The "Just go to the ER" argument that is used has got to be the most oversimplified thing ever said

[ck4829]

Hey, maybe I got a chronic condition, maybe I have cancer, maybe my only symptom is that I'm in constant pain (But not bad enough to be considered an emergency), etc.

Should I go to the ER for that?

Everyone is of course 100% free to dumb your arguments down for the teabaggers, but this is an important discussion about the future of our country's health care system.

[Uben]

1. In that case.....

....you would need to go to a free clinic somewhere to get treatment, I suppose (assuming you do not have insurance and qualify)

[me b zola]

7. I go to a free clinic

I have three chronic conditions that they do not have the resources to cover. I was fortunate enough to qualify for one of my CCs to be referred to a specialist, but so far no help for my cardiac problem. But I do receive my BP meds from them. This is not health care.

[gratuitous]

2. Of course it's oversimplified

Look at the target audience. Anything more complicated than, say, "Fire good" goes right over this crowd's head.

[CBR]

3. Yesterday I woke up in excruciating pain... I just changed my

primary provider via BCBS but had not yet seen the doctor. My husband, who has been in since the provider change, called them, explained the situation and asked them if we could get in sometime. They said since I was a new patient and needed to fill out all of the paperwork, they could not see me until February! I went to the ER.

[Warpy]

4. Even if you have well documented cancer

an ER has to consider you a frequent flyer and refuse to write prescriptions for pain pills every month when you run out. The DEA has really tightened up on that stuff, our friends the drug warriors looking out to make sure nobody has a good time on drugs they don't themselves use.

An ER can run lab tests and interpret them, get you an EKG and some x-rays, write for antibiotics, do simple sutures, and put a cast on. That's it. Anything else is handled by the hospital itself or referred to a doc outside it for follow up.

If people can't afford the hospital or follow up, they're just shit out of luck.

That includes somebody with cancer who can barely drag himself in for just one more month of pain medicine that really isn't adequate but is better than nothing.

[winyanstaz]

5. If you have an earache and go to the er....

It will cost you close to 400.00 dollars.
My son had to go to the er for a kidney stone...the bill was around 4 grand.
For people in the lower income brackets...that is simply way too much.
If we had an extra four grand to throw around...we would have insurance
To say just go to the er....is simply stupid.

[TheKentuckian]

6. Yep, utterly ignores ongoing need for treatment

or the brutal nature of the system. You don't chemo at the ER or most clinics, if you can't pay you often die.

Back in the late 90's I had an employee who hadn't been around long enough for coverage yet that got appendicitis. He went to the ER and was diagnosed but was also advised that there was nothing further that could be done for him until it burst because he was stable at the moment. So, he was sent home to suffer for a couple of days until the thing burst and could have killed him and then the situation allowed for him to be treated.

That go to the ER nonsense is some of the most callous, stupid, and ignorant bile that has come down the line in a while.

[kestrel91316]

8. I need my annual gyn exam, BP checked, and a lipid profile (years overdue).

Can these geniuses point me to an ER that will do these???

All an ER will do is tell me I am dying if I have a stroke or kidney failure due to untreated hypertension, or am bleeding to death from untreated gynocological cancer, or having a heart attack from too high cholesterol. What planet do these condescending assholes live on?????