Did you ever have an existence the meaning of which you questioned constantly? A tedious job that has only odd and infrequent scraps of satisfaction? To be called into meetings that have no real value whatsoever, but just to frustrate you because they make you miss your spin class? To be competent, therefore the recipient of other people’s work, yet still no respect? That job you wish you could quit but have to continue because your living expenses demand it and won’t be appeased until you render lots of money to them? To be making what most would consider a decent living and still have to worry about money? To be writing essays like crazy for umpteen scholarships and wonder if it ends up an enormous waste of time and effort, not to mention elevated stress levels, because they’ll choose more “needy” or “relevant” students to support? And despite all efforts to the contrary, will probably end up with lots of debt and the need to get some stupid, frustrating, mind-numbing G/O/O/D (get out of debt) job when you finally graduate?
That’s it – I’m getting a boob job, a nose job, a lobotomy, start living a depraved, drugged existence out in LA (Los Angeles? Latin America?) or wherever. I might wanna add some illegitimate offspring to the mix. I really think that’s the answer. Uh-huh.
The one thing I’d like to see right now is some shred of gosh darned real progress in my life.
End depressing rant.
UPDATE, 4:47pm: And what's really special is getting overcharged for a prescription that I've been getting for over two years. Why, you ask? Because the bone-headed pharmacy monkeys didn't do their job! I'm telling you, a life of crime is looking really sweet right now. Heck, I can just steal my prescriptions! And what's this noise about Medicaid paying for Viagra for sex offenders (hat tip: Jeff at Kinshasa on the Potomac)??? You know, because they really need it. Arrghhh!
FURTHER UPDATE, 5/25/05, 2:22pm: Called down there again to the pharmacy and spoke with a nice gentleman who initiated a credit to my credit card for the overcharged amount above. I will go pick up the receipt tomorrow morning. Now, let's see if it's as easy as that. But to his credit, he was polite and even apologized for the mistake. Now, yes, it's inconvenient for me, but at least I got closure.
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5 comments:
I sympathize sincerely with your pharmacy issues. The system sucks. I know, because they pay me to analyze it 40-plus hours a week.
Unfortunately, what you're experiencing is what those in the business call "risk." If Bush gets his "ownership society" and we all end up with health savings accounts, there will be even MORE of the problems you experience because you, as the owner of your own health care, will carry the bulk of the risk. The mistakes of the boneheaded monkeys will be entirely your problem to solve -- not to mention the tender mercies of hospital billing departments or the Big Pharma/PBM cartel. We all have better things to do with our time, I'm sure, than manage these little frustrating calamities.
So, are you ready to come over and join the Dark Side of the force? There's this pretty cool thing called "single-payor" . . .
Single Payor??!! Are you nuts? If you think this sort of thing is a hassle, single payor would be much, much worse. All that power placed in the hands of one organization/govt? No. Did I mention NO?! You are talking about socialized medicine, aren't you? Yuck. I've heard rave reviews from a Swedish intern about their system and how it probably cost her grandmother her life because she couldn't get in to see a specialist in time to diagnose & treat. More govt isn't the solution.
But on the bright side, I WILL get my $22 back if I have to march down there and squeese it out of them.
I was just pulling your leg about the single-payor thing. I'm not in favor of it. But Germany and Japan have hybrids worth looking at. Anything would be an improvement over our system, where we pay more than any other country, but get middle-of-the-pack results.
Per your example of the intern from Switzerland, you'll often hear the illogical argument that people in other countries experience waits for care, so the problem must be their system. This misconception is based on the fact that there are indeed waits for elective procedures in some countries with national health systems like Switzerland. But that's because they spend far less on health care per person than we do. If they were to put the same percentage of GDP into their systems (right now, 7 to 11, depending on the country) as we do into ours (16), there would be no waits. For them, the problem is not the system; it's the money. For us, it's not the money; it's the system. With what we spend on health care in this country, we could have a gold-plated universal system. Make it single-payor, make it a hybrid, make it whatever you want. In terms of value (meaning, the difference between cost vs. results) we are at the bottom of the barrel in the industrialized world.
I need to correct you on something, though. Single-payor is not socialized medicine. Medicare is an example of a single-payor system: publicly financed, but with private delivery by doctors and hospitals who are not government employees, and optional privatized management in the form of Medicare HMOs, Medicare PPOs, Medicare Supplement plans, and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (all of which are, by the way, not a good value for folks of modest means because their overhead is five times that of ordinary fee-for-service Medicare, but a fine option for those who can afford the extras they provide).
I could go on, but the delivery of medicine is the most complex thing humans do. Anyone who says the "right" solution can be explained in three sentences is selling you something.
Go figure, I am not sure that national health care is a bad idea. I am no expert on health care, but one place where a more socialized system would be helpful is in the area of preventative medicine. As it is, those who have no insurance don't go for yearly checkups, etc., but rather go into the emergency room with serious problems that could have been prevented. I should think that is at least part of why we spend so much in health care but get little relative to other countries. I hear about how horrid socialized medicine is, Canadians are dying at the border trying to get into the US for treatment, but I don't see the Cannucks lining up at Holy Cross on my way to work and definately not at Washington General. In fact, a Canadian co-worker goes home when they need anything.
You have given me an idea; I think I am going to figure out some new American health care system. Full privatization, less people insured, big payoffs for pharm companies and HMOs. Naturally it would require lots of borrowing from China and 'Off shore interests,' it would fail miserably leaving most people worse off and costing bunches. Once I have a working draft, I will start making room for my medal of Freedom.
csperling:
The notion that Canadians are flooding south to get medical care withheld from them in their own country is, to put it kindly, a “persistent myth.” A more accurate description would call it a lie worthy of the Third Reich because the amount it gets repeated rises exponentially with the closeness with which Congress comes to enacting reform. So here’s the truth.
1. Listen carefully the next time you hear someone say that the Canadians are flooding to the US for care. The stories are always anecdotal. It goes something like this: "When he needed care the Prime Minister of Alberta/Nova Scotia/Yukon Territory/Canada came down to the US." There has always been an extremely limited number of Canadians getting new high-tech care in the US that isn't available in Canada, almost always paid for by their province. There is even the very occasional and under-filled patient bus trip coming down to get prescriptions and treatments unavailable in Canada, of course massively outnumbered by the tour buses taking Americans to buy cheaper drugs up north, where the government is actually allowed to negotiate wholesale prices with its suppliers. U.S. law does not allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with its suppliers.
2. Yes, lots of Canadians get care in the US, but that's because, due to the better weather, the higher incomes, going to college or that NAFTA thing, they live here (or are on vacation in Florida to escape that terrible winter).
3. As I mentioned in No. 1 above, you’ll never find a scientific study that says Canadians are coming to U.S. for care, but you will find some very good peer-reviewed research that proves the opposite. The best was done by Katz, et. al. at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!!) and published in the journal Health Affairs in 2002. You can Google it if you like, but basically after looking into hospital-by-hospital data in obsessive detail, they found essentially no evidence of Canadians crossing the border to get care. (Incidentally plenty of Americans are still going up there for non-covered surgery like Lasik eye surgery, which is cheaper and just as good up north). In fact, according to Canadian insurers, there appears to be no interest amongst Canadian consumers in commercial insurance products to cover care abroad, other than standard holiday cover. This chance to “jump the queue” and go get “I want it now” care in America is available and cheap. So it looks like the Canadians accept the fact that they have to wait for surgery, and not surprisingly don't want to come down here to pay for it out of pocket.
So why do Americans, who have to buy insurance in the world's most dysfunctional market, complain so much about the prospect of Canadian-style health care? 1. We believe what we’re told, whether it’s true or not. 2. We abhor a top-down solution, which is what it will take to change things for the better. 3. We are a culture of instant gratification, with no desire to go on the wagon, so to speak. 4. Canadian doctors (well, doctors in almost all foreign countries) make about 65 percent as much as their American counterparts. The AMA isn’t the strongest lobby in Washington, but asking them to take a 35 percent pay cut? Let’s just say you’d have their undivided attention. And can you imagine what that would do to the sales of Porsches?
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