor writes a script for Zoloft. Every things fine. All of the sudden everything isn't fine. The spouse is psychotic or appears to be such. You take spouse to the ER looking for help. ER doctors says I'm calling the state mobile crisis unit in and they will decide what to do. But you are the spouse. Doesn't matter under Tennessee law you have NO SAY! But the state does though. OK they show up. The doctor wants a transfer {patient dump} to a mental institute. Now keep in mind during this 12 hours not one medical test has been done to rule out anything. You talk to the state and say I want testing done and they agree declining the doctors request. The episodes include going unconscious which should send up an huge UH OH to the attending ER doctor. It doesn't.
Finally you as they spouse do something on a gut feeling and go on line searching Zoloft +Adverse reactions. BINGO! Serotonin Syndrome and every symptom too. Try convincing a doctor of it. Insurance doesn't have as much to do with it as just bad policies and ignorance. With mental health in Tennessee in most cases you are at the states mercy unless your spouse is rational enough to sign for treatment.
I want to point something else out as well. Underthe old Medicaid program there was true oversight from the State Inspector generals Office and a quick means of appeals. Tenncare is not under that scrunity nor can your state lawmaker help either. We're talking about tax dollars here.
schizophrenia is horrible for anyone
Yes, the mental health care for young men is inadequate
but if the money isn’t there, you can’t spend it
The money isn't there for the disabled in need because they gave it to Juan & Juanita living here illegally from Juarez and their kids instead. I know of pariplegics who have been booted also. Tenncare is not typical Medicaid it is a excuse my language bastardized universal health care program setup for da childrens.
Ping to thread.
You are so much more knowledgeable than I, and are living with these programs up close and personal. I wonder if, as you assume his Medicare HMO didn’t cover this particular program, there would have been another that might have been equally effective?
It’s hard to imagine since his primary disability was a mental issue, that he wouldn’t have had an array of services to choose from. Or at least some appropriate choices.
Also hard to believe that the program that was so effective wouldn’t have seen to it, as he became ineligible (which didn’t happen overnight), that he found a viable alternative before releasing him.
While I think these are programs that have been terribly abused, they are there to help the truly disabled, and it’s a shame that because of the abuse, it’s those same truly disabled who are least well served.
Thank you for your insight.
In my state, Washington (also known as San Francisco North), isn’t any better.
First, I am sorry for your loss. Death is a tragedy and the greatest of all tragedies is to have your son or daughter die so young.
Second, no one and no system killed your son. His sickness killed him.
Paranoid Schizophrenia is a difficult disease and it is rare for someone to attain management of the disease.
A lot of these towns one community mental health service/hospitals that handles all the cases. That kinda makes things rough and limits options. Changing Medicare HMO's might have helped or all may have excluded the service. I don't really know on that.
I know when Tenncare first started up I got into more screaming matches over the phone than I care to ever remember and sped up my own disabilty hitting me as well due to stress. The Tenncare program had ex-state officials running it's HMO's and the HMO's were taking the money, going bankrupt {after huge salary payouts} and starting under new names same faces many times. Most of the fraud was corporate fraud and that is what our last governor the DEM actually put a halt too for the most part.
Basically this program is taking the Medicaid money paid to the state from the fed and dispersing it out about 5 times more persons than it was under basic Medicaid. Insane yes but that's what they basically did.
Why didn’t they help their son? They should be ashamed.
Government has demanded so much control of individuals that most don’t even think twice anymore about stealing from a minority of people to do whatever good deed they feel needs doing as long as “government” is doing the stealing.
But in short, it boils down to the ends justify the means.
Eventually that mentality leads to the likes of Stalin and Hitler - all for the “greater good”. The Utopia just around the corner that leads to mass pain and suffering instead.
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