Comments on: Your Stories

By: Shannon Player

Shannon Player — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:08:44 +0000

I have never been able to afford health care insurance. Luckily, I have been relatively healthy and haven't needed much over the years. However, now that I am 58, things are starting to change. I have some health problems and can't afford to see anyone as I don't have health coveage and at this point, am not taking care of my health as I am very low income and just don't have the money. This is very scary to me. Most of the problems need to be addresses now so they don't get worse. Please pass SB810, so people like me can affort to have our health care needs met.

By: Dapurchase

Dapurchase — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:03:37 +0000

I just could not believe what the receptionist was saying ,I had my teenage daughter with am who had been in a Major traffic accident .She obviously had bad whiplash I wanted to have her seen as soon as possible and X-rayed if needed .We have United healthcare as insurance .The receptionist said that We needed to pay up front as this is their policy with car crashes ,because its is considered part of our claim are claim .She did say that the NON profit Dominican Hospital will bill our insurance .
We had to drive another 30 min to seek health care. Urgent Care prefers not to see you because Insurance co tend to not pay medical expense for car crashes 'Its all “Part of Your Claim”. My daughter needs physical therapy .We were told that we will have to pay up front and fight to get reimbursed ,because this is a car accident .THis logic is so insane People deserve Medical care when they need it not when it is convenient for the insurance companies

By: david martin

david martin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:02:46 +0000

Pre-existing condition donut hole crisis every year with Medicare.

By: Bob Applebaum

Bob Applebaum — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:55:23 +0000

The for profit health insurance industry has pirated the Health Care for All-California website, healthcareforall.org. I called Hostmonster and Network Solutions, but they refused to check and see who ordered a change, either by mistake or as outright theft. Please correct this disaster!

By: marcia

marcia — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:07:39 +0000

February 1st I went to see my "primary care physician" at my home clinic to ask about two things:

• the infection under my nose that I had had for several months (this was my 2nd visit for it) and still had.

• the left ankle sprain that no matter what, would not heal. I was not treated, but told to live with it.

Two days ago, wearing athletic shoes, I was crossing the street in the crosswalk, when my left foot found a deep ridge in the road as I fell, feeling my ankle twist and snap as it gave way under me. Thanks to my friend, I was able to get up and get out of the middle of the street. As I'm sure you can guess, it is sprained again.

I was lucky enough to be with a good friend with a car, and after some getting food, (expecting there would be a long wait before being seen at the hospital) we drove off to SFGH ER. I have had to go to their ER one other time and they were fantastic and a great team considering the large volume of triage and lack of working equipment they are faced with.

The ER was extra crowded and the intake nurse directed me to the SFGH Urgent Care facility across the campus. My friend was lovely enough to drive me there and even wait with me for a while. After taking the deli service like number at the waiting room entrance, we were seen for intake shortly after arriving. The staff was clearly, over worked and stressed out; one of the smaller reasons became clear as soon as I asked for an ice pack for my ankle. They had no ice packs "please go and have a seat". It was about 5:30pm.

We waited, my friend left after an hour (after the beginning of the 2nd viewing of My Best Friend's Wedding), and bid me call him when I was ready to go or be moved. I was called in to see the Dr. around 8pm and it was decided that I needed an X-Ray. Understand that I cannot walk with any kind of stability or without pain, I am struggling to move about and have a fierce limp. The Dr. asks me how tall I am and then tells me to come back after getting the X-Ray.

Moments later the intake woman comes into my room with a set of crutches and asks me how tall I am. Once we get the crutches sized, I am told to get myself to X-Ray. X-Ray is 2 flights of stairs, uphill, about 3 blocks away, or out the back door, around the building, through a construction site and then 2 blocks away down the long hallway. Or, next door to the ER.

Once I arrived there and called in by the X-Ray tech, she promptly asked me where my wheelchair was. The conversation went like this:

XRT: Where is your wheelchair?

MW: What wheelchair?

XT: You have an ankle injury right?

MW: Yes I do.

XRT: Why do you have no wheelchair? You are supposed to have a wheelchair for ankle injury!
MW: I have no idea. They gave me crutches and told me to walk over here.

XRT: You walked over here? From Where?

MW: Urgent Care.

XRT: ER?

MW: No. Urgent Care over on 21st.

XRT: WHAT? You have an ankle injury right? And they gave you crutches?! And you walked all the way over here on crutches? No wheelchair?

MW: Yes.

XRT: They are not supposed to do that. They are supposed to give you a wheelchair. We hate them over there. They are the worst. Never go there. ER is better. You are supposed to have a wheelchair.

MW: Well, what can you do? Had to get here.

She agreed and very professionally X-Rayed my foot, looked at the films and said it was not broken (YAY!) and sent me on my way, bidding me "good luck and be careful".

Calling my friend to let him know that I'm off, back down the long hallway, through the lobby, out the door up and across the streets, back up the stairs and down the hallway to Urgent Care, getting to my seat about 9pm. My friend comes back and asks me where my wheelchair went. I point to the crutches. From there, I think we can figure out how that conversation went. It was then that we decided that after the fall, we should have just gone back to my house, where there were ice packs and I could have been off of it for the last 4 hours instead of walking around on it and letting it continue to swell.

Around 9:20pm the Dr. (nurse practitioner) came back and told me what I already knew, that it was not broken, but as to the soft tissue damage, it would be a good idea to get an MRI, but she can't prescribe that, I have to get that from my Primary Care Physician. (See the beginning of this story).

They wrap up my foot with an ace bandage (just like the one I have at home) and send me on my way with a medical report to give my Dr. that is unreadable. The nice nurse copied the original for me and sent me on my way with a prescription to:
Recline
Ice
Compression
Elevation

I could have gone home right after the fall and...well I said it already.

It is unacceptable to me that these clearly COMPETANT and hard working people are trying to do a good medical job in absurd circumstances. An Urgent Care facility with no ice packs? They are not expensive, and they are an URGENT CARE facility. Isn’t that the definition of urgent? They are there for NON-Emergency/immediate need for medical attention episodes. At a Grateful Dead show you can get an ice pack and a wheelchair, but not at a hospital Urgent Care facility. Thank God there is a task force for a compromised iPhone.

By: David Martin

David Martin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:34:57 +0000

I have an illness that requires constant care and medicine. I am on Medicare and disabled from my condition and pay a very large “share of cost” or “donut hole” every year that nearly bankrupts' me.

By: reverendscottdmaclachlan

reverendscottdmaclachlan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:25:14 +0000

While working Construction/Effects on HBO's "Deadwood" I sustained two debilitating stress (pars) fractures causing a 25% shift of my L4-L5 spine. I had just lost my Motion Picture Insurance six days earlier, and was denied any consult by Cast & Crew's insurer Zurich American Ins.
Workers' Compensation lawyers wouldn't take my case as I had an earlier lifting claim which was denied 12 days before these fractures, and because of the Governor Arnold's signing of SB-899 (Workers' Comp. Reform Bill) to keep businesses in California, and reduce litigation in W.C. cases.
Having no insurance, three months later I was forced to be examined by a state appointed Qualified Medical Evaluator (who also worked for insurance companies in jury trials as an "expert medical witness", an obvious conflict of interest which California allows.
This QME admitted in exam that my injury was new and required a spinal fusion, (comparing his new X-rays against my recent MRI) but he failed to order a CT scan, the next common Medical-Legal step to determine if my injury was pre-existing, or if fractures caused my injury.
In his report he suspiciously gave me a clean bill of health, said my condition was an exacerbation pre-existing, (covered by the State Labor Code, which he was admonished for) that there was no industrially caused disability, and that I could return to work.
Within one month of his fraudulently concealing, misleading, and contradictory report, my legs progressively began to spontaneously collapse (all during the next 15 months of my Workers' Comp. litigation).
In a preliminary Workers' Comp Appeals Board hearing, the judge ordered a second opinion, insisting it come from another Q.M.E., whose findings contradicted the first Q.M.E.'s findings.
At trial, the WCAB judge ordered the first Q.M.E. to write a rebuttal against the findings of the second opinion. The first Q.M.E. cited four records in his rebuttal, ALL ABOUT MY ANKLE. (Not my spinal injury in question).
The WCAB trial judge would ignore the DWC letter of admonishment, the rebuttal citing records about my ankle, eventually finding for the insurance company, and finding them free of any liability.
Within two months, neurosurgeons at LA County + USC would discover dual spinal (pars) fractures (proven to be caused by the work related injury) via a CT scan, which the first Q.M.E. should have ordered upon my initial exam.
I would undergo an emergency multi-level spinal fusion, which the first Q.M.E. recommended in exam, but omitted from his report.
Due to the delay in treatment/surgery, I underwent a second multi-level spinal fusion this past December, I am now permanently disabled, have half of my previous leg strength, legs which still collapse, and have lost everything, including our home of 20 years this past November, rendering my self, wife & two children homeless, dividing my family for two months until we finally found a landlord who would rent to us, considering our (now) poor credit after years of living day to day.
Many things have & continue to go terribly wrong, but had there been Single Payer, I'm convinced I wouldn't be sweating the monthly rent, now on a fixed income, one third of what I had made in the past.
I pray for the passage of Single Payer, so no one has to go through what my family has again.

By: marymccurnin

marymccurnin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:11:09 +0000

After two cancers, one heart surgery, and one intestinal bleed between my husband and myself in eighteen months we understand the horrors of the current “health care system”. Of course, we filed for bankruptcy but only after the first year. We never dreamed we would both get sick again.

By: susangentry

susangentry — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:12:13 +0000

This is the only place I could find to 'communicate! I have already contributed. I think health care is vital in America. I think we fail as a country if we don't. I've been to Europe and seen, first hand their programs; from Paris to Amsterdam etc….
I personally don't need to worry, but I worry as a part of America, and I find it unforgivable that people die, as we speak.

By: Margaret Sohar

Margaret Sohar — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:47:42 +0000

I've been a Physical therapist for over 40 yrs.My experience has been that due to weaknesses in the arch of ones feet a large # of people wear away their knee & or hip joints & are encouraged to get joint replacements esp. if they have good insurance as these procedures are a boon to the ” Industry” What the medical establishment is not so forthcoming with is the serious potential for problems. In countries with socialized medicine they might put such “elective” surgeries on a waiting list, instead of rushing people in to do one, even two knees, as they do here, before you have a chance to research other options or risks but, in my opinion, people shouldn't be rushing into such major procedures. My experience with socialized medicine is that everyone receives the medical care they truly need from dedicated, true professionals as opposed to profitable procedures being marketed. I totally support “Healthcare For All”and I mean all! In a true Democracy, everyone should be valued.