Wow. Several nightmares all together in that post.
I thought about Chantex. Did some online research and decided against it. I had a terrible reaction to Zyban. Gave me terrible vertigo. I called the doc and the nurse told me I had an inner ear infection and to continue the Zyban. I knew it wasn’t an inner ear infection. It began exactly 72 hours after starting Zyban. Quit and in 8 hours it disappeared. I am nearly 69 and aside from mild psoriasis, have no other problems.
Mu husband is not quite 61. He is self employed. Insurance is high with the highest deductible allowed. It is going up due to zer0care and the agent wants to write a bridge policy freezing the premium until he is 65. It will still be another $100 a month extra. Together, we will be paying
over $9k/year out of pocket with his having a $5500 deductible.
Sux. Income is down 50% and savings are going down monthly, even with immense belt-tightening. We still have too much cash assets to get Medicaid or help with Plan D. We don’t go unless we must and even then, we wait, use OTC and natural remedies and pray they work. However any blood clot is nothing to fool with, let alone a 14” one.
His doc is great. He extends his blood pressure meds w/o the cost of an appointment, as long as he can. Other friendly actions, whenever possible from most of the med staff, here. For the local hospital/clinics, we don’t even have to set up a payment plan when the costs are for appointments and tests. We simply pay what we can each month until it is paid. I know the mother of one of the women who work in the office and they are fully aware of how onerous it is for most of us. I know my dentist let one of the hygienists go because without dental insurance, he just didn’t get the appointments to justify her being there 3 days a week.
Your hospital is nothing like ours or the big one 45” away that owns them. So far, anyway. I know everyone fears getting to the point where they are broke, working a low income job and unable to afford insurance or care. But, it isn’t the docs or the hospitals, IMO. The local hospital, last I heard was $800M in the red. The docs all work on salary, but their malpractice is paid by the hospital. Still, they do not make big bucks in the larger scheme of things. Maybe $160k/year, which isn’t out of line for the education and the being on call and the mandatory ER work.
I think it is due to the insurance companies and I know the insurance agents have had their commissions capped by law. I think the government has limited so much medical tech that there is no competition left and that is causing costs to soar. I think the beneficiaries are the friends of zer0.
What is scaring me is that tests that aren’t expensive, like PSA, are not being done or paid for unless you demand it and pay out of pocket. There really does seem to be a concerted effort to kill us off while extracting a maximum amount for the private insurance to force us to want to go on government care. Of course, then we’ll get the minimum amount of care while all the technological marvels are reserved for the elites.
My regular doc works out of his house and charges by the minute. Wife is his assistant. My last blood test was $9 and the total visit was $32. That included the blood test. He doesn’t screw around.
But anything else is through the big places. There are other hospitals. And the surgical center. But the other hospital and the surgical center are in some big fight and the wife’s doc doesn’t want to get embroiled in their crap. Can’t blame him. I’m a 50 year old cabinetmaker. We currently have a job going in at the Yellowstone Club up in Big Sky Montana. $56,000 worth of cabinets. Trouble is is that the kids I work with don’t want to do custom cabinetry. They want to stand around collecting a check. So to try and get this done I just worked 250 hours in 3 weeks. I’m dead tired. Trying to impress the client. He told me he had landed 2 more jobs. His outfit sells and subs out to various shops under the disguise of his mantle. I want him to bring us the work. Not that much out there.