The LuLac Edition #1760, September 17th, 2011
PHOTO INDEX: OUR "INTERVIEW" LOGO.
INTERVIEW
Ever since my cancer operation, I have had to have my port flushed every six weeks. I’m keeping it for a while because I have notoriously bad veins. A few weeks ago I talked to a Health Care provider about the ebb and flow of patients coming into the lab for blood work.
Q: What are your busiest days?
A: Hard to say because it fluctuates.
Q: I know, I came here on a Monday the last time and there was no one here. Today it’s a Tuesday and it was jam packed. Is there a pattern?
A: Not anymore. As a matter of fact we are seeing a decrease in the number of routine and preventative cases. But an increase in more pressing, critical cases.
Q: Why is that?
A: I’ve been a nurse for 25 years and I’ve never seen it like this. The economy and the high cost of health care has a lot to do with it. You see two extremes, people here because they absolutely positively have to have something done.
Q: And the other?
A: Critical cases that are just right on the edge of disaster. These are people who didn’t show up because it was too expensive, they lost their jobs, they lost their insurance, they just put it off. And by putting it off they are nearly killing themselves, costing the hospital more money and then taking a gamble that it’ll work out.
Q: So there’s no one over using their insurance?
A: That’s such a crock. No one loves to go to the doctor!
Q: The conservatives will tell you that health care is not a right?
A: Yeah but they’ll tell you a fetus has a right to life but a normal, productive living and breathing human being down on their luck or holding out because a procedure might have to be paid over time or not paid at all has no right to good health. They are a really ****ed bunch if you ask me.
Q: Couldn’t have said it better.
A: I wish I was wrong. But I’m not. And that’s so sad.
posted by David Yonki @ 1:22 AM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Students, as one who knows many in the medical profession,I can certainly assure you that there are those who "like" to go to the doctor.
During one of my golf outings, a close friend who happens to be a physician lamented as to how his time was being wasted.
"Too many Medicare groupies [his words, class, not mine] come into the office with imaginary ailment after imaginary ailment. ANd to top it all off, I get a lot of 20 and 30 somethings who just want me to prescribe them vicodin or xanax. These are the ones on welfare".
AS I say, those are the words of a doctor, not mine.
When something is for nothing, people tend to line up. Theres an old saying, 'if they were giving excrement away for free there'd be a line a mile long'. How true this is.
This is not to say that I have no sympathy for the truly ill, however. I caution all, especially the youngsters, to care for your health.
Stop smoking the dope, drinking the beer and popping the ectasy.
And to the middle age crowd, perhaps if you drank less beer and had a healthier diet, you would not need silly Viagara to engage in lovemaking with your middle aged wife who is not as attractive as she was on your wedding day.
I have been around many years, and I have practiced what I preach, both politically and morally.
I have insurance provided by my University, I do not abuse it. I also earned it, by the way.
A word foreign to most in this class, but nevertheless, a word worth learning and also practicing.
Something to think about this cool afternoon.
Class DIsmissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Professor, please give us a break and go away for awhile. You give obnoxious a whole new meaning.
Yonk, you block some comments because they offend so I'm suggesting you block this jerk because he constantly offends.
Mom told me in the late 1960s when my aging grandmother needed someone to "listen" she went to the doctor, who listened. He gave her a shot of "Vitamin B" and told her she'll "be fine". My grandfather dutifully paid the bill.
Every doctor I know well enough to share beer and cigars with have told me similar stories Professor.
Between their overhead, the Feds, the State, the Insurance companies, the lawyers and those integrity-challenged patients I wonder how and why they continue - until they mention their school loans and debt level.
When I ask them why no one told them about these pitfalls the 60-somethings say it wasn't always like this. The 50-somethings felt they could handle it. The 40-somethings were promised "pharmacy company" grants and a business manager. Damn, I don't know any 30-somethings!
Off Topic: You don't have a right to FREE health care, do you? You have the inalienable rights and the Bill of Rights. Yeah, I know we can bend and stretch those but come on every right has a concomitant citizen responsibility that must be met to claim that right. Lets limit the use of the word before it gets diluted to meaninglessness.
Seems the man likes condemning people he doesn't even know or know anything ab about. Then wonders why people give rude and not very good remarks about him.
Are you for real? You really believe that seniors are so bored with life that they go to the doctor's office for enjoyment and recreation. You're one sick jerk and the world would not miss your absurd opinions if you stopped cluttering this blog with them.
What university is that perfesser?
The Disneyland School of the fantasy world you live in?
Please keep your lovemaking fantasies to yourself as well as your assinine comments, perfesser without portfolio or school affiliation.
Tired of this Ass and his remarks.
Health care is at a crossroads, and unless all involved make sincere & honest adjustments, there will be a faster downward spiral where decent healthcare will only be afforded to the wealthy. Premiums for healthcare keep going up, as well as the co-pays. Some doctors I go to lament the fact they are seeing less of their patients because the co-pays have increased to the point people can't afford to pay them, and forgo care. Welfare is a mess not only for healthcare but across the board, and steps need to be taken to prevent abuse, if anyone would have the balls to take on. Too many people/companies sucking at the tit to really reform it. Eldercare/medicare is a victim of the success of medical research, enabling us to live longer, but just as with an old car, the older you get, the more breakdowns occur. Also, too many doctors "game" the system, figuring out which diagnoses will pay more. Some rembursements are also too low, causing doctors to do the above. Drug costs are out of control, but a closer look is puzzling- How can my Insurance Co afford to have me pay a 10 dollar co-pay for a 3-month supply, if the mail-order company says that 3-month supply costs $500+, as a generic? Someone is lying about the costs here. And finally, For-Profit health care. Talk to anyone that works for Wilkes-Barre General lately? CHS is like working for Scrooge- They literally have their employees working like dogs, pushing them for more "productivity", yet cutting their benifits, and also, during what they consider "slow" times, sending full-time employees home, forcing them to either use their vacation time or no pay. During the recent flood emergency, hospital staffers volunteered to cover for other workers that could not make it in due to being in the flood, or unable to get to work due to roads being closed. Geisinger rewarded their volunteers with a monetary gift. WBGH gave their employees free ice cream. There is too much greed within the health care system. It's time to root it out.
Hey 6:56
The guys grandmother proves the professors point.
Think about high school when bored students would parade up to the guidance office to "talk". Yes I believe people do that because I SEE IT HAPPEN.
I might even take advantage of some boredom relief if and when it happens to me so consider the possibilites. Don't forget to pay attention to the signs around you...family and friends alike.
The Professor needs his own site where fools can follow his superior, holier than thou remarks.
"As one who knows many in the medical profession", its clear the Prof has serious issues and is no more a professor at a real school than a doctor or a gingerbread man.
There is nothing to be learned from this phantom and like 8:55, I'm tired of this Ass!
8:55 - I have to agree!
Hey professor, pay attention, the class is speaking and your tenure is revoked! Now go to your room and stay their till called and please don't hold your breath.
Here is a fact to add to the understanding of health care. I'm on Medicare and have private health insurance to cover what Medicare doesn't. Here is the kicker. Through Medicare and my private ins., I pay $6 for a generic prescription. Of course Medicare pays something toward that as does my price carrier. So a 3 month supply will cost me $18 ad Medicare and my supplement ins. also pays something. I go to the Weiss super market and use their in house pharmacy. A 90 day prescription costs me $9.99 and doesn't cost Medicare or my supplemental ins a penny. AND, the cost does not go toward my donut hole. Now you tell me what the true cost of medicine is. Our problem is the rip offs. If a doctor is found to be cheating medicare, he needs to go to jail, lose his license and as with drug dealers, lose his assets purchased with stolen money. Get stricter and watch the fraud stop.
I think it says volumes that you folks that are complaining about the professor do so because you don't like what he says (or you don't like him personally).
How about taking him on with irrefutable facts, figures, logic and rationale? The playground bully persona is wearing thin and does nothing to advance your argument.
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