I couldn't watch this...

[wyldraven]

Just reading the text struck so close to home it took 3 tries to finish it. Whether you read it, or watch the video, though, you should absorb this:

An American cry for help - Countdown with Keith Olbermann- msnbc.com

Originally posted at http://wyldraven.dreamwidth.org/553252 ( Read more... )

Comments

[vicki_sine]

I watched it, and I cried the entire time.

Then I cried myself to sleep.

And I woke up crying.

The doctors would not talk to me, would not advise me, I had to practically break arms and threaten law suits to see the test results from Jeff's brain scans and blood work.

HIPA needs to be revamped drastically.
And the insurance companies need to be abolished and replaced with socialized medicine.

[wyldraven]

I'm so sorry dear. I didn't intend that for you, as I know you already understand this all too well.

Sometimes it seems that the doctors and hospitals are using HIPAA privacy to shield themselves more than the patient. As I understand it, they should not have been legally able to prevent you from seeing anything you wanted to see.

HR 676 Single Payer / Improved Medicare for All. That's the answer to insurance companies. Abolish them, or at the very least, retask them. Life threatening illness should not be a matter of the size of your wallet.
HR676.org
Physicians for a National Health Program

[vicki_sine]

Actually the insurance companies use it as a weapon to duct tape the mouths of physicians.

By law the physician has to call such a discussion a consult.

The insurance company refuses to pay for that consult. They want the patient or the family to have that consult with the insurance "counselor".

Well as Jeff said "This person is not our physician, I do not want to have an intimate private conversation" with a stranger on the phone. A stranger who works not for my well being, but for the well being of the insurance company."

That "counselor" is the death panel.

I had to make my decision on a DNR on my own, because my "insurance company" would not "approve" a "physician consult".

[wyldraven]

I am so sorry you had to go through that. It seems that the only people who really understand this problem are those, like you, me, Keith Olbermann, who have dealt with it directly. And no one else wants to hear what we have to say on it. And Congress? Bah. As I said on twitter the other day:Think Congress can't hear us? They can hear us. They don't care. They are paid to not care. Ask their bosses (lobbyists).