Medical Cost

[Dftodd]

If so strange that we have been brain washed to think that doctors can solve anything. All these medical dramas we have seen on TV, are just bull crap. As I get older, I'm finding out just how little the medical establishment really knows. "We don't know what causes this or that. We have a prescriptive treatment, but we really don't know why that works either."

I went in to my doctors office to get antibiotics for a dog bite.

It was my dog who had gotten injured and latched on pretty good when I went to help. So I didn't need rabies vaccine or anything like that.

I happened to be allergic to the two most common drugs prescribed for a dog bite.

So the nurse practitioner pulls out his phone and googles it

Boy did I start giving him grief about that one

 

[Jstpssng]

Well once they get everything you own you are that type of person.

I understand this. Yet it shouldn't be plan A.
It seems like the poster I referred to is on the same page as you.

I do have one outstanding medical bill, to a quack who called himself a urologist. I was working on paying it off but got to the point I had to find somebody who knew what he was talking about. I was hoping they would take me to court but they didn't.

 

[Eagle1]

Look I pay my bills. Fell behind years ago during a rough patch and am almost paid off now. No hiding from anything. Now retired and living where I want to die but on a fixed income and really don't want (or can't) to go back to work or doing a bunch of side hustles.
All I own now is some old (not classics) cars, some livestock and an old BX. Everything else belongs to others I do have a lifetime lease for my place for just the property taxes.
I have VA coverage and wife will be on medicare soon, yet we could still be on the hook. I do not need the prestige of owning anything just let me live on this homestead my way.
No desire to travel or snow birding. Simple life but I ain't going to no home or apartment. Rather go for long nature walk and get lost.
Would like to be dropped into hole near some of past dogs or scatter some ashes about.... No headstone or marked grave wanted.

I'll turn down care I can not afford but stupid doctors, hospital and do gooders will bankrupt you against your will for your own good

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
I knew what you meant.
It also made me realize I'd misread the previous poster's comment.

 

[ponytug]

Look I pay my bills. Fell behind years ago during a rough patch and am almost paid off now. No hiding from anything. Now retired and living where I want to die but on a fixed income and really don't want (or can't) to go back to work or doing a bunch of side hustles.
All I own now is some old (not classics) cars, some livestock and an old BX. Everything else belongs to others I do have a lifetime lease for my place for just the property taxes.
I have VA coverage and wife will be on medicare soon, yet we could still be on the hook. I do not need the prestige of owning anything just let me live on this homestead my way.
No desire to travel or snow birding. Simple life but I ain't going to no home or apartment. Rather go for long nature walk and get lost.
Would like to be dropped into hole near some of past dogs or scatter some ashes about.... No headstone or marked grave wanted.

I'll turn down care I can not afford but stupid doctors, hospital and do gooders will bankrupt you against your will for your own good

Just my $0.02 here.

Make sure that you sign an advanced care directive to that effect. Plus one for your funeral/burial wishes. Keep copies in the hall closet, inside the cabinet door for the kitchen sink, cars, etc., and make sure the folks (your wife) around you know where they are, and what your wishes are. In case of doubt, medical professionals (EMTs, doctors, etc.) are basically duty bound to provide care.

Most states provide the forms. Here's one for Missouri;

Advance Directive: It's Your Right to Decide | dmh.mo.gov

dmh.mo.gov

All the best,

Peter

 

[JasperFrank]

I went in to my doctors office to get antibiotics for a dog bite.

It was my dog who had gotten injured and latched on pretty good when I went to help. So I didn't need rabies vaccine or anything like that.

I happened to be allergic to the two most common drugs prescribed for a dog bite.

So the nurse practitioner pulls out his phone and googles it

Boy did I start giving him grief about that one

Yes, my wife has three physicians working with her long covid. I look at her meds and find counter indications. The explanation I got was unsettling. Because docs are cross networked, there isn't coordination between them for legal reasons. Wha? Its up to you to list everything, for every doc. Even if every Doc is changing it up every visit.

 

[ponytug]

Yes, my wife has three physicians working with her long covid. I look at her meds and find counter indications. The explanation I got was unsettling. Because docs are cross networked, there isn't coordination between them for legal reasons. Wha? It's up to you to list everything, for every doc. Even if every Doc is changing it up every visit.

As a preamble, I'm not an MD, or a licensed healthcare professional.

One way to improve that might be to give the networks permission to access the other network's information. I've had to do it a couple of times, and then professionals on all sides can see everyone's prescriptions, and perhaps more importantly, their internal software has a chance to flag potential counter indications and side effects.

As a general comment: clinical trials to approve any given drug are generally set up so the single drug is given to one group of patients and the current "recommended" drug is given to the other. For some trials, the two groups may be switched half way through. Unless disease or disorder requires multiple drugs as a starting point, most drugs aren't tested with other drugs. That means that drug interactions between two or more drugs are almost entirely worked out in patients after approvals, with patients who have a variety of disease(s) states, and backgrounds. So if drug #1 plus 2,3,4 causes something unwanted, often all four drugs will get tagged with a contraindication, even though some other combination of those drugs with a fifth, or all but one, might work.

I think that multiple drug therapy is very complicated, but when the doctor decides that the patient needs it, that's not my call.

All the best, Peter

 

[Dftodd]

Yes, my wife has three physicians working with her long covid. I look at her meds and find counter indications. The explanation I got was unsettling. Because docs are cross networked, there isn't coordination between them for legal reasons. Wha? Its up to you to list everything, for every doc. Even if every Doc is changing it up every visit.

My wife's a nurse/ department head for a nursing home. So she's been on both ends of this. Both the Medicare coordinator position and a long term care coordinator, had the task of getting that list together from the patient of all their meds.

She's also called Dr's out about medications that counteract each other etc.....

She's been on a laundry list of medications for months now herself since she had her accident. So, thats one of the things she has had to do was keep up with everything.

She does know where to look (website) though to check if medications counteract each other, or if they have a negative effect when mixed, so she's been double checking the doctors.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I haven't read all 20 pages, but wanted to add something. Hospitals are for profit businesses. I'm not sure how common it is, but on 60 minutes or the like, fund management companies are buying up hospitals, milking the dry, and shuttering. I don't think hospitals should be a money making enterprise. Yes, everyone who works gets paid, but shareholders should not be part of the equation. Since the gov pays so much money into system, there should be no need for other forms of capitol, as long as prices are in check for being not for profit.
I am very lucky/blessed that I have medical insurance for life through my employer, the State of CT. I think I pay 4k a year, and the majority, 2/3, is for dental. As a taxpayer, they need to end that practice, as well as big pensions. (I don't have the big pension, they have been weeding that out since the 80's) But that's how (one political party) buys their votes from the unions.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

I'd like to see health insurance completely divorced from employment. Too many people have no idea what it actually costs because their employer pays a big chunk of it. If everyone had to actually pay for it then there's be more people voting to fix it and pressuring their representativs.