I am so jackedoff right now

[Vacula]

CCRay, I hear you! I'm 15 minutes from The William T Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven PA. I always wanted to fly. A TriPacer would have cost me as much as a decent new car back in the early 1980's/Late 70's. Now I just watch those little Pipers fly by. Our government cannot run a healthcare system. Not without it becoming a bloated, worthless, spiraling out of control cesspool. Outrageous profits. Mind-numbing CEO salaries. Ambulance chasing, TV advertising esquires raking the system. (This alone gives me pain and suffering).
Make the playing field level in all states for all ages so that competition keeps the price of healthcare low. And if we had a population that had some morals and ethics, it would help in keeping frivolous lawsuits out of the courts. Healthcare professional's insurance rates lower which should keep our healthcare charges lower too. Too bad all these things require government intervention. Can you say "Healthcare Lobbies"? None of this is going to happen! Greed over caring! Capitalism doesn't work when the overwhelming majority of the players involved don't care about their fellow man.

 

[lugbolt]

Politically, I am pretty center right. However, in the US our health care is a for profit multi billion dollar industry and that truly makes me wonder if we should not have a Single Payer system. Not Obama Care, not the mess the GOP will make of it, but a true single payer system.
My mother in law just found out that the last resort cancer drug they can try to keep here a live will cost her $3150/month. What a complete crock of shit. 28 small white pills= $3150/month and that is just their portion. They couldnt afford it if it was $1150/month.

Oh, ok let me make some people mad. My girlfriend has to take a certain medication for her health. Monthly, 30 pills. The cost for 30 pills is around $1140 each month, and that's WITH using her insurance. Anyway, her sister is a pharmacist at a local hospital. Her sister found out what she was being charged and mentioned that she could get the meds at the pharmacy's cost for family members only. Oh, ok, any little bit will help. So we head down there, about 65 miles, it's in the middle of a really nasty neighborhood of a city that's well known for gang banging. There's a shooting every hour and a murder about once a day. Anyway, we get there-without too much incident and fought for a parking spot. Got parked and told her this better be worth it. We got inside, found her sister, gave her the Rx from the doctor, and she fills it while we're eating dinner at the cafeteria, which was actually pretty good for hospital food. We run back over there, picked it up and she asked how much. For 30 pills, $7. That was the pharmacy's cost. $7.00 even, including taxes.

Now, I'm a business person and I understand that places have bills to pay, and that's part of what dictates markup. But I for one do not understand Rx drug costs and their markup, and why they're marked up so much? I realize the pharmacists make good money-her sis is a 10 year pharmacist, 2 years at the hospital and 8 at a local grocery store pharmacy-makes around $175,000/yr. Perhaps that's one reason for the markup? I dunno.

I think a lot of what's wrong with our major problematic systems is the fact that we have a Godless society, one which could care less about their fellow human beings. People are now just numbers. With a dollar sign in front of the number? We've become a society which glorifies wrong and what is right is....uncommon. Common sense is gone, except for a select few people of the older generation, 50's and older typically. We value the dollar more than human life. So many people in this country SUFFER because they can't afford the high cost of insurance and medical treatment.

The great Paul Harvey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Az0okaHig

 

[D2Cat]

I was talking to a friend this week. He was telling me he goes to Wal-Mart Pharmacy to pick up his insulin. He's on medicare and has Humana to cover his med cost.

He said Humana called him and wanted to know why he wasn't taking his insulin, and informed him it was necessary and detrimental to his health. He needed to get to his Dr's.

He told the lady he was getting his insulin at Wal-Mart. He could pay full price there for the same medicine for less then his deductible with Humana.

We have a lot of problems! Why can you buy the same medicine made by the same company in Mexico and Europe for less then $30 and here in USA it cost $341?

A couple of solutions. Require all law makers to have the same insurance available to the masses, and eliminate advertising for meds by drug companies on TV.

 

[jryser]

And not only stop the commercials (criminal in my opinion!) but stop letting docs get paid enormous amounts of money by pharma companies to sell their drugs. It's making a huge mess of things. Look up "dollars for docs" and see for yourself. Unreal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Brother Skeets is correct.

An old neighbor in Sacatamatoes is 78. Last year, they spotted a tumor on his kidney. It was removed under Kaiser Permanente insurance, which he raves about. His bill, $10,000 after the operation. He can afford it and was happy to pay it. He sent me a link to a story about healthcare in England. With the same issue he had, a English citizen at his age might take nine months to actually see a doctor and get the tests run. At his age, its unlikely that he would have received the surgery had he lived under the government provided health care system. Many elderly patients get wheeled to remote hallways over the weekend where they receive little or no care all weekend. Many pass on.
Bud is so glad he lives here and not there.

Len nails it: Force Congress to use the same healthcare we have. Problem solved. (Throw term limits in there while you are at it!)

I can vouch for the crazy pricing. My script at WalMart on insurance was $95. If I join the WallyMart recommended joint collective plan (some other non WallyMart company that offers discounts) my script was $70 for nine months worth. I blew the insurance off. And my med was made in Spain. You know the cost on this was $25...

NO DOUBT there are kinks in the system. Those can be worked out but Capitalism is far preferable to single payer. There is an Alzheimer drug that is being hailed as "the cure" by European doctors. Its being fast tracked through testing and its doing beyond anyone's wildest dreams. That medication would never have been created under government run healthcare. Nor would most of the ones we count on today.

 

[D2Cat]

Interesting article, thinking outside the box!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/must-read-article-how-our-lives-change-dramatically-20-delahunty

 

[skeets]

The Cancer Doc has contacted the Ins provider to find out WTF is gong on, he is one pretty irritated person from what I understand. So we shall find out why the problem is, most likely a computer hiccup of some kind, or at least thats what the answer will be anyway

Remember Cat

We are Borg,,,, Resistance is futile ,,,, You will be assimilated
That where the world is going, perhaps the T 1000 will soon be the next to knock on our doors

 

[skeets]

She just got a call from the Doc,, Ins has again rejected the PET scan even after all her records had been re-submitted. They will however grand a CAT scan,, WTF is that about? Seems all her other PET scans mean nothing, and means she has to start all over again with all the testing before they will approve the PET scan. I asked the girl at the Docs office what was going on, she said not to worry they fight this same thing with almost every Ins carrier out there. So tell me why Im paying ins? Should I go on welfare or no abla and get it all for free. And all I can do is sit and shake my head over this.
Sorry for the vent but dayum !!!!

 

[Daren Todd]

You definitely need a good relationship with your pharmacist. I found out by accident my cholesterol meds are cheaper with out insurance cost me $3.85 per month without insurance. Costs me $10 per month with my insurance or $20 for a 90 day supply which is there preferred method for maintenance drugs. kicker is my prescription drug plan is through a certain national pharmacy. Said pharmacy was the same one giving me my cholesterol meds for the $3.85

I've also run into issues where a name brand drug costs less retail then a generic drug. But run through my insurance, the name brand drug cost me $50 where a generic cost me $19. The name brand drug retailed for $150, the generic retailed for $225 I'm guessing that's a new kind of math that I don't understand Course I told my doc to switch me to the generic

My mother has had some issues with the new insurance plans. Major treatments have to go through an approval process before receiving the treatment. So since she has leukemia, there's always the possibility that a pencil pusher denies a life saving treatment. Thankfully it's in remission.

 

[Newlyme]

The girl in the Doc's office is right. They'll get you fixed up.

Dealing with insurance companies is where the term SNAFU comes from.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The whole Big Pharma world needs to get upgraded... Unless your Pharmacy folks are on the ball, you could pay extra needlessly.

No surprise that Big Pharma along with the insurance companies were big supporters of government healthcare -until they worked in the system for a few years and now realize its unworkable.

 

[skeets]

I did find out this morning, that the Ins company is now following ,Medicare, ,,, guide lines what ever they are..the more it goes the more convoluted it becomes

 

[Daren Todd]

Skeets, which insurance company do you have? Got my wife interested in this. She's been fighting with insurance company's for the nursing home she works for.

Said if it's an HMO, then you get good premiums but they won't pay for s$$t. You may have to call the provider, and find out what you need to submit for a new claim. If they give you the run around, then ask for a manager. Be nice!!!!

Said it can get hinky and sounds like they consider the lung cancer was the cause for the lymphoma. Probably gonna have to show where the lung cancer was treated, and taken care of as well to get the treatment pushed through. Said you can also file a complaint with the insurance board if they aren't following medicare guidelines. Also they have to give you a better answer then the lung cancer wasn't treated. Especially since she was treated.

Good luck my friend.

 

[skeets]

Aetna,,, I dont know up till now there has not been a problem. Im starting to wonder if politics is playing some part in this, I know thats out in left field, but the amount of money they make from people might be something, I dont know. And no its not an HMO I pay tripple what I was paying to health america because they no longer wanted to play with the government. And everybody that had HA had to switch over to another provider. Sooooo thats the name of that tune and I still have to pay my deductibles, so anyone that thinks retired govt employees got the world by the tail has no idea what they are talking about
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