Medicare recipients already dropped
For those that have not followed all the reports on the new medical bill making it’s way through the Senate, Medicare recipients are losing doctors, hospitals, and general care right now. My doctors have to be careful which medications that the prescribe because many times the company paid by Medicare will not OK the drug. This is markedly different from standard insurance policies where you go in, talk to the doctor, and get your prescription all without having to beat up the insurance company or fill out all kinds of crazy reports explaining why you need the drug. This of course assumes that you can even get a doctor to see you. Many of us on Medicare are finding out that doctors will simply not see you anymore. It is too expensive to see Medicare patients because the government keeps dropping the amount a doctor is paid to see a patient. So now it is to the point that no one wants to talk to you unless it is in the emergency room. Even there the last thing the hospital wants to do is to admit you. They will do the minimal amount of work necessary to make sure they are not sued for lack of medical care, and then kick you out the door. Many times blood work is pulled but you are still shown the door even if the results will be several days in coming. So you could have something that should be handled in the hospital, but you are tossed out before anyone figures that out. And if something is found what are the chances that the hospital will actually call you back to come in and be admitted? Winning the lottery is looking better all the time. We are all experiencing the healthcare breakdown, but we supposedly are not there. Guess what will happen after the new bill is passed? Not only will general practitioners refuse to see you, but specialists will also show you the door. Insurance companies have forced doctors to change from being healers to small business owners that have to carefully watch the bottom line. They have to be able to pay for nurses, malpractice insurance, equipment and an office. How does that happen if the doctor cannot make money off each patient.
Doctors cannot work like the government – run for years in deficit and then print up new money to pay for the previous losses. They need to be able to pay for bills and salaries as they come in and if they do not get enough money from patients coming in then they have to close down. That is in essence what is happening to the Medicare recipients and local doctors. They cannot afford to take care of us at the rate the federal government pays out so they flat out refuse to see us. So much for the medical coverage handed out by the government. I paid huge sums of money to the tax structure of this country before I was injured. As a software consultant I paid all that was owed so others could be helped and that I would be if something terrible happened. Well that time was three years ago when a hit and run driver ran me down and left me for dead in the street. As a tertraplegic stuck with complex regional pain syndrome I find it all but impossible to hold down a job because I am hospitalised as least once a month for pain or things tied to the pain. The last week of the month is back to back visits to all my doctors so we can figure out how to deal with problems with my spine and infections that are in the bone. So I live off of SSDI and hope and pray that Medicare allows my doctors and hospitals to continue to see me. My pharmaceutical issues would blow most people away and to show how fun things have been I hit the doughnut hole in June, and blew past it in August and am now having Critical Care government payments covering my drugs at 95%. That is until next year when I somehow have to find $2500 to get though the doughnut hole again. I’m hoping my pain doctor can get me on cheaper drugs soon, and that is assuming he will still see me after the new medical bill becomes law.
There are many things to be fixed in our medical system, but the way we are doing it now will guarantee the death of thousands. If we cannot see our doctors and hospitals and get the drugs we need at a rate we can afford, then we might as well throw in the towel and stop pretending that Medicare pays for things. Lets start thinking about how doctors pay for their bills and how they can stay in business and allow Medicare the pay at those rates or we will soon see a time where Medicare is a terrible thing to have to deal with. Here is to our Senate and House members to talk to everyone involved and forget about the insurance companies and lawyers who are killing out medical system. With the bill going through congress we are all running out of time.
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