I Picked Up a Hitchhiker Tonight (Sad Story)

[armyowalgreens]

So I'm driving home and and see some guy next to the local urgent care with his thumb up. So I stopped and he explained to me that he needed to go down the road to the pharmacy to get a script filled.

So we go down the road to Walgreens and they reject him because of his insurance. Turns out the guy is a married man with a step-son. Apparently he drove a nail through his hand earlier tonight putting up a wall clock. On top of that, his step-son is in the ER with Kidney problems. Apparently their insurance stopped paying for the kids medication and he got sick. The kids dad won't pay for the medication because he's a deadbeat. On top of that, his car is not working. And on top of that, his job cut back his hours and he has no money.

So, I told him I'd drive him about 15 miles down the road to the next pharmacy that would take his insurance. We get to the next pharmacy and their system was down. I volunteered to drive him another 10 miles to the next pharmacy, but he wanted to get back because his wife and step-son are taking a cab home from the hospital and he wants to be there with them.

Mind you, he has a fucking hole in his god damn hand. He needs antibiotics and pain killers and he opts instead to take care of his family.


Plus, he kept offering me money, but all he had was 13 dollars in his name and I didn't want it anyway. Any guy like that deserves to be helped out. I can't take money from him.


I learned four important things from this.


1. Good men get screwed.


2. Dead-beat dads are assholes (although I already know that since I have one)


3. My life is pretty damn good compared to someone living just 2 miles away from me.


4. FUCK INSURANCE COMPANIES and fuck the greedy assholes that fucked up the economy.








And to add insult to injury to this entire night, I got pulled over coming out of his neighborhood for going 40 in a 30. Thankfully, I didn't get a ticket because the cop was a nice guy.


All in all, a very sad yet eye opening night.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Can you explain something to a non-American?

Why is some health insurance OK at some pharmacies, but not at others? Shouldn't they just be saying "yes, we'll pay for this medication" (or "we'll pay x% of the cost of this medication"), wherever the prescription is filled?

Good for you, anyway, taking the time to help a man in need.

[armyowalgreens]

3. I think pharmacies make deals with certain companies...

Whatever is most cost efficient to them or whatever makes them the most money.

I'm not to wise on the technicalities of it all. All I know is that it's fucked up in more than one way.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. Most pharmacies honor most insurance plans.

The key word(s) in that sentence being "most." It is unusual, but not unheard of, for a pharmacy not to distribute a prescription because they don't honor the insurance. The simple fact of the matter is that pharmacies decide on an insurer-by-insurer basis whether they will honor that insurance. That's about as much as I know on the subject, sorry to say.

[PassingFair]

11. It is becoming common for large businesses,

through which we receive our "health care",
to make deals with certain pharmacies as to
how much "co-pay" we will have to pay on
certain medications.

If there is a generic for your prescription,
you are usually OK to go to any pharmacy.
If you are prescribed a non-generic, it can
cost you a bundle if you don't go the the
"approved" pharmacy.

Mine just got switched from CVS to Walgreens.

[eilen]

12. Some insurance companies don't honor their commitments

and don't reimburse without a lot of phone calls and billing cycles. Pharmacies get tired of dealing with them. United Healthcare is one of the worst companies, I think even the state hospital is cancelling their contracts with them.

[tosh]

21. UHC is the WORST!!

<<screw 'em>>

[NashVegas]

19. "Competition"

American businesses allegedly compete against each other; the fairy tale is that this keeps costs down and improves services.

The reality is Company A in field 1 will cut a deal with company F in Field 2, where the two agree to ship business to each other and make it harder for Company B in Field 1 to do business.

In the pre-Ronald Reagan era, this wasn't too much of a problem; Company B, Field 1 could have just gone to Company C, D, or G in Field 2 and worked out their own deal.

But after Reagan, when regulations were relaxed and businesses consolidated, Company B Field 1 often has nowhere to turn, because Company F Field 2 bought out Companies C and D, fired 1/2 of the staff, consolidated assets and squeezed Company G out of the market.

[Kablooie]

36. My insurance gives me a list of pharmacies I can use. If I use others I have to pay 100% myself.

[wroberts189]

51. not only pharmacies.. but hospitals and doctors offices as well.

And if you do not have insurance you pay more even if you had it and your insurance would not have covered it... they all make deals with each other.

[eridani]

2. Have you told that story to Obama and your congresscritters?

Please do! They need to hear from us.

[armyowalgreens]

4. I'll get right on that.

I'll have to re-write this without the profanity.

[aquart]

5. Probably.

Wouldn't want to shock an intern.

[LooseWilly]

6. hehe... I find it funny that you register the profanity in that story.

It seems to me that the profanity is so understated that it simply adds to the "gravitas" of the situations in which you actually use it.

Speaking as someone who writes with a LOT of profanity...

[armyowalgreens]

8. I curse like a sailor when I get pissed off.

I do know how to turn it off, though.

[Berry Cool]

9. That would be a GREAT letter for Obama.

It's specific, concrete, and it explains exactly how things are here in America right now. Here you are, apparently not so bad off, and just down the street from you is a poor guy who's barely hanging on for himself and his family, and you didn't even know it. Paints a vivid picture in the mind: a picture that says "You have to pass health care for THIS MAN. And for all the many men and women like him."

[Obamanaut]

10. Heh! I heard that gosh darn it. I'm a retired sailer, and I don't think

you can.

But on the other hand, good on you for your assistance. That was nice.

[Lancer]

13. President Obama needs to hear this.

And he will. Please do spread it far and wide.

I'm confused. Why is this guy a deadbeat? He's still working, has some kind of insurance and he seems like a family man. If he was a deadbeat, seems to me he'd be nailing something to the wall other than a clock.

Always reassuring to know there are still Good Samaritans out there. Thanks, buddy.

[Sabriel]

14. "Deadbeat" refers to the dad who's no longer around

Not the hitchhiker.

[Buzz Clik]

15. Two thumbs for your caring and helping.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[obliviously]

16. I am try to figure out

how you put a nail through your hand putting a clock up. You have both hands up. One with a hammer in it and one holding a nail. How could you possibly hold the nail in a way that you could drive it through your hand. The only way I can see to do this would be to turn the nail backward and hold it against the wall with the palm of your hand. Then drive your hand into the nail with the hammer. I hate it when that happens.

[Hekate]

41. S**t happens, that's all. But the guy now has a puncture wound, which is not good.

:-(

[Maru Kitteh]

43. I can think of a couple of ways. Nail gun for one,

No. 2 - Palm cupped around the nail and either no line of sight or hammer/nail slips.

I'm sure there are more.

[uppityperson]

47. slip and fall would do it also

[FailureToCommunicate]

17. "...the cop was a nice guy." I'm guessing you're white, yes? DWB would have

definitely added to your list of gripes. Also, it's not important because accidents happen, but was the guy by any chance putting up the nail for a clock with a nail gun? 'Cause like the other poster said, it is somewhat harder to drive a nail through your own hand or finger. Though I have certainly put a screw through a finger with a power drill (it falls sideways and, well, you don't want to know the rest...tmi)

More bad things seem to happen when you are stressed already...
Good for you for being a good samaritan.

[obliviously]

18. I considered the nail gun too

I have six different nail guns. Were I to set up the air compressor and string out the hose to put in one nail none of my guns will put a nail in only half way they all drive them in all the way or counter sunk.

[armyowalgreens]

20. Yes I am very white.

[ecstatic]

22. Sad story but isn't it a little dangerous

to be picking up hitch hikers? :shrug: Or maybe I just watch too many movies...

[armyowalgreens]

27. That's what the cop told me.

I said you have to be willing to take some risk if you want to help people. He didn't argue. After all, that is the bases for his entire career.

[Posteritatis]

35. You do (nt)

[obliviously]

37. We have a 25mph speed limit

in our neighborhoods 40 mph could kill a kid or something slow down.

[armyowalgreens]

49. Yeah I wasn't paying attention and it was 2 AM.

Plus it wasn't actually a neighborhood road but almost like a main road that goes right down the middle of the entire neighborhood. The speed limit was 40. I fucked up.

[deaniac21]

23. The story doesn't add up.

[armyowalgreens]

24. Why not?

[deaniac21]

26. No facts, only a story from a dimwit for evidence.

[armyowalgreens]

28. Are you calling me the dimwit? Or the hitchhiker?

[deaniac21]

29. Not you, obviously. You are just a good person willing to

believe a down and out person easily.

[armyowalgreens]

30. well I saw the prescription for his stuff. And I saw the mom and kid pull up in the cab...

I'd be willing to believe him. It didn't seem implausible.

[deaniac21]

53. There you go.

[Posteritatis]

34. In the real world people don't walk around with documentary evidence for everything they say

Nor should they - to hell with the idea that we need to start off by assuming everyone's a liar all the time. The story "doesn't add up" only because you don't want it to.

[lildreamer316]

33. Not everyone in the world lies all the time.

I'm just sayin'. It's statistically very improbable.

[graywarrior]

25. Jesus.

Shit like that makes me grateful and pissed at the same time. Good for you for helping the guy out.

[Art_from_Ark]

31. That's just awful

If he were in Japan, he would be automatically enrolled in the national health insurance plan, and his insurance would pay for 70% of the prescription up front, no questions asked.

[tomreedtoon]

32. Think it's a big desert? That's only the top of it.

There are many, many more people in the same boat or worse.

But, of course, Democrats don't want to do anything about it, and the general public doesn't believe it happens.

[NNN0LHI]

38. A poster named armyowalgreens took a hitchhiker to Walgreens?

After he drove a nail through his hand while hanging a clock?

Did I just hear someone say Abbie Normal?

Don

[armyowalgreens]

48. I use to work for Walgreens and I was a like a corporate whore/soldier.

So I named myself army of Walgreens and shortened it.

There are a shitload of Walgreens around here.

[Brigid]

39. Thank you for helping.

How in the world could we explain this to someone who doesn't live here? :banghead:

[Maru Kitteh]

40. I'm glad the guy got to ride with you and know that people DO care. I'm sorry it was depressing

but please realize you did do some very important good. Thank goodness he ended up riding with you instead of some right-wing asshole that would have probably given him the old "up by your bootstraps" bullshit speech and taken his last 13 dollars - you know, for his own good - so he didn't have to feel like a "freeloader."

[obliviously]

45. I have also known

some people that would have driven him all over town and then talked him out of half of the pain pills!

[Maru Kitteh]

46. Yeah, one of them would be my SIL. We don't talk to her.

Flippin' right wingers though would have tried to convince the guy it was his fault for being down then pushed him down further with a big 'ol smile.

[Hekate]

42. Thanks for being a pal. Sometimes it's pretty cold out there.

:hug:

Hekate

[The River]

44. There But For Fortune

may go you or I.

Thanks

[KillCapitalism]

50. Moral of the story here...

our healthcare system SUCKS here. Nuff said.

[wroberts189]

52. Sad indeed. I wish him better times. Thanks for picking him up. nt