Hah! US medical coverage at its best!

[Krikit 1,165]

Hubby (USC) says he's never heard of anything like this and thinks it's just New Haven.. but HALLOOOO this is home of Yale - home of a HUGE medical teaching hospital.. c'mon folks.. get some fresh blood in here to practice

Oh. Was that intentional?

[Emancipation 2]

Hubby (USC) says he's never heard of anything like this and thinks it's just New Haven.. but HALLOOOO this is home of Yale - home of a HUGE medical teaching hospital.. c'mon folks.. get some fresh blood in here to practice

Oh. Was that intentional?

If it's funny it ... er was

[Carlawarla 1]

I never had problems with getting a Dr.'s appointment. I actually had the same Dr. for 26 years, and Dentist...so I wasn't too happy having to leave them. You know, except for the second birth of my child, when I had to have another C-section, I've never seen any specialist in my whole life. Neither did my ex, neither did my children. Personally, when I saw the amount of "specialist's" in St. Louis, I thought hmmm, no wonder people have trouble finding a family physician! Franky I think they're overrated and used FAR too much. Give me a good ol' GP anyday.

Love the Dr. I found here, within a mile from my place, and she's a D.O. as well as an M.D.! I'm so lucky I found her.

[bowflex 0]

I will take the Canadian medical system over the US medical system any day of the week. In the meantime, yeah, take me to the vet!

In the end it has everything to do with where in the country you are. When my wife lived in Windsor she could never get an appointment without first waiting at least 3 months, then the doctor would refer her to a specialist and that'd be another few months. I live 45 minutes away from where she was in Michigan and I've never waited for more than two days.

[thetreble 19]

When my wife lived in Windsor she could never get an appointment without first waiting at least 3 months, then the doctor would refer her to a specialist and that'd be another few months.

Hm, I don't want to say this isn't true or anything and neither do I want to stick up for Canadian heath care because I have seen its downfalls, but I have never heard of someone in the US or Canada waiting 3 months to see their family doctor. At the most, I waited 2-3 weeks in my life. I don't see why in Windsor it would have been any different unless your wife never had a family doctor or was in between family doctors when we had that huge crisis of many of our Family Docs going to the US because of $$$.

[SonoranSongbird 3]

Personally, when I saw the amount of "specialist's" in St. Louis, I thought hmmm, no wonder people have trouble finding a family physician! Franky I think they're overrated and used FAR too much. Give me a good ol' GP anyday.

Yep, that's a HUUUUGE problem here! (And by "here" I mean St Louis, though I doubt it's unique.) I go to an out-of-network family doc because there are so few in network to choose from. If you are a doctor with all those med school loans, what are you going to do? Practice family medicine in the Metro East or be a specialist in a St. Louis hospital?

I would say having to wait more than a day or two for an appointment with a GP once you have a regular doctor is very much the exception to the rule in the US, at least in my experience.

(I had CIGNA prior to this)

Okay, this is off topic, but I have CIGNA now and was thinking of switching next open enrollment. My doctor is out of network so instead of having a nice little $10 copay, I get to wait for them to bill the insurance company, and then pay the remaining balance, which is usually about $52 (for a basic office visit). Did you switch because they sucked or because of changing jobs? I'm just curious. I can't really decide wither to switch to one of the other plans, look for a new doctor, or just suck it up and be glad any hospital bills would be covered because there is only one local hospital so that HAS to be in-network (you know, unless you want good care, in which case you go across the river to St Louis.....).

[thetreble 19]

Personally, when I saw the amount of "specialist's" in St. Louis, I thought hmmm, no wonder people have trouble finding a family physician! Franky I think they're overrated and used FAR too much. Give me a good ol' GP anyday.

Yep, that's a HUUUUGE problem here! (And by "here" I mean St Louis, though I doubt it's unique.) I go to an out-of-network family doc because there are so few in network to choose from. If you are a doctor with all those med school loans, what are you going to do? Practice family medicine in the Metro East or be a specialist in a St. Louis hospital?

I would say having to wait more than a day or two for an appointment with a GP once you have a regular doctor is very much the exception to the rule in the US, at least in my experience.

(I had CIGNA prior to this)

Okay, this is off topic, but I have CIGNA now and was thinking of switching next open enrollment. My doctor is out of network so instead of having a nice little $10 copay, I get to wait for them to bill the insurance company, and then pay the remaining balance, which is usually about $52 (for a basic office visit). Did you switch because they sucked or because of changing jobs? I'm just curious. I can't really decide wither to switch to one of the other plans, look for a new doctor, or just suck it up and be glad any hospital bills would be covered because there is only one local hospital so that HAS to be in-network (you know, unless you want good care, in which case you go across the river to St Louis.....).

I switched because I got a new job. To be honest though I did not like cigna at all. My husband was paying $320 a month and our copays were still ridiculous.

[Texanadian 10]

I haven't been too thrilled with my wife's health care here in the US (she's the American)

For $1100/month she has a PPO health care plan. She pays $200/month, her company pays the rest. It's a 3K deductible and a 5K max out of pocket PPO. She went in for a thyroid scan. About a week later we get the results back in the mail. CANCER! As the tears roll down her eyes, I looked at the paperwork. Ummm, dear? This is somebody else's result. They sent the wrong one.

So her results finally get sorted out. She needs to go in for surgery at the hospital. Trying to get a price estimate from the hospital is hard because they won't give a price until they're 4 weeks or less away from the surgery date. So she goes in for the surgery, stays overnight, I bring her home. Now try and get ahold of the doctor or any of his nurses. Seems like he went on vacation for 2 weeks afterwords.

So on week 3 post surgery, she finally gets in to see him. He asks her if she's had any tests run. Huh? How am I supposed to do that when I can't get a hold of you and you haven't ordered any tests?

So a month later, she goes in for another follow up check on all her thyroid levels, vitamin levels, calcium. She waited for 2.5 hours in the doctor's room for the doctor (appointment was at 1:30 PM). At 4, she asks the nurse how much longer it will be. Oh the doctor is still seeing morning patients. He still has 3-4 more to see first.....This isn't some cheap HMO clinic in the poor part of town. It's a pretty ritzy clinic. So my wife cancels and leaves. The nurse asked if she wanted to reschedule. Can you promise me that I won't have to wait for 2.5 hours? We can't promise that.

Last time she was at the doctor's office, she was asking for her calcium level results. The nurse said mmmm, they're good. Yes but what are the actual levels? Her doctor won't prescribe the thyroid pills that my wife wants. Only the worse kind. And he's a cheap ####### on renewing her Vitamin D prescription (4 pills? #######?)

About the only good thing with her doctor's office is that they do X-rays and blood work in the office as part of the $30 co-pay. I told her when she finally got home that when I lived in Canada they had signs in the doctor's office asking people to schedule for multiple appointments if they had lots of things for the doctor to check out. That way the docs could keep their time schedules prompt.

Edited August 19, 2008 by Texanadian

[Reba 2]

I switched because I got a new job. To be honest though I did not like cigna at all. My husband was paying $320 a month and our copays were still ridiculous.

I'd take Cigna any day over the crappy Wellpath program I've got now!

But that still wouldn't get us any GPs in this town. They keep leaving to go elsewhere, so any time either my husband or I have to make an appointment at the clinic, there's only PAs available, because there's only one MD left there.

And I know more people who were almost killed by the local hospital than I know who've actually been helped there. Its a scary scary place I tell ya! Yeah, I'd rather go to the vet too. She's nice. And she calls the next day to follow up. We just switched vets actually, the last one turned out to be an idiotic xenophobe. Which was kind of annoying, considering

[aravis227 1]

I haven't been too thrilled with my wife's health care here in the US (she's the American)

For $1100/month she has a PPO health care plan. She pays $200/month, her company pays the rest. It's a 3K deductible and a 5K max out of pocket PPO. She went in for a thyroid scan. About a week later we get the results back in the mail. CANCER! As the tears roll down her eyes, I looked at the paperwork. Ummm, dear? This is somebody else's result. They sent the wrong one.

So her results finally get sorted out. She needs to go in for surgery at the hospital. Trying to get a price estimate from the hospital is hard because they won't give a price until they're 4 weeks or less away from the surgery date. So she goes in for the surgery, stays overnight, I bring her home. Now try and get ahold of the doctor or any of his nurses. Seems like he went on vacation for 2 weeks afterwords.

So on week 3 post surgery, she finally gets in to see him. He asks her if she's had any tests run. Huh? How am I supposed to do that when I can't get a hold of you and you haven't ordered any tests?

So a month later, she goes in for another follow up check on all her thyroid levels, vitamin levels, calcium. She waited for 2.5 hours in the doctor's room for the doctor (appointment was at 1:30 PM). At 4, she asks the nurse how much longer it will be. Oh the doctor is still seeing morning patients. He still has 3-4 more to see first.....This isn't some cheap HMO clinic in the poor part of town. It's a pretty ritzy clinic. So my wife cancels and leaves. The nurse asked if she wanted to reschedule. Can you promise me that I won't have to wait for 2.5 hours? We can't promise that.

Last time she was at the doctor's office, she was asking for her calcium level results. The nurse said mmmm, they're good. Yes but what are the actual levels? Her doctor won't prescribe the thyroid pills that my wife wants. Only the worse kind. And he's a cheap ####### on renewing her Vitamin D prescription (4 pills? #######?)

About the only good thing with her doctor's office is that they do X-rays and blood work in the office as part of the $30 co-pay. I told her when she finally got home that when I lived in Canada they had signs in the doctor's office asking people to schedule for multiple appointments if they had lots of things for the doctor to check out. That way the docs could keep their time schedules prompt.

It sucks that she has had to go through that. However...the things you're describing have nothing to do with healthcare in the US and have everything to do with the specific doctor your wife has been seeing. I've heard equally frustrating and horrible stories about people trying to see doctor's in Canada. If you get a good doctor, you're set and happy...if you get a doctor who is inefficient and over-books...it sucks. If I were her I would seriously consider checking out other doctors...it sounds like the one she is seeing is pretty ridiculous!

[Marilyn. 340]

oh that reminds me of one time hubby had to go see a specialist..

we had to make the appointment after hubby was done work so we hit traffic on the way to the doctor's office so it took us over 30 minutes to get there..

we got ushered into the examining room pretty quickly but then we proceeded to wait thier for like 30 to 40 minutes when finally this lady and an intern or something came in and did a quick check and left saying the doctor would be in soon..

so we sat there and sat there for like another hour I think finally I told hubby that I had to go pee so I went out .. I walked down the hall to the bathroom and glanced into a room where I saw the doctor and the lady sitting in there chatting they kind of glanced at me as I walked past.. as I continued on my way I noticed that the office was basically empty and I saw the cleaning person's cart.... so I went to the bathroom and came back to the room and lo and behold the doctor was there.... he kind of mumbled sorry and said he had been busy or something.. I can't quite remember now... and I was thinking yeah right you forgot we were there... I keep wondering how long we would have waited there if I hadn't had to go to the bathroom

it took us even longer to get home because people were heading home from work....

*****************************

oh and when hubby went for his surgery they said it would be a like 3 or 4 hours and that they would call me as soon as the surgery was finished.. so I had to go wait in the very uncomfortable waiting room along with everybody else... oh and you had to let the desk know you were their so they could let you know when the surgeries were over etc...

so I was waiting there and saw person after person getting called to the desk and finding out their loved one had made it out of surgery and then they would get called an hour or so later letting them know they could go see them...

anyways, 3 or 4 hours went by and I hadn't heard a thing so I finally went to the desk to ask and they did a quick check and didn't find his name on the surgery list... and that they hadn't gotten a call yet so I should just wait...

so I waited another few hours and by this time I was getting really worried that something had gone wrong.. his surgery was at 8 am and it was now around 3:30pm... finally they called my name and said I could go up to see my hubby... and I was thinking , hey why hadn't I been called to let me know he was out of surgery ...

so I get to the room and give my hubby a hug and he tells me that as soon as he woke up he asked the nurses to call me and they said no, you need to rest a little longer... and I was like #######? they could have just called to let me know he was ok... hubby said the surgery had only been around 3 hours or so...

Edited August 19, 2008 by *Marilyn*

[aravis227 1]

oh and when hubby went for his surgery they said it would be a like 3 or 4 hours and that they would call me as soon as the surgery was finished.. so I had to go wait in the very uncomfortable waiting room along with everybody else... oh and you had to let the desk know you were their so they could let you know when the surgeries were over etc...

so I was waiting there and saw person after person getting called to the desk and finding out their loved one had made it out of surgery and then they would get called an hour or so later letting them know they could go see them...

anyways, 3 or 4 hours went by and I hadn't heard a thing so I finally went to the desk to ask and they did a quick check and didn't find his name on the surgery list... and that they hadn't gotten a call yet so I should just wait...

so I waited another few hours and by this time I was getting really worried that something had gone wrong.. his surgery was at 8 am and it was now around 3:30pm... finally they called my name and said I could go up to see my hubby... and I was thinking , hey why hadn't I been called to let me know he was out of surgery ...

so I get to the room and give my hubby a hug and he tells me that as soon as he woke up he asked the nurses to call me and they said no, you need to rest a little longer... and I was like #######? they could have just called to let me know he was ok... hubby said the surgery had only been around 3 hours or so...

Ugh...I HATE the surgery waiting room! My youngest brother has a bone disorder and has had several major surgeries (including a distraction...picture the surgery they do to stretch people's limbs where you have to turn the screws every day to make them a little bit longer...only they did it on his upper jaw)...he's 13 and we're really close, so I've taken time off work to be at the hospital with him and my mom on all of them. It's horrible sitting in that room just waiting for them to come back and tell you something. The worst is the little room that the put you into if the surgery isn't going well. We got sent in there two surgeries ago and the surgeon came in and had clearly just thrown a second pair of scrubs over the first one and there was blood soaking through. Everything ended up alright, but that was a really scary several hours.

[SonoranSongbird 3]

And I know more people who were almost killed by the local hospital than I know who've actually been helped there. Its a scary scary place I tell ya! Yeah, I'd rather go to the vet too. She's nice. And she calls the next day to follow up.

That's what everyone says about the one and only local hospital here, too. Part of it is we have a big city with a medical school right across the river and that is where all the doctors want to go, for obvious reasons.

I like my vet a lot better than any of the local doctors I've found, too. My dog even didn't mind going to the vet (because they would always pet her and give her treats and there were so many wonderful animal smells in the waiting room---and rabbits for her to try to chase when we walk along the bike path next to the vet's office after her visit) but then she had surgery and now she's a little wary.

[Mephys 2]

Just to pitch it in...

I am currently sick at home from a severe GI infection since last friday.

After seeing 2 doctors in 2 days, they got some samples from me. Well they cannot tell me what I have until Saturday, that's when the results are coming in. Problem is they are suspecting a parasite called Giardia (found in the water in some rivers, creeks, and in pets that get it from drinking that kind of water) because I am exposed to it at work.

Giardia result in human medicine: 2 days

Giardia result in veterinary medicine: 10 minutes

I understand that in human medicine they have to do some cultures to determine what kind of bacteria is the cause, but for that parasite it;s not a culture but an antigen test....anyhow...its crazy

[SonoranSongbird 3]

I am currently sick at home from a severe GI infection since last friday.

I hope you are feeling better soon! Giardia's nasty.