[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

I've worked in health care in an admin capacity for 23 years. The problem lies in inadequate insurance for those who cannot find steady employment. It's ok to hate the government, but you have to have a solution. Privatization of health care also breeds waste. It's very complicated. And very expensive. Most of my early days in health care concentrated on the uninsured.

You're not going to hijack this thread as a soapbox for socialism. I worked for the government (DoD) for 10+ years and NASA for 1 before I had enough. Waste, waste, waste abounds everywhere and everywhere you find waste it's augmented by graft and sheer utter management stupidity.

In light of your other comments, I have my share of medical issues. In insurance terminology: I have one foot in the grave and the other firmly seated upon a banana peel (ie. I'm uninsurable! I might be insurable but I can't afford the outlay of money equivalent to the GDP of some countries to pay for it.). Through no fault of my own (as is with Brian's "Vonorn" as this thread relates), I have medical needs that the government won't address. It pisses me off to no extent that I have to outlay $100 a month for syringes alone but drug addicts are being provided them free of charge. I know the 'gummint's' intent is to stop the spread of HIV, which is all fine and good, but they're promoting the use of illicit drugs in the process. What happened to the "equal protection under the law" of our US Constitution? It's been distorted by the government pigs-- "all animals are equal; some animals are more equal than others".

My mom always asks, "What to you do with all the money you make?" Well mom, I spend more than $25K/year on medicine alone. This last year has been exceptionally tough with the crap my daughter has pulled and with Martha being out of work for her medical issues and mine getting worse.

Here's just a short narrative about hospital waste as it relates to Brian's situation.

Martha was tiring of the food in the hospital so I brought her a meal from outside. The hospital dietician's office called and asked her why she didn't order dinner. She told them she had eaten and that I brought in food for her. Brian, on the otherhand, had not eaten because his meal was delivered and then taken away as "garbage" because he was asleep when they brought his meal. Later that same evening, just before I was to head home, the hospital brought Martha a meal -- even though she said she had not wanted a meal. We were on the phone with Brian at the time who said he wanted the meal as his was discarded. The hospital staff would not oblige him and the food was trashed. Two meals in the garbage. I can bet that the price tag on that hospital swill was higher than a fine dinner at a top rate establishment.

In 1999, I was presented with a bill for $20K for a week long hospital stay. All I did was lay upon a bed whilst the hospital filled me up with rat poison to get my prothrombin time to a "theraputic" level. There was no need to be tortured and fed swill for a week. My Dr. routinely changes my rat poison dosage and I get prothrombin time/INR blood tests as an out-patient at a local lab for 1/1000th the cost of that hospital stay. You cannot convince me that hospitalization is not grossly over-valued and over-priced and wasteful... as is most doctoring. If I am called in to fix a problem and I don't do it right the first time, I'm expected back on my time to finish the job. Not so with doctoring. You keep paying and paying and paying while they practice and practice and practice. It's the only job I know where the government provides documentation on your ability to be incompetent... it's called the licence to practice medicine. I suppose it takes a beaurocracy of incompetents to recognize incompetence.

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

Those of you that are not covered by a health plan...DO IT.

Sounds like Rick's buying... sign me up.