Re:My plan is to be on my wife's plan
by pasbesoin on Tuesday September 18, 2012 @02:55PM
(#4539867)
My cousin's friend was insured with Kaiser. She was mis-diagnosed for over a year. When she attempted to get a referral for a second opinion, it was denied.
She subsequently died from cancer.
Anecdote cuts both ways.
EDIT: I'm thinking now that my wording above sounds overly harsh or confrontational.
Let me restate: We have systemic failure.
In one aspect, a large fraction of the population is shut out of the system, outright. One might argue that better health would foster better outcomes also in other domains, e.g. employment. But we do nothing to explore much less create this circumstance.
In another aspect, participants can be reduced to "the luck of the draw". Get a bad doctor -- worse, an autocratic, bad doctor -- and you can be effectively screwed. As happened to my cousin's friend.
This is not a "system". It is a medieval landscape of fiefdoms, varyingly ruled and also more concerned with their competition than with their populations.
She subsequently died from cancer.
Anecdote cuts both ways.
EDIT: I'm thinking now that my wording above sounds overly harsh or confrontational.
Let me restate: We have systemic failure.
In one aspect, a large fraction of the population is shut out of the system, outright. One might argue that better health would foster better outcomes also in other domains, e.g. employment. But we do nothing to explore much less create this circumstance.
In another aspect, participants can be reduced to "the luck of the draw". Get a bad doctor -- worse, an autocratic, bad doctor -- and you can be effectively screwed. As happened to my cousin's friend.
This is not a "system". It is a medieval landscape of fiefdoms, varyingly ruled and also more concerned with their competition than with their populations.