The ER

[Radbird]

When I had my seizure last summer, the bills - from EMT to ER to ICU, not to mention follow-up care - were tremendous. Even the amount we had left to pay after insurance was significant. But without insurance, I'm not sure what we would have done. Going through that experience (which wasn't optional) convinced me how completely broken our health care system is.

That Zeus and Dreamer had to consider/worry about cost when making health decisions is ridiculous. But then, the people who made our HC system what it is are rich enough that they don't have to worry about silly little things like how much it costs. They just want to make sure their friends in the medical field continue to make fortunes as well.

[cardsfansince82]

EVEN CADILLACS BREAK DOWN SOMETIMES

If someone with no insurance goes to the ER for a cold the hospital should tell them to [expletive] off. They shouldn't be obligated to treat anyone that doesn't have a life threatening condition.

[Swirls]

How the hell are you spending your annual deductible in December?

I've not spent a dime towards my deductible in the past 6 years.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

EVEN CADILLACS BREAK DOWN SOMETIMES

If someone with no insurance goes to the ER for a cold the hospital should tell them to [expletive] off. They shouldn't be obligated to treat anyone that doesn't have a life threatening condition.

fan,

This appears to indicate you don't understand people's situation. You seem to assume everyone has a family doc they can get into at any time. But that is not the case for a vast number of people. They go to the emergency room because it is the only place they can get health care at all.

Case in point: I live in Huntsville, Al. Moved here 3 1/2 years ago. I have a comfortably middle class job and have for 3 decades - I'm a programmer. It took us 3 years to get into a private practice. Nobody was taking new patients. There are doc-in-the-boxes here but don't tell them you are on Medicaid. Nonstarter in most places. Many docs have gone to a concierge setup - like a country club - pay dues every year and then pay as you go. In this community where the haves put their kids in private Christian schools to keep them away from the wrong types of people, it works.

Bottom line, it is HARD to find a doctor willing to take you into their practice in this city. Even for people like me who historically have had no problem getting health care.

Our health care system is seriously [expletive].

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I've never found it tough to get a doctor like Joe.

But, there's another problem with the scenario of refusing patients who only have a cold. In order to determine they only have a cold, they still have to be diagnosed by the professional staff unless you're going to start letting the administrative staff deny patients who don't appear sick enough which is a horrible idea. Once most people are diagnosed, unless they're going to be admitted, the care is relatively simple. (eg, recommend nyquill...or whatever it is)

[Leroy]

I go whenever I can because this nice doctor likes to grab my nuts and have me cough.

[clevername]

the ER system is, indeed, broken. I'm less optimistic they'll ever fix it than I am that they'll ever fix the bigger overall issues with the healthcare system (and I'm not optimistic that'll happen in my professional career).

The majority of the patients we see are Medicaid. It's a bit different with peds, but I can't imagine turning patients away. The financials are different in the adult world, so I can't really speak to that, but most parents should be able to find a peds doc who will see their Medicaid child. It may not be their first choice and they may face some long waiting room times depending on the season (right now!), but the likelihood that their child will receive better care from a pediatrician than they would from an ER doc who's just trying to clear the room is huge (to say nothing for monitoring growth, development, immunizations and such); those kids absolutely should not be clogging up ER's but they do.

Hope mini-zeus is doing better. RSV can be nasty, but usually it's metric tons of snot, little sleep, and feeling like you can't do anything about it for around 3 weeks.

[heyzeus]

Thanks, Clevername - minizeus has finally turned the corner. It took almost 10 days of exactly what you described.

As an added bonus to the ER bill we'll receive, we now own a nebulizer. I'm curious whether I can put a shot of vodka in it and enjoy doing shots in the form of a fine mist.

[Freed Roger]

This sounds like hell. I am thankful for generally healthy kids.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Here's a story from a couple days after Christmas that should make you all happy, and by that I mean irritated.

A lady came to the ER, I believe by ambulance, because she was on her period and needed some pads or tampons or whatever and couldn't get out because of the snow. That's so [expletive] up.

But, what's the alternative to not treating her? She was there. They had taken the time to talk to her and figure out what was wrong. The total time for all this - for the lady - was probably a couple hours. By the time she was assessed, it took 8 seconds to give her a bag of pads. Don't do that, and what's she going to do? Probably just go to the next ER? They called her a cab, to get her to leave. Who knows how she paid for that. Ridiculous.

There needs to be a system for the underpriveleged to obtain preventative and regular health care other than the ER. I think that is the first step for any solution. But, realistically, I don't know how you would even go about doing that.

My cousin had the nebulizer. They're pretty neat, really. Sorry to hear about it, but glad ZeusJR is going to be fine.