NO Insurace? How far would you go to get your child help?

Again, I am in awe of your strength!

I am a mere medication technician in a small nursing home...I make about $400 a week. If I paid for insurance I would not be able to afford food or gas for my car. Then, after paying those premiums, I would not be able to pay the deductible or the 20% the insurance doesn't cover. I am not in poor health...but my age is catching up to me. Diabetes, heart disease and arthritis...all of which I treat myself with diet, supplements and herbs. I do pay for lab work each year and am blessed that I know what the results mean....and am somewhat able to know what to do to help myself. I also have great friends who are doctors and nurses who advise me for free.

But I had a real scare a few years back...kinda personal so I won't go into details. Wound up in ER and was admitted...told was going to have some testing done...doc said it could be cancer...or it could be other real bad things. I woke up the next morning to a discharge paper because they figured out I had no way to pay for all that testing. lol I asked, but what if?....and they just shook their heads and said there was nothing they could do.

I feel it is a crime in this very rich country that children die of infected teeth (young boy with medicaid) cause doctors won't accept the medicaid and doctors and hospitals turn sick people away cause they don't have money!
My granddaughter was 18 months old...had rotavirus and was dehydrated and the ER sent her home with instructions to 'push fluids' three times in one day even after we told them each time that she hadn't kept anything down for over 36 hours! She was lethargic and hard to rouse. Finally she was admitted when we called her pediatrician out of town...and he called the hospital. Her parents had medicaid! A few months later a nurse at work was talking about her son having this same virus....and he was air evacuated to a nearby big city. Why? I asked her what insurance they had...and she said BlueCross/BlueSheild. Her son was six years old and only had been vomitting for a few hours.???? He had no other conditions! Just was vomitting and fever same as my granddaughter!

Our healthcare system is a crock! And I work in it...I see a lot of abuses and a lot of plain scarey stuff!

We have rural health clinics here, unfortunately...they only are able to stablize in an emergency....and you are then transported to the ER nearby. They charge according to income. I have found that the governments programs that do this, differ greatly in their calculations of what a person can afford! lol

I also do not agree that the government provides good health care. I have experienced to many situations...(when I was a reciepient of government aid for healthcare)...that shows me they do not provide the more expensive tests, medicines, therapies or things that are new....for the holders of a medicaid card.
I have two sons with birth injuries to back that claim up! I also have read of poor children being turned away at for dental care because the dentist won't except government insurance....it doesn't pay them enough. One such child had an infected tooth and wound up dying cause mom could not find a dentist to take the insurance!

I chose the icon for this discussion from the movie... John Q.... starring Denzel Washington...it portrays a father who's son needs a heart transplant and is turned down due to not having insurance that will cover it. He takes the whole hospital hostage to force them to give his son the heart transplant. I can relate to this....my granddaughter contracted rotavirus...was feverish, vomitting and becoming dehydrated fast! She was 18 months old....and the ER and Urgent care turned us away saying, "it's just a virus" & 'push fluids'. I am in the medical field...and know how dangerous it is for a child to have a fever and not be able to keep any fluids down....she was dehydrated by the time we got the doctor at the ER to call her pediatrician and have her admitted. They acted like we were a bother at the ER! Yet, a friend who is a nurse and who's husband has blue cross insurance ...told me her son was six years old and had only been sick for a few hours...and they AIR EVACTED him to a nearby city for care! Money talks!
I don't think the government does a great job running things....especially healthcare. I am fearful for them to 'reform' healthcare...but what else is there that we can do?

There really isn't much else we can do except maybe alternative medicine if it's available where we live. I've heard of a lot of people able to recuperate from serious illnesses because of it. Do doctors want to hear of this though? They don't. They'd much rather have you return to their office 10 times in one month to resolve your issue.

That is pretty much what I've done...unfortunately I could not put an IV in my granddaughter to resolve the dehydration. I suppose if I'd know something to stop the vomiting before it got to the point it did I could have done something. Phenergan did not work for her even. We tried it. There are somethings modern medicine is necessary.

We do use alternative practices for many things....and we study up on preventative practices to avoid getting sick. More people should look into this.

They really should. We would have less sickly people on this earth. The United States is the only country that doesn't approve too much alternative medicine.

They are also the worst when it comes to protecting the actual health of their citizens....mostly they just give lip service to protecting them. The pharamcuetical companies...FDA....food producers, all of it seems to be geared for profit and the safety and health of Americans be damned!

I don't for a minute believe that our welfare is on their minds...by keeping the herbal and supplement industry in a bind, they are merely protecting the interests of the drug companies. Europe has a system where herbs are researched and used by the general public and prescribed by doctors! Why can't that be done here? Cause you can't PATENT a herb and make millions! They sell expired drugs to third world countries....they sped up the approval process when big drug companies lobbied DC....and they put out half truths and lies about what is good for us and what is an "acceptable risk". They won't ban things like High Fructose Corn syrup and MSG and hydrogenated oils...cause the producers of these products have bribed them into passing them as safe.
Ok...I'll try not to ramble on...I'm sure you get the point.

Well, companies are wasting their advertising on me. I go to Whole Foods and get all I need the natural way. They specialize in organics. To me that is better than gold.

Hurray for those who do this....to bad more don't.

You'd be surprised. In my area where I live in Los Angeles there is a large percentage of people that go to Whole Foods. The parking lot is always full!

Perhaps this is why the government is getting nervous about and wanting to regulate this?

I don't know but anything is possible at this point.

I'd come with and help...!

And I'll call you next time our hospital won't admit one of my grandkids. lol

You think I have a big mouth on Yuwie...

roflmao

well let's hope we never have occasion for you to have to prove that!

I think the pissant dr. at the ER feels the same way...he threatened to call the cops...I said ok..I'll call the newspaper while you're doing that..how do you spell your name?

omg I wish I had that kind of spunk...

You would...if you were looking at your flesh and blood lying there in desperate need...and knew someone could help her and wouldn't just cause he could get away with it....sorta like me and Supie...when someone is wrong out of choice...when they choose to be STUPID....it p*sses me off.

oh...wasn't gonna show that side of me here...better shut up!

I find myself backing off and then thinking "why did I do that?"

But if it were a sick child, I'm sure I could find some gumption, a lot of it actually...

Oh..there's been some 'fights' I've backed off of. I don't want to sound all big and bad..but seeing a sick child in need can make even the most passive person a warrior.

In my case, backing off is sort of automatic.

There have been times I wish that were my automatic response.;)

My oldest son is just like me....and from the perspective of a MOTHER...I can see how it is counterproductive sometimes to be that way. Not to mention the reap what you sow thing...I can relate to my mom's despair over my temper...lol

I find myself saying yes when I want to say no and then asking myself "why did I do that?" Must be a happy medium out there somewhere...

I feel the same way. And they do deny people care, indirectly and under handedly. I've experienced it. So have my grandkids.