The Difference

[madamesilverspurs]

About eighteen months ago I had a cough I couldn't shake. Doc ordered a chest x-ray which I got that same afternoon. The next day he called and told me that they had found a mass and recommended a biopsy; he called the hospital and set it up, I got it done two days later. By the end of the week I'd met with the oncologist, and he called the surgeon. Two weeks later I had the surgery to remove a portion of my lung.

The same week I got my diagnosis a friend who had similar symptoms was still waiting for her chest x-ray. By the time I got out of the hospital following the surgery, her doctors were still arguing with her insurance carrier. She eventually had the necessary surgery, in a hospital in another town, with doctors she didn't know. And by then she was an emotional wreck, most of that caused by the wrangling with the insurance company.

I have Medicare.

[imdjh]

1. And is your doctor poor?

There seems to be some concern about doctors not being adequately rewarded for all that schooling and training that they have wisely chosen to avail themselves of (partially at public expense).

My doctor's practice is almost exclusively HMO and Medicare. He is the sole owner of a million dollar home and bought a $60,000 car last year. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have those things, merely that he has them and appears to be paying for them with his medical practice.

[madamesilverspurs]

2. I honestly wouldn't know.

My primary physician is faculty in a residents training facility. Oncologist is with another clinic, surgeon is with yet another. They take very good care of me and their other patients. It was the failures of private insurance that created the disability that got me on Medicare. My argument isn't with physicians. The insurance industry, on the other hand, has much to answer for.