Would just like some opinions and help about care you receive with out insurance!
Question: my last doctor visit with my oncologist just kind of blew me away. he comes in and sits beside me and asked why i dont have insurance any more. so i go into the story that my husband was laid off and we have been paying cobra for 18 months and i tried to go through a risk pool to get insurance in the state of SC. but if i were able to pay 1,900.00 a month with a 1,500.00 deductable i wouldnt need insurance. why is it when you need our system there is no help? my oncologist told me that he would schedule my apts every 3 months instead of every 2 and that blood work that they normally do at every visit would be discontinued, until i was able to get my medicade in 12 more months. i feel as if they were doing unecessay ct scan every 2 months or now i just dont matter anymore because i cant afford the visits and blood work and ct scans. i am not cancer free nor or im not remission. its it just me or is the system screwed up?
Answers: my last doctor visit with my oncologist just kind of blew me away. he comes in and sits beside me and asked why i dont have insurance any more. so i go into the story that my husband was laid off and we have been paying cobra for 18 months and i tried to go through a risk pool to get insurance in the state of SC. but if i were able to pay 1,900.00 a month with a 1,500.00 deductable i wouldnt need insurance. why is it when you need our system there is no help? my oncologist told me that he would schedule my apts every 3 months instead of every 2 and that blood work that they normally do at every visit would be discontinued, until i was able to get my medicade in 12 more months. i feel as if they were doing unecessay ct scan every 2 months or now i just dont matter anymore because i cant afford the visits and blood work and ct scans. i am not cancer free nor or im not remission. its it just me or is the system screwed up?
The System IS SCREWED UP. I'm an MD, a cancer specialist retired now after 20 years of patient care.
One reason I retired fairly young is that the system is not right.
I treated all patients the same regardless of ability to pay. That is the way it should be. But I'm a dinosaur - - an extinct species.
I figured about half the work I did was for people who could not pay, but that was OK. I was lucky to be a doctor and not have cancer. The system increasingly forced assembly line medicine - as if patients were parts on a conveyor belt.
Every person is special. Every person deserves the same care as anyone with "lots of money."
BUT - CT scans and blood work do not cure or effectively treat cancer. What kind of cancer are you fighting? There are hundreds of different cancers. Some can be treated effectively, and some can not. Follow-up scans and blood tests only help predict the future. Your oncologist may be right if you have a type of cancer that cannot be treated effectively if it is found to be progressive with closer follow-up testing. There are still some good docs out there.
Added note - OK, You did say it was breast cancer, so you did tell us what type it was. Metastatic breast cancer is not curable whether you are an ex NC senator's wife are a regular person. Your doctor is right about spreading out your follow-up studies as long as you are feeling well. If you have symptoms to indicate progressive disease, and further studies show progression, THEN we will see if you are treated the same as those with insurance - - with more investigative treatment regimens. That is when it really gets expensive.
People with advanced breast cancer who needed further treatment were often treated at my office at my expense.
I had to pay for their chemotherapy drugs since they could not, and they had no insurance help with the bills. The drug companies always demanded full payment for the medicines I bought to give to my patients. I lost money on these patients. That is why I made $100,000 only three years out of twenty years a doctor specializing in cancer. To make $100,000, I worked 16 to18 hour days. I was idealistic. You are right - the system is screwed up.
Still, give your doc a chance. He or she may feel as I do (or 'did' when I was still in medical practice). It's not the follow-up tests that matter as much as the treatment attempts to buy more quality time when breast cancer progresses. There are ways to get the system to help. I used to beg for free drugs from the drug companies to help with some of the expense.
I don't know if anyone does that anymore.
Best of luck to you.
Sounds like you are due for some better luck at this point.
We all have limited time.
I think the best thing is to make the most of it.
move to Canada.=) may not be the best health care but you don't have to pay everytime you go to the doctor, pay extremem amouts on meds 10-30 bucks? depending on quantity. goverment coverage plus work coverage. if you both had full time jobs it would be even better. something like CT scans and blood work should be free.
Yes, I agree our system is totally screwed up. If you have a problem, go to an emergency room. They have to see you. They will bill you, but if you don't have the money you can't pay. How come you have to wait a year for Medicaid? This is totally unfair. I really wish things would go better for you!
www.breastscancerchoices.org