Whining Thread #4

[joy]

It certainly baffles us Canadians. But, not my country, not my business. Happy you were able to afford the care and hope it was 100% successful.

Oh it baffles us too.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

It certainly baffles us Canadians. But, not my country, not my business. Happy you were able to afford the care and hope it was 100% successful.

Oh, it’s far more baffling than that. You seem to be thinking it’s like China where my father had his heart attack a few decades ago. There, the hospital checked with his insurance to make sure they would be paid, before scheduling the surgery.

In the US, they’re not allowed to do that. They have to go ahead and provide any emergency treatment, in this case the surgery, and only afterwards do they get to figure out who pays for it. I think in this case it will be my wife’s insurance, but I’m not 100% sure.

And to be honest, I don’t think fixing heart attacks after the fact is ever 100% successful. I can walk again already, but getting back to an all out viennese or quickstep I may never get back to.

 

[MaggiWrites]

Oh, it’s far more baffling than that. You seem to be thinking it’s like China where my father had his heart attack a few decades ago. There, the hospital checked with his insurance to make sure they would be paid, before scheduling the surgery.

In the US, they’re not allowed to do that. They have to go ahead and provide any emergency treatment, in this case the surgery, and only afterwards do they get to figure out who pays for it. I think in this case it will be my wife’s insurance, but I’m not 100% sure.

And to be honest, I don’t think fixing heart attacks after the fact is ever 100% successful. I can walk again already, but getting back to an all out viennese or quickstep I may never get back to.

Reassuring to know they have to "treat first, bill later". (I don't know anything about medicine in China; I guess someone planning to visit as a tourist would hope not to have an emergency there.) I hope you can at least get back to a sedate foxtrot or waltz, if not all the dances. I don't do the quickstep or Viennese anymore myself, but that's down to worsening asthma. We all have to draw in the boundaries sometime, I guess, but we strive to perfect what we still can do. Good luck with whatever therapy you're doing!

 

[j_alexandra]

A few Mondays ago, woke up with shortness of breath, some chest pain, and numbness in the hands. Got my wife to look up the symptoms and we decided she should drive us to the emergency room. The hospital identified that I was having a heart attack and I got open heart quadruple bypass surgery THE NEXT DAY.

So sorry to hear about this, but hope you have a speedy and complete recovery.

 

[Cal]

A few Mondays ago, woke up with shortness of breath, some chest pain, and numbness in the hands. Got my wife to look up the symptoms and we decided she should drive us to the emergency room. The hospital identified that I was having a heart attack and I got open heart quadruple bypass surgery THE NEXT DAY. The American healthcare system is great.

It absolutely does matter how good your insurance is, including any drug coverage, and it’s worth paying extra for good health insurance. My wife definitely takes this into account when deciding where to work.

I also wish you a speedy recovery.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

Reassuring to know they have to "treat first, bill later". (I don't know anything about medicine in China; I guess someone planning to visit as a tourist would hope not to have an emergency there.) I hope you can at least get back to a sedate foxtrot or waltz, if not all the dances. I don't do the quickstep or Viennese anymore myself, but that's down to worsening asthma. We all have to draw in the boundaries sometime, I guess, but we strive to perfect what we still can do. Good luck with whatever therapy you're doing!

Reassuring to know they have to "treat first, bill later".

This was in a legal initiative called EMTALA passed in 1986. If a facility doesn’t have the emergency care you need, they get to provide transportation to a location that can provide it, though it was recently ruled that this requirement can’t be used arbitrarily to override state law.

(I don't know anything about medicine in China; I guess someone planning to visit as a tourist would hope not to have an emergency there.)

My father was on a multi year work assignment, though I got the impression that having US quality medical coverage got him expedited quality treatment given the lower costs/prices in China. Obviously since it was a multi year assignment, he had checked that the coverage extended to China. Agreed about tourists.

I hope you can at least get back to a sedate foxtrot or waltz, if not all the dances.

I can always adopt the Eggleton school view that “dancing is just walking to music”, though my wife hates that approach.

I don't do the quickstep or Viennese anymore myself, but that's down to worsening asthma. We all have to draw in the boundaries sometime, I guess, but we strive to perfect what we still can do. Good luck with whatever therapy you're doing!

Same basic issue - limitations on oxygen delivery. I should start going to Standard rounds again for the equivalent of physical therapy, figuring how much I need to pace myself.