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American health care

Don selleck

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A friend of mine has had a heart condition for about 10 years or so, constantly going to the doctor for blood tests check ups etc at least once a month, and taking aspirin every day. for what I can understand of it. Well I stopped by his shop to let him know I should have my car running by january range so he can move it around his paint shop to do the outside paint blending for the trunk and tail pan replacement I did. Well he said he would do it if he was still alive when he got back from his European lifetime dream vacation with his wife. he was feeling pretty bad for the last 4 months or so, doctors could not figure out what was wrong with his heart. He said they always detected blood in his urine. Well to sum it up without the wall of text, when he got off the plane in Venice Italy, he said he was turning grey and could barely stand up. So he went to the e.r. and they got him stabilized, found out he was 7 pints of blood low, the doctors found out he had a peptic ulcer that has been bleeding for years, they performed surgery down though his throat and cauterized the ulcer and refilled his blood supply. I saw him yesterday and he said he hasn't felt this good in years, his blood pressure was back to normal along with his heart burn being gone. This is just one stories of how incompetent, and capitalistic the health care system the health system has become here, (at least in Michigan). Have had a few friends die here way sooner than they should have with some questionable actions by physicians. Wondering if this happens in your state, town etc.
 
A friend of mine has had a heart condition for about 10 years or so, constantly going to the doctor for blood tests check ups etc at least once a month, and taking aspirin every day. for what I can understand of it. Well I stopped by his shop to let him know I should have my car running by january range so he can move it around his paint shop to do the outside paint blending for the trunk and tail pan replacement I did. Well he said he would do it if he was still alive when he got back from his European lifetime dream vacation with his wife. he was feeling pretty bad for the last 4 months or so, doctors could not figure out what was wrong with his heart. He said they always detected blood in his urine. Well to sum it up without the wall of text, when he got off the plane in Venice Italy, he said he was turning grey and could barely stand up. So he went to the e.r. and they got him stabilized, found out he was 7 pints of blood low, the doctors found out he had a peptic ulcer that has been bleeding for years, they performed surgery down though his throat and cauterized the ulcer and refilled his blood supply. I saw him yesterday and he said he hasn't felt this good in years, his blood pressure was back to normal along with his heart burn being gone. This is just one stories of how incompetent, and capitalistic the health care system the health system has become here, (at least in Michigan). Have had a few friends die here way sooner than they should have with some questionable actions by physicians. Wondering if this happens in your state, town etc.
:thumbsup: I could go on & on about it,
but this is the GD forum not political

I'm glad your friend is doing better, it's amazing what a actual good dr. can do
most aren't good dr's

just like mechanics aren't mostly good either

Insurance fraud & corruption, greed
Dr.'s taking kickbacks from drug RX companies, to suggest & prescribe their meds...
It's rampant in the US, all for insurance crap

ACA just made it was worse, back in 2015 (IIRC)
"we have to pass it to read it"
nonsense
Medical insurance alone has gone up like 125%-200% too,
so much for affordable care act

Dr's are just people mechanics,
it's surprising how many misdiagnosed my dad for decades on end

wrong meds, very expensive meds I may add
billing the insurance & he paid the 20%-40% copay on top of that
he had great private insurance, it's not great healthcare

A young lady dr. in the local ER, Adventist Heath Sonora, found what was wrong,
in like 20 min.s, he was on the operating table, scheduled for 3 days later,
Cardiologist Dr. Lui from Modesto Doctors Hospital, down in the valley 1.5 hr away
Surgery for 5 hrs, a quadruple bypass & a pigs valve, in ICU for detox for 7 days
to control his withdrawls after, he had to go to a rehab center for 3 months
to learn to eat & walk again, he was under for so long it messed him up bigtime
But;
has given him life for another 6-7 years
he's 88, be 89 in Feb.
he's skinny as hell, but not 6' under
weighs like 130#s, he was 185#s when he had the surgery, wasn't fat
he was in good shape, except his heart...

most of it was caused from alcohol, a qt a day every day, rotgut crap
he was in complete denial all the way too

Sadly
He now rarely moves from the recliner now, except to go empty his catheter bag
'&/or' belly up to the table to eat (like a bird), remote in hand while he's awake
12+ hrs daily
At least he' still alive...
I often wonder what if they diagnosed it earlier
him not suffer countless lil' heart attacks, over the years
minor stroke while in the ER, triggered the tests
& he had COPD from smoking when he was a kid until 40-ish
not Asthma, & he had advanced induced alcoholcardioacropathy (spell ? something like that)
heart disease
Not asthma like the POS dr. he had diagnosed,
that loser didn't even know about dad's heart, freaken' quack
& dad had went to him since 1980
different meds for each, he was on for 30+ years too, expensive meds I may add

there's an old adage from a 'communist leader' Lennon, that says,
you can control the population, by controlling their healthcare

Bingo !!

that's exactly what is going on today
fearmongering, not healthcare, it's not care 'it's insurance',
very expensive one/govt. user ins.
 
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Q: What do you call a medical student that graduates with a C average?

A: Doctor

***
I'm glad your friend is so much better. I hope he finds new medical professionals for his health care.
 
Q: What do you call a medical student that graduates with a C average?

A: Doctor

***
I'm glad your friend is so much better. I hope he finds new medical professionals for his health care.
Q; or that barely even passes, medical school

A; still a Doctor
 
Q; or that barely even passes, medical school

A; still a Doctor
I’ve put this up before, I was horrified when I went to law school 45 years ago, medical student living in married student housing next to me said same deal in his profession. I graduated bottom of my class while driving the truck to pay for it, can’t tell the good ones by class rank alone, but it’s an indicator. Best ones are smart, but rich parents backing them enable the focus for them to get really good.
 
Glad your friend is better. Would you like to see my shocked face about our USA doctors. Its an f-in joke and they are thieves.
 
Probably pointless of me to add facts, but, what the h...
I was a private practice FP, then USAF doc, flight surgeon, then "hospital commander" at 3 bases. In every job I have also worked the ER. I was in the VA for 5years, the demonstably best health care SYSTEM, in the world, by any measure. I also worked forBlue Cross as a "denial doc". My role was to apply evidence, and I was never asked to approve or deny on a fiscal basis.
Your friend was a victim of "confirmation bias" one of my personal limitations as a doc: we tend to focus on elements that confrim our first hypothesis, and ignore the other soft signals. Hundreds of tousands of $ were spent on him, and Medicare pait it ALL, I will bet. Fine by me, if he lives a few years longer.
Just a few facts:
1. The ACA was passed to afford some in surance to MEDICAID folks primarily the working poor, or about 12-15% of our population. It excludes illegal immigrants.(MediCARE is elderly payments at age 65) ACA has offered access and more importantly, reassurance to milliions, and consumed huge, unjustifiable, political energy to amend or kill it. One of my war heroes, John McCain, saved it with his single Senator veto. Be thankful he did.
2.HC costs have always outpaced general inflation. Just yesterday I read an anlalyisis of the cause of current increases: basically more consumption of all HC compared with pre-Covid, and drug costs.
3. When I was in practice, drug company "rep"s would visit, try to persuade us to chaange to their branded, patented version, and leave lots of samples, which we gave to our poorer patients. Nwadays, it is considered ethically unacceptable. I teach at OHSU med school ,and the students are wary of any conflict of interest.
4. One major fl\aw in ACA was to continue the Congressional prohibitiion of Medicare to negotiate reduced prices with drug companies. Obama compromised to obtain Republican votes on this. (The DoD and VA always had authority to negotiate!). Trump and Biden have essentially cancelled this restriction.
5. Our entire non-system suffers from over-pay of everybody, Docs, RN, administrator, as compared with any other nation. I gave up 40% annual income to leave private practice and re-join the USAF.
6. Despite spending far more of GDP around 18%, I think, as compared with 9% in the (evil, socialist) National Health Service in UK. Brits live far longer than Yanks.
7. It is normal to generalize based on anectotes, like your unlucky alcoholic buddy. It is difficult to asses your doc or local providers, as to their outcomes.
can go on line and compare hospitals, and should before selecting one.
GW McCarthy MD MBA
63 SF vert!
 
I could tell you about the excellent free health care I have received over the years, here in Ontario, but it might be perceived as political.
 
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