#us medical system

[destielmemenews]

Dragoneer died of complications from a lung infection. His last social media posts detail a frustrating ordeal with his insurance and have ignited criticisms of the US healthcare system.

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[labelleizzy]

Text id:

"In a recent post on X, Dr. Alan Nguyen, a spine specialist in Fort Myers, Fla., noted that when insurance-company doctors reject an MRI request, he now asks for their name and health provider identification number. "I tell them if a cancer is missed, then the patient will know who to sue," wrote Nguyen."

(photo id: a blonde white woman and a dark skinned doctor are both in scrubs and surgical masks standing above a reclining patient)

wsj.com headline:

Doctors Say Dealing With Health Insurers Is Only Getting Worse

[tuttle-did-it]

Leverage is an American tv show about a man who worked for an insurance company, but he was completely fucked over by said insurance company and his son died because of it. And he spends the next several years trying to fuck over the american insurance company as much as possible. And take down as many corrupt ceos as possible.

It's now available on UK Prime. But pretty sure it's not too hard to find wherever you are.

There's no reason for me telling you this at all. None.

[palominodragon]

Went to his bluesky account to figure out how the owner of furaffinity died and it is so horrifying how his posts over the last month are just about waiting, waiting, waiting... finally getting a doctor's appointment only to be told he has to wait some more... (plus another insane medical bill) and repeat.

Because I remember how long I had to wait for surgery even after they'd confirmed my cancer diagnosis, wondering why they couldn't just get it done, since, ya know... the whole deal with cancer is that it gets worse the longer you leave it alone...

and just how hard it is to get scheduled to see a doctor in general. My endocrinologist is always fully booked months in advance. It is literally impossible to reschedule with her unless I want to wait two months. I've wondered before why there aren't enough other specialists locally to give her (and her patients) some breathing room.

If the issue is a shortage in medical professionals and it's a big enough issue that people regularly die just while waiting to be treated, then what the heck is being done about that? You'd think with how much money is in the medical industry, that particular problem wouldn't exist.

[amalgamasreal]

[oddestishottest]

through the dirty window

[woodsfae]

How does one cope with having supportive, helpful doctors? No, really. I have no experience with this. My mother didn't believe in taking us to the doctor unless we fulfilled her arcane venn diagram of "people will talk," "this kid is one of the ones I like right now," and "idk, did jesus tell me to let you die in your sleep or not?" so there's no early childhood experience there. Except for dentistry, because she did take us to the dentist, but he caused me a lot of fear and pain so I have a phobia about it now ✌🏽

Then I spent my first eleven years of adulthood asking every doc I saw to: a.) help me diagnose my debilitating menstrual symptoms, b.) achieve sterile, childfree dream, and c.) send me to PT & give me a macromastia diagnosis so insurance will pay for a breast reduction to fix my awful, chronic pain.

My experience in this was terrible. Legitimately, terrible. I was told to have kids. I was told to lose weight (even though I am not and never have been 'medically' overweight). I was told the process of being diagnosed with endometriosis was more traumatizing than living with mystery symptoms. I was told I was too young to have anything seriously wrong for me.

Getting my current primary caregiving physician changed everything. I've only seen her once, but she knows exactly who to refer to, and believed me when I rattled off all my physical complaints and fucking referred me when I asked for referrals! She is the reason I got referrals to rad specialists. I have never gotten anyone to refer me before! I never even got to the point of dealing with shitty specialists! And it keeps throwing me that I haven't been having to deal with that step.

There was an insurmountable barrier to medical care where there should have been a step, and I keep expecting every subsequent step to be a similar barrier and being emotionally thrown when instead, it's another easy step.

*this post was brought to you by the bluescreen I experienced when the reduction surgeon looked me straight in the eyes and said in the most comforting wisconsin accent "I want you to know your experience is valid and all the things you experienced are real, but everyone I see has the same symptoms so I'm just going to list everything I'm going to tell insurance and you can add anything else at the end."

[selkies-song]

Healthy societies don't charge the uninsured $300+ for basic preventative care like an annual flu+covid shot

[cyberfestivaldonkeycash]

I’m chronically ill, so a lot of my time is spent at the doctor trying to figure out what my new problem is. I can’t make this up, my diagnosis yesterday was and I quote, “bad luck”. I was told I just have bad luck.

[midnightmindcave]

so this was a fun email to read this morning: for some reason, our medical insurance is refusing to cover my child’s routine age-12 vaccinations that are not only on the CDC schedule of childhood vaccines, but are also required for them to attend public school this year. WTF?!? stay tuned to this station for updates.

[starful-emporium]

medication prices are fucking fake. this new med I'm starting is $3000/dose, insurance makes it $375, and the manufacturer has a program that makes it free.

like obviously you CAN offer it for free, why is it $3000??

how does signing one piece of paper make it free?

[rriotghoul]

i wish abled bodied people and doctors would stop saying shit like "you know how to walk, just stand up and try" like its not that straightcut. i *can* walk on good days, but its painful, exhausting, hard. and on bad days i just cant walk. and thats ok. but when i ask people for help its "come on try it yourself first, you can walk", like yes technically i can but it doesnt mean i should/have the ability too right now. if that makes sense

i sometimes just wish abled bodies folks and doctors knew what it was to exist in a body like this

[rosethornewrites]

Medicaid is apparently afraid I will abuse my hormonal birth control, and despite the prescription calling for skipping the placebo pills and immediately starting the next month, they won’t allow me to fill the prescription in that manner.

I am, fortunately, not using it as a contraceptive, but instead to manage several medical conditions.

Which maybe isn’t fortunate, given that my choices are limited on this shit and having an actual period could cause major problems, especially with my autoimmune disease. Anyway, it couldn’t be filled until today.

They’re also freaked out about the minuscule dose of a controlled substance I take. This morning I took the last dose and called to check on my refill (which I had sent days ago) only for the pharmacy system to claim they didn’t have it. The nurse at my doctor’s office, when I called, told me it was because I can’t get it filled til tomorrow because it’s a controlled substance.

Me: I guess I’ll spend tonight really high to cut the pain, then, because I took my last dose this morning.

It’s legal in my state and I’d still do it if it wasn’t.

She paused, then said I should call the pharmacy and explain but lol then I’d be treated with suspicion of being an addict, which I told her point blank. I thanked her for looking into it and wished her a nice day.

Apparently she got that fixed somehow because half an hour later I got the text that it was ready.

I had to drive 45 minutes to pick up the birth control because the system wouldn’t let me schedule Instacart (usually how I have them delivered) and I need it tonight, and then picked up the second at another pharmacy on the way home.

I’m going to pharmacy A to save Medicaid some money, as I got my meds there when I was uninsured for cheaper, but I’m thinking of slowly switching everything over the pharmacy B because it’s like 5 minutes from home.

The moment I got home, I crawled into bed and slept for 3 hours and the prospect of actually getting out of bed again is unpleasant because my pain is not good today so I need the weed anyway. And so my spoons have used calling doctors and going to get my meds and I have accomplished fuck all else.

Man, I just want my meds. I want to take them on time and not feel like maybe I should skip doses to make them last longer because of this sort of thing.

Yay, America.

[leonardoeatscarrots]

What's crazy to me is that my family doctor doesn't take 3rd party payments, so because I was in an auto accident (which would be covered by my car insurance, not my medical insurance) they won't accept my insurance. Meaning I'd have to pay for the visit myself. Even though I've already been to the ER. Even though I'm still having complications. Even though I was specifically told to schedule a follow-up appointment with my family doctor.

Now, I'm disabled already so that makes this a fuckin shit ton worse, but friendly reminder that this could happen to *anyone*. If you NEED to go to the doctor because something is wrong, the first thing you hear shouldn't be "you'll have to pay for that out of pocket".

[douglasfeiffel]

How some people perceive the medical industry: hello I am your doctor you have a splinter so I will give you 10000 mg of drug that will make your insides rot

How the medical industry actually works: yeah you broke your wrist but the hospital is really busy today so we’re not gonna put a cast on it sorry :(