Okay, so Dr. Skull has these scrapes on his toes that aren't healing, so we went to our primary care person, who referred us to Wound Care (who knew that was a thing). Wound Care contacted me this morning to tell me they couldn't fit us in for three weeks, and maybe not then. It depends on our insurance, they said. I told them what insurance we have, but they aren't the insurance person, so they had no idea if Mercy takes our insurance, or if our insurance will approve Wound Care.
I asked them what I should do. They advised me to call our primary care person again. So I did. But they don't work on Fridays.
I foresee a trip to the ER in our future.
Good thing we don't have that evil socialized medicine, I guess.
6 comments:
I'm sorry about Dr. Skull.
Whenever you are in the mood, could you explain how he got the name "Dr. Skull"? I understand the Dr. part, but not the Skull.
He used to teach poetry workshop at my university, and one semester he gave all his students heavy metal names, and they gave him one in return -- Dr. Skull.
I don't want to burst your bubble, but in countries with socialized medicine you would still have issues of wait times and gatekeeping, just not by an insurance company. You would still be denied services or made to wait weeks/months. I'm not saying it wouldn't be better -- it certainly would! but it would not solve everything.
Not my point, though.
The argument that gets made, here in this country where we pay thousands and thousands of dollars a year to insurance companies and doctors and hospitals, is that it's worth the price because we have such great health care.
Specifically, the argument is that we don't have to wait months/years to be seen by a doctor here, so it's worth the price.
Yet every time I've tried to see a doctor, except at the ER, or taken my spouse or kid to see a doctor, the wait is weeks/months, at the very least. Sometimes, as when my kid had surgery, it is more than a year.
It may be true that in other countries there are similar waits, but at least there, people don't have to pay thousands of dollars -- or go bankrupt, as I did -- on top of the wait.
In this case, Dr. Skull has wounds that may become necrotic, requiring amputation of his toes or feet, if we have to wait weeks and weeks, and the *reason* we have to wait so long is that the wound care specialist needs that long to get approval from the insurance company -- the one I pay thousands of dollars a year to; the one that only covers 80% of the cost, and only after we pay a $1500.00 deductible.
No one is saying socialized medicine is a silver bullet. What we're saying is that it would be better than this.
Would it it possible a podiatrist would be able to help with less of a wait?Good luck.
I mean, maybe. But in the American health care system, we can't just go to a specialist. First we have to go to the primary care doctor, who then puts in a referral. Ours referred us to wound care. If we could get back in to see her, maybe we could get her to refer us to a podiatrist, but (a) the wait to see her is now a month long and (b) no one is answering the phones there anyway.
American health care! The best in the world!
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