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Post by impulse on Jan 10, 2020 10:52:29 GMT -5
That is an absolute mess. I'm not ignorant to US healthcare, but that fragmented mess you describe is unforgivable. And needn't exist. The federal government (any party) could do better. But is the will there? I mean, FFS, what you describe sounds like some riddle posed by a jester from that show Knightmare. How on Earth could anyone navigate that? Brainiac 5 would struggle with that bureaucratic nonsense. I'm sorry for everyone who has to endure it.  It's maddening. I have a "good" job with "good" insurance by most accounts, and we are struggling with it. I cannot even imagine what the poor are supposed to do. Getting any widespread meaningful change is probably going to be very difficult because those many layers of folks extracting profits at each step along the way are not going to want to give up their piece of it. Even all that aside, it is mind-boggling to me that even in the current system we could not do better of at least letting people know what they are in for. This wasn't some unique first-of-its-kind procedure. Surely there is some record of oh, when you get x thing done, this is the typical hospital stay, this is the typical duration of the stay and anesthesia necessary. These are the usual materials, this many nurses or types of specialists are there. Based on these averages, there is the median/average charge with 15% buffer. Like, the data must exist so that they could at least come up with the standard narrative and give a remotely plausible expectation of procedure and cost. It's just all so disjointed now which is part of the issue. I remember after we had our kids we would get bills from some doctor or other who popped in and did like one thing at the hospital months later. It's insane. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 10:59:40 GMT -5
For all the complaints here in the UK, we don't have it anywhere near as bad.
Sure, universal healthcare here isn't free. It's only free "at the point of use", but our taxes pay for it. And, yes, we do have waiting lists for operations. And, of course, there have been many cuts made, people can wait years for procedures, etc. None of that is ideal for anyone, but it isn't a bureaucratic mess. Sure, there can be some bureaucracy, but nothing on the scale of what you describe. Nowhere close. What you describe, even though our system is different, wouldn't happen.
While our taxes do fund the National Health Service, and some think they may have to increase one day, it's simple at the user's end. You go into hospital here, have your procedures and let your tax bill "worry" about the semantics. There can be some horror stories, but nothing anywhere near as complex as you describe. Not even close in any way, shape or form. Some of the US healthcare stuff I read, like your anecdote, is like something from a Mensa test.
Surely a superpower could come up with an easier system of healthcare? I'm not saying Americans would want an equivalent of the National Health Service (I don't know their mindset enough to presume that), but something that eliminates the bureaucracies you describe would be a start.
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Post by hondobrode on Jan 10, 2020 11:19:14 GMT -5
They're talking about trying to get "surprise billing" eliminated. Let's hope !
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 10, 2020 11:46:33 GMT -5
Surely a superpower could come up with an easier system of healthcare? I'm not saying Americans would want an equivalent of the National Health Service (I don't know their mindset enough to presume that), but something that eliminates the bureaucracies you describe would be a start. I dont know their mindset enough either, but I think it's telling that developed countries where people experience the benefits of a universal healthcare service rarely insist on abandoning it. Making it better, sometimes, sure. But dropping it? No example comes to mind. I'm sure U.S. citizens would be delighted not to have to worry about losing their home because they get health problems. |
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 10, 2020 11:59:24 GMT -5
Hi Everyone , Couple of questions , What book is Huntress in currently and What book is Power girl in currently ?
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 10, 2020 12:01:09 GMT -5
I stopped reading the news after The Weekly World News went out of business.  Lol I remember that one , i'm not sure if it was that one or another title i saw that use to have crazy stories like cat with 2 heads etc |
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 10, 2020 12:05:55 GMT -5
Ah, the National Enquirer. Haven't ever read it, but have - very occasionally - seen it on sale in supermarkets. I am surprised the supermarkets and their distributors would import it. It actually tells the truth more now whereas back in the 80s it was usually fake articles , Another paper was the Star which was a tabloid. Tmz dominates all now but they are good at telling the truth hence why celebs hate it lol. |
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 10, 2020 12:09:20 GMT -5
Hiya, gang. Mind if I vent for a moment?
So I'm off to the doctor's tomorrow to get tested for something called peripheral neuropathy. What I first took to be some mild cramping in my lower legs has evolved into something altogether different over the last eight weeks or so. I'm now subject to an excruciating burning sensation that strikes without warning and follows no discernible pattern. At first it occurred only on the inner sides of my calves (roughly parallel to the zippers in my compression socks), then after a week or two spread to the front of my shins, then to the back. It sometimes seems to radiate from a point just below my kneecap. At other times, it's like a red-hot band encircling my whole knee. At those times, the skin becomes highly sensitive, so that something as harmless as a bedsheet passing across it can set my teeth on edge. For a long time, it happened primarily around and shortly after bedtime. Later it began to flare up around the time I ate breakfast as well. The attacks have steadily increased in frequency, duration and intensity, until now I'm in pain more often than not. Most of this has been confined to my right leg, but pain in the left is becoming more common. It's often accompanied by severe cramping of my right hamstring, particularly at night. The mildest symptom, and the one that predates the others by months, is a constant tingling in my legs and feet, as if they'd fallen asleep (though I, in fact, retain full sensation).
This can't go on. It's affecting my sleep cycle (for the last three nights in a row, I've had to get out of bed around 3AM and sit in my wheelchair for an hour or so until the pain subsides) and wreaked bloody havoc with my work schedule. I haven't written a usable paragraph for the new book in some six weeks. Even running the Twelve Days event proved to be a major strain. From what I've gathered from the Mayo Clinic website, peripheral neuropathy has a number of possible causes, some of which clearly don't apply to me, and comes with a wide range of treatment options, everything from simple dietary adjustment to major surgery. I don't expect I'll get any definitive answers tomorrow. Aside from ordering some blood tests, I suspect my PCP will end up referring me to a neurologist.
I don't mind admitting I'm scared. I was originally supposed to see my doctor on December 20, but postponed it due to horrible weather. That may have been a mistake. The longer neuropathy goes without being properly diagnosed and treated, the more likely its effects become irreversible. That'd be hard to swallow. I'm no stranger to chronic pain--my degenerative disc disease has seen to that--but this pain is on an entirely different level. I'm afraid this could ultimately mean the end of my independence, my capacity for living alone. It could also mean dependency on either painkillers or anti-depressants (which are effective in relieving the symptoms in many cases) for the rest of my life. At the very least, I'm afraid it could spell the end of my budding career as a writer, as nerve compression caused by long periods of repetitive motion (like typing the way I do) is one of the likeliest causes. (I'd pass on some of the other possible causes, but I think it'd freak me out even more if I wrote then out.)
That's everything, I guess. Thanks for letting me get it off my chest. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes as well as it can, and that I'm looking at a simple cause and simpler treatment.
Cei-U! I summon a cure for my pre-appointment jitters!
Feel better soon my friend prayers sent for you |
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 10, 2020 12:10:58 GMT -5
My sister visited New York a little while back. She bought me back copies of The New York Times and The New York Post. They seemed like quality newspapers with proper news and analysis. Here we get lousy papers like the Daily Star! Are any forum members New Yorkers? Do you read either paper? If so, do you have a preference? I don't really read newspapers nowadays. When I glance at them in the supermarket, the front pages are usually about which soap star is having sex with who - or a headline that can be debunked in a matter of seconds. Maybe I was lucky with those two New York papers, but they sure seemed like a different quality (I realise the US probably does have an equivalent of the tabloid rags we have here). Well the times is Democratic paper and the post is Republican in terms of politics that is . |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 13:11:01 GMT -5
So which paper supports the Green Party?  (No need to answer, just being silly). |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 10, 2020 13:18:44 GMT -5
When in the U.S. I have extended private insurance and the one time I had to use it (something pretty minor if not left) I called the number and it was someone in Pakistan. So trying to work thing being in the middle of a small U.S. hospital in a rural place and someone in Pakistan at maybe their middle of the night with a document of legalize was more fun. I still wonder if the U.S. hospital didn't just write my bill off. I had a zero deductible policy. Will have to disagree on Enquirer having any value... photo-shopped photos to make people look ill or angry or fat on the cover. That would be a deal breaker. We never used to have slanted newspapers in Canada, I think we had/have some actual laws, I remember how strange it seemed to me that people supported something they knew to be 'spun' in any way as it were. I guess I'm more news should be boring, and at least try to be unbiased... but one person says New York Times is vile for having an opinion from someone on the right, and another writes it off completely as pro-left. Yikes. Just for saying I find BBC, CBC, ABC (Aus), PBS/NPR a good source of info I've identified myself as part of a 'them' conspiracy with some. I would say that one mistake was when they removed some regulations and oversight that were put in place from experiences around the turn of the century with Hearst and other papers exaggerating, half-truthing, making things up, and they similarly weakened the FCC broadcasting rules allowing things like well, outrage manufacture type shows with someone in front of a wall their own book and multiple station ownership per area to go further that hadn't been allowable before. Boeing, and PG&E in California, were left to 'regulate' themselves more like they wanted and we had planes full of 737 passengers and the town of Paradise California pay. I hope this isn't seen as too political, trying to communicate something I think is important, and recognizing you want at least two healthy political parties for a healthy democracy. I mostly know The New York Post from seeing a lot of front pages that are very sensationalist, honestly didn't think of it's slant beyond selling papers with those grabber covers, and The Washington Times was started by reverend Sung Yung Moon, kind of like how RT News is an actual arm of Russia. Saying there is some normalcy in with the manipulative or leading is like saying there is 8% fruit juice in a soda pop. I'm not saying that isn't there but why would you take information from someplace you know doesn't play it straight with the full story much of the time (for sake of sales or politics). Well, anyway, it's somewhere in the boring middle I think there can be a sustainable balance, that's all I aim for, not demonizing/blaming, hopefully open to learning as well as educating back where I can. Man, it is really hard these days for everyone, can't blame those who want nothing to do with thing for sake peace among family/friends/chatboards. "Death to the extremists!" Oh, oops. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 13:19:40 GMT -5
Hi Everyone , Couple of questions , What book is Huntress in currently and What book is Power girl in currently ? I don't think either character has appeared since DC Rebirth |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 10, 2020 13:25:54 GMT -5
I have ordered comics from Newkadia a bunch and they have a daily draw of names from their customers to win a nice gift card. I check it everyday lately hoping and today I'm reading it and see Rebecca J.  Yeah, Rebecca J., that's me... but... in Florida (and not my email). Augh!  Life! Well, maybe tomorrow... er, uh, fiddle-dee-dee... nah, that doesn't work for me... oh bugger!  |
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Post by impulse on Jan 10, 2020 17:00:53 GMT -5
For all the complaints here in the UK, we don't have it anywhere near as bad. Sure, universal healthcare here isn't free. It's only free "at the point of use", but our taxes pay for it. And, yes, we do have waiting lists for operations. And, of course, there have been many cuts made, people can wait years for procedures, etc. None of that is ideal for anyone, but it isn't a bureaucratic mess. Sure, there can be some bureaucracy, but nothing on the scale of what you describe. Nowhere close. What you describe, even though our system is different, wouldn't happen. While our taxes do fund the National Health Service, and some think they may have to increase one day, it's simple at the user's end. You go into hospital here, have your procedures and let your tax bill "worry" about the semantics. There can be some horror stories, but nothing anywhere near as complex as you describe. Not even close in any way, shape or form. Some of the US healthcare stuff I read, like your anecdote, is like something from a Mensa test. Surely a superpower could come up with an easier system of healthcare? I'm not saying Americans would want an equivalent of the National Health Service (I don't know their mindset enough to presume that), but something that eliminates the bureaucracies you describe would be a start. I mean, we still pay for it. I pay thousands a year for my family’s premium and another $8,500 before we hit our deductible and they start paying anything meaningful. I also had to wait like three months to get a procedure with my preferred doctor, so I’m not hearing a huge benefit with the current system. They're talking about trying to get "surprise billing" eliminated. Let's hope ! thats a start. Surely a superpower could come up with an easier system of healthcare? I'm not saying Americans would want an equivalent of the National Health Service (I don't know their mindset enough to presume that), but something that eliminates the bureaucracies you describe would be a start. I dont know their mindset enough either, but I think it's telling that developed countries where people experience the benefits of a universal healthcare service rarely insist on abandoning it. Making it better, sometimes, sure. But dropping it? No example comes to mind. I'm sure U.S. citizens would be delighted not to have to worry about losing their home because they get health problems. I’m not seeing how it could be much worse than what we currently have. Arguably equally as bureaucratic but at least without a central profit motive maybe? I don’t know. Just as one example, we have multiple studies including one funded by a super conservative group finding even the current proposed Medicare for all option would cost America less than we pay now. Imagine how good it could be if people actually put in a good faith effort to figure it out instead of scoring political points for their team or cashing out at every opportunity. I can’t speak for all Americans about what they would all want, but I doubt many would say there’s no room for improvement. |
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Post by wickedmountain on Jan 11, 2020 2:09:58 GMT -5
I have ordered comics from Newkadia a bunch and they have a daily draw of names from their customers to win a nice gift card. I check it everyday lately hoping and today I'm reading it and see Rebecca J. Yeah, Rebecca J., that's me... but... in Florida (and not my email). Augh! Life! Well, maybe tomorrow... er, uh, fiddle-dee-dee... nah, that doesn't work for me... oh bugger! Awww sorry Better luck next time friend  |
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