Strongly agree. Last year, I had the misfortune of being sent to the ER for lightheadedness and confusion while hiking. All different doctors ran a battery of very expensive tests, none of which I was in any condition to consent to. They discovered nothing. Most of the time I spent on a bed in the hallway under piercing lights, being ignored, surrounded by such chaos that I had PTSD from it for months. Nobody was able to provide any form of tangible help. I got better on my own just resting for a few days.
That was only the beginning. I received dozens of singleton bills for the co-pay amounts for dozens of separate procedures and tests, which each arrived in my mailbox over a period of seven months. Seven months of surprise bills for various different things they did in a period of a couple of hours. The charges totalled in the thousands. And of course, for each separate charge, I got mail from both the insurance company and the hospital.
The net effect being that I received nothing except doctors saying "we see nothing wrong" and being sent home. But I had to endure finding surprise bills in the mail, and doing the paperwork to pay and file them, randomly for the next seven months. Every one a reminder of how a system took advantage of me while I was down and couldn't answer for myself.
I felt betrayed, like could not one person have the sensitivity and take the time to let me rest somewhere and feed me food and gatorade or something? And no matter how much I wanted to move on from it and get on with my life, I still had to face the bills streaming in like randomized salt rubbed into the wound.
Lesson: Take outstanding care of yourself at all times without fail. Don't have medical problems. If you do, have amazing health insurance.
Well buddy you'd be singing a different tune if the doctors discovered a medical issue and prevented you from dying.
If you were so lightheaded and confused that you were unable to be your own advocate and get yourself some fluids and food then you probably should have gone to the hospital. If you just let doctors talk you into it and you didn't think it was warranted then you have a problem with your assertion skills.
You're ignoring the very lucid point he's making. Why is that?
As a UK citizen I've never had to endure such nonsense around health. I don't know what's weirder, that such a crazy system was allowed to evolve or that people defend it.
I've had plenty of first and second hand experience with the american health care system and I am very aware that it's nowhere near ideal. This applies perhaps even more so in the area of mental health.
Still, I think the post I replied to above warrants criticism. Reading between the lines one might come to the conclusion that he went to the ER because he was out of shape.
That was only the beginning. I received dozens of singleton bills for the co-pay amounts for dozens of separate procedures and tests, which each arrived in my mailbox over a period of seven months. Seven months of surprise bills for various different things they did in a period of a couple of hours. The charges totalled in the thousands. And of course, for each separate charge, I got mail from both the insurance company and the hospital.
The net effect being that I received nothing except doctors saying "we see nothing wrong" and being sent home. But I had to endure finding surprise bills in the mail, and doing the paperwork to pay and file them, randomly for the next seven months. Every one a reminder of how a system took advantage of me while I was down and couldn't answer for myself.
I felt betrayed, like could not one person have the sensitivity and take the time to let me rest somewhere and feed me food and gatorade or something? And no matter how much I wanted to move on from it and get on with my life, I still had to face the bills streaming in like randomized salt rubbed into the wound.
Lesson: Take outstanding care of yourself at all times without fail. Don't have medical problems. If you do, have amazing health insurance.