• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

American health care

Don selleck

FBBO Gold Member
FBBO Gold Member
Local time
4:01 PM
Joined
Aug 6, 2014
Messages
2,962
Reaction score
5,674
Location
michigan
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, some really not very good
(I have siblings Dr.s 2) in my family, an older sister (she's a large animal veterinarian now)
& an aunt, & also 2 others that are psychology or psychiatrics, actually 3, 1 doesn't practice
an older sister she's an accountant & former D) politician, then there's the former stepmother 'fatty Patty',
worthless oxygen waster & my younger stepbrother Mark, from the Navy, Stanford grad. after
he's a smart SOB, classic overachiever, yeah he's better then the rest, but I know him way too well,
you can't/couldn't even pay me to go to either of them 2, for any type of treatments, ever)

it's surprising how many Dr's misdiagnosed/wrong to many, many people,
it's far too commonplace & especially, my dad for decades on end...


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

There's a great reason for Medical Malpractice Insurance

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, after a second opinion/consultation
with another cardiologist/specialist, he was scheduled for surgery, for 3 days later,
Cardiologist Dr. Lui from Modesto Doctors Hospital, down in the valley 1.5+ hr away...
In 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
so was his Dr. Anderson, who told him it wasn't bad for him to still drink :icon_fU:
(he's in prison now, 10 years, for hit & running someone off the road (probably drunk too),
left the scene of an acciedent, the 2 people in the car died & was a Dr.
)

Sadly
He/Dad 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 or correctly to begin with
& for 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.
 
Last edited:
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!
 
Drs. I like my GP , specialists well its a crap shoot.
Double Hernia surgery went fine, joint removal and fusion in my big toe went fine.
The Turp surgery on coring out my prostate had to be done twice.
That guy I don't like.
 
So far, my health needs have been met very well, thank you very much!!!
VA, Tri-Care for Life, and a dental supplement through the VA to help with that. Had some surgeries...two nose repairs, Lymphoma removals...2...and Peroted Tumor of my left Salivery Gland... non-malignant. Cataract removal and replacement lens in my right eye, with the left next. Routine physicals twice yearly, and meds are maintained by me and the VA. Nice, I do not have to pay for my meds at all, nor any medical procedures needed. Granted, there are some not-so-competent Docs out there that actually shouldn't be practicing medicine, and the influx of foreign broken English-speaking doctors makes the health care and the system not so great, IMHO. But still, the patient must take a proactive approach to their own health care, become informed as to what, where, when, and why, plus what is causing this or that, rather than totally relying upon the Doctor's advice, as many a time, the advice is controversial. I gave up tobacco 25 plus years ago, and cut way back on my alcohol consumption to a bare minimum, as both are really not very good for one, yet I do enjoy my couple of cocktails in the evening at times while fixing my dinner. I now avoid any and all take-out food as it isn't the best for anyone these days. At 76 years young, I refuse to let the old aging mentality creep in and strive to be living a healthy life, getting good sleep of 6 1/2 to 8 plus hours a night, and at times a quick power nap, while also practicing good hygiene, which keeps the ol' body for the most part going strong...cr8crshr/Bill:usflag::usflag::usflag:
 
Good to hear someone figured out what was going on and fixed it. If I didn't get fixed up within a reasonable time I would ask for a second opinion. I kind of did that with my heart surgery. The local hospital does fairly good work but they don't do minimally invasive surgery. I asked to go to The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Mn. and had a good and successful experience and surgery. Just sayin' If you're not getting results, get a second opinion.
 
I just turned 58, I eat healthy take no medication, all good had a great doctor I finally found about 5 years ago that was a car guy too made it cool to go to the doctor, almost. I was in a MDVIP program ($1200 plus a year on top of insurance) where they do more checks, with full body ekgs, lung test ,stress tests etc. every six months. Well unfortunately he retired and another guy took over from a neighboring health system. He ended up dropping half of the tests, The new nurse went to do the ekg test with the sticky pick ups for the wires to connect to, she was fumbling with the wire and never connected them, she says you can go ahead and remove the pick ups never did the test. so when I return in a few weeks with the blood results etc. I tell him she never connected the wires he said well what is this he had some results from somewhere and acted like I was full of sheet or something. Currently looking for a new doctor there hard to find one that actually cares around here.
 
The problem is the greed of capitalism got into the US Healthcare system. Milking every dime from sick and elderly. It wasn't like this 30 years or so ago. Our hospital then would have fund raisers with small carnivals to raise funds for what ever was needed. Today? That same hospital has built a 2nd hospital and a large mental health complex in just the last 10 years. So much so county building inspectors are still booked 1 year out.

Where did they get that kind of money? By fleesing those that are most vulnerable. All medical institutions should be nonprofit. Individuals can charge what the market bares, but the institutions behind them like hospitals. And medical insurance companies. Nonprofit

Once they smell "Profit?' The fleecing begins.
 
Good to hear someone figured out what was going on and fixed it. If I didn't get fixed up within a reasonable time I would ask for a second opinion. I kind of did that with my heart surgery. The local hospital does fairly good work but they don't do minimally invasive surgery. I asked to go to The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Mn. and had a good and successful experience and surgery. Just sayin' If you're not getting results, get a second opinion.
Great news that he's better!!

I agree with Mike, it works like this, with everyone I do business with. You do your job and I'll do mine. First, remember all doctors are just like anyone, human, not God. If he can't do the job, we have a discussion and I move on. I've told my doctors practicing medicine is fine, but not on me. They laugh, but they get it. Sounds rude, so is not fixing someone and getting paid just the same. They bury their mistakes. I'm an open book and make no apologies for it.

Took off work an hour early for a dentist appointment years ago. Sat there for over an hour and got up and told the receptionist I was leaving. She said it wouldn't be more than another 15 minutes. I told her, the dentist owed me for one hour of work and left. I got a call from the dentist later and I told her, you overbooking to make sure your day is full is not going to cost me money, you're not worth it! She apologized and said I was right and it would never happen again. It didn't and the next check up was free.
 
Good to hear someone figured out what was going on and fixed it. If I didn't get fixed up within a reasonable time I would ask for a second opinion. I kind of did that with my heart surgery. The local hospital does fairly good work but they don't do minimally invasive surgery. I asked to go to The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Mn. and had a good and successful experience and surgery. Just sayin' If you're not getting results, get a second opinion.
I had a similar experience, further down the food chain, when my primary care doctor of 15 years retired six years ago. She was thorough, and could always tie lab results to what was going on in my daily routine. Shortly before retiring, she put me on daily low dose aspirin, called for by the algorithm her corporate employer used for males my age.

Doctor who replaced her ran full labs on me as a new patient, came up with low hemoglobin. I questioned the aspirin use. He blew me off, ran two more batteries of lab work, and was about to refer me to a specialist. Fate stepped in - I was due for a DOT physical the next month. New doc had previously done my DOTs, but he was booked three months out. So I scheduled a newer doctor who had an opening. During the DOT exam a week later, I asked the new doc about the aspirin issue. She said it was probably causing the hemoglobin issue. I asked if she was accepting new patients, and switched to her as my primary care provider that day.

Six months later, she ran follow up blood counts, and the hemoglobin was normal. My wife switched to her as well, a month later.
 
Yeah.....unfortunately you have to be able to "outsmart" even the most revered professionals in today's times, and be capable of basically doing their job for them.
They are more concerned about liability, and what conforms to the "normal" treatment plans.

Fortunately, my doctor does listen and adjusts accordingly.
Unfortunately until about 2 years ago, I had assumed he was at least 5 if not 10 years younger than me.
Turns out, I'm 57, he's 61!
I really don't know what I will do when he retires.

I am a poster child for "doesn't ft the norm" on almost everything in my life, including medical history.
I developed type I diabetes before medical science ever recognized that was possible, and I have a 1 in 250,000 condition that requires I take a nutritional supplement daily for the rest of my life.
The specialist that treated me for that, is a bit of an "outside the box" thinker, as well.....thankfully.
 
Anymore I treat the medical "professionals"? like a general grease monkey. That diploma on your wall doesn't mean you actually learned how to treat people just because you copied off someone else's homework. Lots of dumb, lazy "pro's" out there. When all they want to do is throw meds at you instead of figuring out what the problem is, and using their head for something besides a hat rack, it's time to find another "mechanic". Why is it people expect perfection out of their car repair and can't get the same with the "medical profession"? Maybe if they, and ambulance chasers, had to take care of comebacks like in the auto world, they might get their feces together.
 
I had a good primary car doctor for years, but a couple years ago he did what a lot of doctors are doing now, he went into a concierge practice one has to pay a lofty annual fee to be a patient of.
I was able to get a new primary care doctor through the system he was part of. The new doctor is a young guy and seems pretty good. But at the end of last year I called to make an appointment for my yearly physical, which I wanted to get in March. I figured nearly 3 months in advance was ample time. Nope, first appointment I could get was mid May!
My sister and brother in law moved to near Ann Arbor MI a few years ago, and despite being well off, were unable to get new primary care docs there.
Then she got diagnosed with cancer, and around that time he got injured when he got ran into by a car crossing a street.
The medical system found them each primary care doctors after they had medical emergencies.
So I guess the only way to get a primary care doctor near Ann Arbor if you don’t already have one is to have a emergency that requires a PCP to oversee your treatment, then they will get you one?
 
I can't get in to see my guy, other than the 2-3 a year diabetes upkeep appointments at all.

I go to the urgent care facility that's part of their network if I have any other medical needs.

At least they communicate and he is available if they need him.
 
Back
Top