David Frum's take on the political fall out:

You have no clue.

And your responses to AOII Angel are getting a little out of hand considering how cordial she has been to you.


Anyways, I am super happy to see the tanning tax included in the bill. Disappointed about a lot more (lack of tort reform, medicare spending, etc.) There are a lot of major problems that are not being addressed with this bill.

I feel ya...
We've got two daughters to bankroll/get loans starting this fall.:eek:
It is truly shocking how much it is going to cost.
I'd like a little of that stimulus money to come our way.

And since when is calling someone a fool 'cordial'?

And I do know plenty about what is going on in the insurance industry as well as with healthcare (from a patient perspective as I am not and do not want to be in the medical profession). Oh, and I also understand socialized medical care from a political perspective as well as the Constitution, etc - where is it that I have no clue?

It's ridiculous.
I am one year in and ~$50,000 down. By the time I'm done I'll have over $200,000 in loans/interest. THANK GOD I didn't have any from undergrad.

And they wonder why no one wants to go into primary care.....:rolleyes:

Her calling you a fool was generous considering some of the disparaging remarks you have made.

And your having no clue refers to some of the completely naive comments you have made about healthcare delivery.

Yep, and that's the sad thing about it...that's where the need is.

I will tell you that my sophomore year in college I gained 40 lbs in one year despite eating better and getting a great workout every day on my hilly campus. I was pre-med at the time and noticed that I had a number of symptoms of hypothyroidism (we were studying the endocrine system at the time). So when I went home at the end of the year, I went to the doctor. And she wouldn't test me. Told me I was too young to have hypothyroidism and that I just needed to exercise more. By the time I came home from winter break of my junior year, I had gained another 20 pounds. I went to the doctor, crying, and she finally tested me. My TSH test came back at a 45 - but she still didn't want to treat me! So I asked for a referral to an endocrinologist and I've been treated ever since. Through REALLY hard work, and medication, I've been able to lose 20 of the pounds, but not all 60. My TSH is still around 10.

Some doctors who are more recent graduates and know all of the latest research on this stuff may know better than their patients, but not all doctors keep up on current research and treatments. Any patient who has had to change doctors due to new insurance or lack of "chemistry" with a given doctor knows that there is a huge variety of doctors out there, all with different methods. My doctor was old school, about five years out from retiring, and though she was a smart lady, she used old-fashioned approaches that were not appropriate for an unusual case like myself. She needed to recognize her areas of weakness and refer me to someone who knew more about my condition than she did.

Amazing, people are being investigated because of death threats they made via twitter after the bill passed.

link

Death threats? Really? :rolleyes:

Rearlly

Whether or not it's working in MA overall, I'm not really sure. However, I do know that it didn't work for me (at least as far into it as I was able to get before I moved). The state wanted everyone to have healthcare, and if they didn't, they were penalized. The first year, I had $219 (I believe that was the exact figure) deducted from my tax returns, leaving me with next to nothing. For someone who was making $7.80 an hour at a part-time job, unable to find a decent one, that sucked. The following year, they penalized me $72/month for not having insurance. In October of that year, I moved to PA.

So basically, I lost almost $900 over the course of 6 months, and I still didn't have insurance. But if I got health insurance, I would have paid more than that, and I simply couldn't afford it. I pretty much got screwed and paid a whole bunch of money for nothing.

Seriously, I've had some not great doctors and I think what we need people to do is to learn to advocate for themselves and do some research. I don't mean spending hours on WebMD, but keeping track of changes/norms so when something comes up there is a baseline and a time line. If I go to the doctor and my blood pressure is high and I ate a high salt meal or was running late, that would make sense. If I just drank coffee, that could account for an elevated temp. So much of that behavior for me is left over from having to keep track for health issues I just kept doing it and I always bring that to an appointment, as well as writing down my concerns. I want to make the most of my time and the doctor's time.

I was dismissed once for breast cancer and I was so fortunate the ENT surgeon (huge a-hole, but good surgeon) refused to operate until a doctor he trusted ruled out cancer as the person I normally saw was on maternity leave and the other doctor didn't find my concerns important (that person is no longer in the practice). I have the option of a second opinion but it is so annoying when office #1 will not send your records in a timely manner to office #2. If I had cancer and they blew me off I'd have considered filing a law suit because it shouldn't take three months to send records. I go to the biggest practice in town and thankfully they also run the Urgent Care but one practitioner doesn't get butt hurt if you see someone else because they aren't available, nor is there drama if they consider different treatments. Living in a rural area makes it hard at times, and many people make the 1.5 hour drive to Spokane for specialists.

My time in Alaska is always a crap shoot because the clinic is either 30-100 miles away and because I'm an outsider the med student who is doing a rotation always wants to see me because I'm less likely to object (I don't have tinfoil underpants and believe in conspiracy theories) and have some strange shizz in my medical history. I've only been cranky once when one young woman was telling me I should be concerned about osteoporosis, when my only risk factor is being female. No one in my family has had it, I've never broken a bone, my bone affected surgeries healed freakishly fast, I'm not lactose intolerant, and I'm Norwegian so eating cheese on the daily.

My temp is low though, constantly, about 97.5-97.9 but allegedly it is genetic. I'm willing to have my thyroid checked though because I tolerate cold too well for some people's liking.

Not trying to pick any fights, but if you made $7.80 an hour, were you not eligible then for the low income plan?

Also, there are partial insurance plans cheaper than $72 a month.