Getting Healthcare When You Want It - A Myth

[dugaresa]

I am luckily insured through an employer although I do have to fork out over $500 a month for this privilege.

When I hear the right wing blabber on about how Canadians rush over the borders to get specialized healthcare here to avoid the long queues in Canada, I can't help but chuckle.

In the past few months I have had to make doctor appointments for myself and for my family.

These are the wait times I have experienced from the date of making the appointments to the day of the appointment.

- Neurosurgeon, 2 months til I could get in to see someone in a practice that has 4 surgeons.

- Dermatologist, 5 months til I can take my son (this isn't unusual and apparently these guys are really busy but the last time I was at an office they were seeing a lot of cosmetic patients, so apparently telling them that my teenager is suffering with cystic acne and his first 5 months of school will be agony isn't enough to get moved up in the queue)

- Dermatologist, 3 months to get an appointment and it turns out the mole was pre-cancerous so tell me I didn't freak out a bit for having to wait so long to have finally gotten it removed.

- Gynecologist, 6 months, however if you are in trouble they will see you sooner (I give them credit for that)

This is the way it works, can't complain there apparently aren't enough of these specialist and I am limited to who I can go to because my insurance isn't accepted by many physicians.

The wait times are same day or within a week for General Practitioners or Pediatricians, however when it comes to certain conditions they recommend specialists and then well you go into queues.

Now there are these Med-Express places popping up all over the place for folks who are insured (and who can pay cash if not insured) and you can get treatment pretty quickly, but they are pretty limited what they can do. I took my mom to one over a swollen foot and they basically gave her a painkiller and told her to see her doctor asap or go to the ER if it got worse. I think they are best for dispensing meds for strep throat and their late hours are great for the family who wants to get junior on meds soon so that no one has to miss work the next day because it means a day of lost wages.

When I told a Canadian colleague of mine about typical wait times for US specialists and GPs, for those of who do have insurance, he basically said "well its about the same way here" and he acknowledged that if you are really sick you are "triaged" and moved up in the queue (just like here, in most cases).

Sorry for meandering on and on, however my point is that even under our current system, we wait and how anyone can believe the claptrap in the media is beyond me unless those folks have never called for a dr's appointment.

[lukasahero]

1. Excellent points

Not to mention the wait time in the office once you do get an appt. I had to switch Drs because every time I went to see mine, I was left waiting anywhere for 1/2 to 2.5 hours. (Yes, really - I used to take the day off when I had a Dr's appt because I could never be sure how long it would really take.)

Thanks for pointing this out.

[dugaresa]

3. Doctor's offices are the worst for customer service

there is nothing more infuriating than having an appointment to see a doctor at 12noon, and not getting anyone to even take your pulse til 3pm. Now some practices are better than others, and I changed to a different practice last year. To be honest the wait times vary but the doctor is a chatterbox and he really is thorough so I have been able to be less upset because I know that I am waiting longer, but he is giving the same quality care to everyone.

[Wapsie B]

2. People continue to parrot a line fed to them by big insurance here

and don't stop to think how long they actually have to wait right now. As you said any kind of specialist will have a waiting list that's several months long. Some want to hang on to the feeble belief that we're #1 in healthcare and everything else and will grasp at any straws they can to keep the status quo, even if it kills someone close to them.

[ejpoeta]

4. i agree that this is nonsense. I haven't brought the kids to the doctor

except for check ups and my 10 year old has ADHD. now, since the check ups are no emergency, of course I expect to not get in like the same day or even the same week, and am surprised if they say they have space available earlier than a couple of weeks. it's a CHECK UP... I would rather plan ahead for things if I can anyway. And we haven't usually had to sit in the waiting room long... it's in the room itself it seems to be a long wait... especially with kids who get bored fast. If I have ever had a real concern of illness or anything we have gotten an appointment the same day.... though usually with a physician's assistant... hard to see the actual doctor these days.

An interesting side note on the ADHD. when we first brought Emily in to the doctor regarding our suspicion she had ADHD, the doctor just wanted to put her on meds. I did not want to do that but wanted to get her tested to see if that was indeed what the issue was. Emily had great grades, but had a lot of trouble with listening and concentrating and honestly, she was having trouble with hitting other kids and stuff like that. I hesitated in even going to the doctor because I didn't want to just put her on medicine.... I wanted to know if she HAD the adhd and then we could deal with it if indeed that was what it was.

I was not good at standing up to the doctor and walked out with a prescription for ritalin. I was not very happy about it either.. and my husband called the doctor and yelled at her about it. So we set up a meeting with the school. They did an initial observation or whatever it was. At the meeting we could tell they were trying to avoid having to actually pay to have her tested.... they don't like to label kids and her grades were good.... she didn't fit into their criteria or something... yes...let's wait til she is failing to get this taken care of. We ended up telling them, look.... we have insurance... we will get her tested just point us in the right direction. So they gave us a list of places.

I called Children's hospital in buffalo. Their response.... there was a year wait to get in, and they didn't take kids over eight... (emily was eight). huh??? we'd been dealing with this since kindergarten and no one wanted to diagnose a child before third grade or whatever and they won't see kids over 8?? oooookkkkkkkkkk.....

So we ended up going to a place that got her in in three weeks and I took her once a week for a month. it was an hour drive up there every week for a month, but in the end they determined she had ADHD and told us that she would probably be a good candidate for medicine... not all kids benefit from the medicines, but they thought she seemed a good candidate. And getting her diagnosed gives us more options with the school. We can have special conditions for her schooling... like more time for tests and specific outlines for making sure she has structure... getting reports from teachers etc. And that is helpful, because while most teachers were willing to work with me in trying to get her to behave in school, there was one teacher who wasn't very helpful.

I had set up a system in kindergarten where the teacher would send me home something to let me know how Emily was in school that day. If she was good, she got a half an hour of tv. if she wasn't, then she didn't. This seemed to work pretty well when the teachers were working with me. My goal was to ensure that emily wasn't disruptive in class and got an education too. And I am confident that had we not done something, eventually her grades would have suffered.

Our system seems to be more into shortcuts rather than the best interest of people. I wonder how many kids are on ritalin who don't even have ADD. It was like night and day with Emily with the ritalin. It helps her brain slow down enough to think before she acts. And when I look at her report card I don't look so much at her reading and math to tell me it is working... I look at her listening, working with others and those things to tell me it's working. It hasn't fixed everything... but it has helped her be able to think before she acts... though she still has the genetic incessant talking issue. LOL!

Another thing with the meds is that the time release is what has worked best for her. When we had independent health the time release would have been $40/mo copay that we couldn't afford. so we were on a generic that she had to take twice a day. She was only getting it in the morning because of the hassle of having to fill out forms to have the nurse give her meds in school. I know... but it wasn't as effective anyway. When we switched the girls to child health plus, we put her on the time release and there was no copay.... and it doesn't just help emily do better in school as far as being able to concentrate and listen.... it helps everyone else in her class too because instead of the teacher having to deal with Emily all the time, she can teach her class.

[Ilsa]

5. I recently posted a thread about how many docs I had to

call to get a checkup scheduled for my husband. No one was taking new patients. They all asked about his insurance including who it was with, which seems ridiculous to me.