Sicko

[archangel]

Interesting you point at Walter Reed, a GOVERNMENT RUN HOSPITAL. I specifically didn't mention that in hopes you'd mention it.

 

Glad you did. THAT, Jax, is what Government run Health Care looks like.

 

again, you can have it.

Facilities with black mold, mice and cockroaches might seem acceptable for a quarter of all soldier injured in Iraq and Afghanistan to you, but not to me.

Oh?

 

Can you point out where I said I find this acceptable?

 

Until you do, I'll await your apology.

 

And I would better those are rural clinic. But, like Lindsay said, Havana Hospital is not a 'tourist hospital', as her boyfriend and sibling were born there and probably got any treatment they needed there. Take note of it, as you are writing his biography now.

no, but pictures speak a thousand words, and LL didn't say he was contending my pictures.

 

Grasping at straws again, Jax. Socialized health care DOESN'T WORK, as Walter Reed illustrates.

 

One thing that's in the cuban pictures that arent' in the ones you posted Jax, patients. Can you say without doubt these are areas of the hospital that are actually in use?

Some of them were, sadly, while a large portion wasn't. A lot of the area was designated for reconstruction, according to the Army, but they had a large influx of patients and had to move them into the parts of the building that weren't ready.

 

I don't think it's a valid explanation, and am glad that heads rolled.

 

 

My question, though, is why hasn't this come out before? With Presidential Candidates, Congressmen and Senators, and even the President visiting that hospital for every photo op they can get, how is it NO ONE saw this?

[Reverend Jax]

That is what Socialized Medicine looks like in a country not committed to Socialized Medicine. We are not discussing something theoretical here, it works in the WHOLE of the Western world with the USA as the only exception. Also, I remember going to a private clinic in rural West Virginia when I lived there. Not pretty.

[archangel]

Here's an inside tale on Walter Reed, and that terrible building.

 

What you saw there isn't even widespread at Walter Reed, but the fact that soldiers had to endure that is terrible.

 

FROM THE CHIEF OF CHAPLAINS WRAMC

 

I have had enough and am going to give my perspective on the news about Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Please understand that I am speaking for myself and I am responsible for my thoughts alone. The news media and politicians are making it sound like Walter Reed is a terrible place and the staff here has been abusing our brave wounded soldiers; what a bunch of bull!

 

I am completing my 24th year of service in the Army next month so you decide for yourself if I have the experience to write about this topic. I have been the senior clinical chaplain at Walter Reed for four years and will leave to go back to the infantry this summer. I supervise the chaplain staff inside Walter Reed that cares for the 200 inpatients, the 650+ daily outpatients from the war who come to us for medical care, the 4000+ staff, and over 3000 soldiers and their families that come for clinical appointments daily.

 

Walter Reed has cared for over 5500 wounded from the war. I cannot count the number of sick and non-battle injured that have come through over that timeframe. The staff at this facility has done an incredible job at the largest US military medical center with the worst injured of the war. We have cared for over 400 amputees and their families. I am privileged to serve the wounded, their families, and our staff.

 

When the news about building 18 broke I was on leave. I was in shock when the news broke.

We in the chaplains office in Walter Reed, as well as the majority of people at Walter Reed, did not know anyone was in building 18. I didn’t even know we had a building 18.

How can that happen?

Walter Reed is over 100 acres of 66 buildings on two installations. Building 18 is not on the installation of Walter Reed and was believed to be closed years ago by our department.

 

The fact that some leaders in the medical brigade that are in charge of the outpatients put soldiers in there is terrible. That is why the company commander, first sergeant, and a group of platoon leaders and platoon sergeants were relieved immediately. They failed their soldiers and the Army. The commanding general was later relieved (more about this) and his sergeant major has been told to move on–if he gets to. The brigade sergeant major was relieved and more reliefs are sure to come and need to.

 

As any leader knows, if you do not take care of soldiers, lie, and then try to cover it up, you are not worthy of the commission you hold and should be sent packing. I have no issue, and am actually proud, that they did relieve the leaders they found who knew of the terrible conditions some of our outpatients were enduring.

The media is making it sound like these conditions are rampant at Walter Reed and nothing could be further from the truth.

We need improvements and will now get them. I hate it that it took this to make it happen.

 

The Army and the media made MG Weightman, our CG, out to be the problem and fired him. This was a great injustice. He was only here for six months, is responsible for military medical care in the 20 Northeast states, wears four “hats” of responsibilities, and relies on his subordinate leaders to know what is happening in their areas of responsibilities. He has a colonel that runs the hospital (my hospital commander), a colonel that runs the medical brigade (where the outpatient wounded are assigned and supposedly cared for), and a colonel that is responsible to run the garrison and installation.

 

What people don’t know is that he was making many changes as he became aware of them and had requested money to fix other places on the installation. The Army did not come through until four months after he asked for the money, remember that he was here only six months, which was only days before they relieved him. His leaders responsible for outpatient care did not tell him about conditions in building 18. He has been an incredible leader who really cares about the wounded, their families, and our staff. I cannot say the same about a former commander, who was my first commander here at Walter Reed, and definitely knew about many problems and is in the position to fix them and he did not.

 

MG Weightman also should not be held responsible for the military’s unjust and inefficient medical board system and the problems in the VA system. We lost a great leader and passionate man who showed he had the guts to make changes and was doing so when he was made the scapegoat for others.

 

What I am furious about is that the media is making it sound like all of Walter Reed is like building 18. Nothing could be further from the truth.

No system is perfect but the medical staff provides great care in this hospital. What needs to be addressed, and finally will, is the bureaucratic garbage that all soldiers are put through going into medical boards and medical retirements. Congress is finally giving the money that people have asked for at Walter Reed for years to fix places on the installations and address shortcomings.

What they don’t want you to know is Congress caused many problems by the BRAC process saying they were closing Walter Reed.

 

We cannot keep nor attract all the quality people we need at Walter Reed when they know this place will close in several years and they are not promised a job at the new hospital.

Then they did this thing called A76 where they fired many of the workers here for a company of contractors, IAP, to get a contract to provide care outside the hospital proper. The company, which is responsible for maintenance, only hired half the number of people as there were originally assigned to maintenance areas to save money. Walter Reed leadership fought the A76 and BRAC process for years, but lost.

Congress instituted the BRAC and A76 process; not the leadership of Walter Reed.

 

What I wish everyone would also hear is that for every horror story we are now hearing about in the media that truly needs to be addressed,

you are not hearing about the hundreds of other wounded and injured soldiers who tell a story of great care they received. You are not hearing about the incredibly high morale of our troops and the fact that most of them want to go back, be with their teammates, and finish the job properly.

You should be very proud of the wounded troopers we have at Walter Reed . They make me so proud to be in the Army and I will fight to get their story out.

 

I want you to hear the whole story because our wounded, their families, our Army, and the nation need to know that many in the media and select politicians have an agenda. Forget agendas and make the changes that have been needed for years to fix problems in every military hospital and the VA system. The poor leaders will be identified and sent packing and good riddance to them. I wish the same could be said for the politicians and media personalities who are also responsible but now want it to look like they are very concerned. Where have they been for the last four years? I am ashamed of what they all did and the pain it has caused many to think that everyone is like that.

 

Please know that you are not hearing the whole story. Please know that there are thousands of dedicated soldiers and civilian medical staff caring for your soldiers and their families. When I leave here I will end up deploying. When soldiers in my division have to go to Walter Reed from the battlefield, I know they will get great medical care.

 

I pray that you know the same thing.

 

God bless all our troops and their families wherever they may be.

 

God bless you all,

 

Chaplain John L. Kallerson

Senior Chaplain Clinician

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

 

 

it works in the WHOLE of the Western world with the USA as the only exception.

Works?

 

Is that why you have to wait almost a year for hip replacement surgery in the UK and Canada?

 

Is that why European Hospitals, compared to American ones (like Jackson, not private hospitals) are obsolete and often have to share one or two major pieces of equipment for the entire hospital?

 

Is that why there's a long ass waiting list for, well, practically EVERYTHING?

 

The good thing about that system is the preventative medicine people CAN take advantage of...but people DON'T take advantage of it (here anyways). But if you require surgery, you're going to be waiting. For a LONG while. That's where there's an effective Black Market of prosthetic hips from the US to Canada.

 

And that's not even going INTO the ENORMOUS Taxes required to have such a system in place, one that is crippling the European Economy.

 

Sorry buddy, but Socialized Health Care DOES NOT WORK.

[La Lindsay]

sorry, but I disagree whole heartedly with you. As bad and rundown as some of our hospitals may get, there's no way they'd ever let it deteriorate to THAT level of disgust, with flies, roaches, and human excrement all over the place.

 

Those places were disasters.

 

I can't vouch for Europe, though, seeing as I've never seen their hospitals. I'm curious if the Euros would speak up and tell us if their hospitals, even the worst onese, resemble those in Cuba.

 

But again, the point here is that Michael Moore is being a tool for Fidel Castro, and he's using these poor sick people to make false statemetns.

 

 

no, i mean that i expect to see that occur in any country to a certain extent. i never said that our rural or urban area clinics were to the level of cuba's or any other underdeveloped or developing nation's clinics. i'm just saying the same concept exists in other countries and the lack of resources will just exacerbate the problem like it has in cuba.

[Reverend Jax]

And that's not even going INTO the ENORMOUS Taxes required to have such a system in place, one that is crippling the European Economy.

Yes, that's why the Euro isn't worth the money it's printed on.

 

Also, I just got the statistics on the number of people who died this year because they didn't get a hip replacement in a timely manner. What's this? Zero? Yeah, it's an elective procedure. Boohoo.

[La Lindsay]

if anything, a very good aspect of universal health care is that doctors get to be doctors, nurses get to be nurses, techs get to be techs, not this half-doctor/nurse half-administrative paper pusher bullshit. as someone who has worked in a hospital and dealt with various insurances, it takes more effort and time trying to coordinate the care between what home health care business takes what insurance or whether a skilled nursing facility has a bed for the patient or if the managed care beds were full, or whether or not a skilled nursing facility happened to still take that particular insurance because they may have stopped dealing with that insurance company because they don't pay them for their services (bcbs is really bad about that), rather than spending time with the patients and doing your job. and some people don't get discharged on time or at all because no one will take their insurance for the particular problem they need help with. aside from medicare, every insurance was a pain in the ass to deal with and made me hate all the enormous amount of paperwork that needed to be filled out constantly or copied and faxed.

[La Lindsay]

An interview with Michael Moore from here.

 

Michael Moore Aims His Lens at U.S. Health Care

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

America’s multimedia muckraker prescribes a healthy dose of socialized medicine

By Dan Briody for MSN Health & Fitness

 

 

Love him or hate him, he’s hard to ignore. And when documentary filmmaker and fulltime muckraker Michael Moore unleashes his latest film “Sicko” on the American public June 29, he will once again be squarely in the public’s eye, this time pontificating on the state of America’s health care system.

 

Though “Sicko” opens with one of Moore’s favorite targets—the opening scene shows President Bush proclaiming that “too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country”—the film is decidedly less political than “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore’s scathing criticism of the Iraq war. “Sicko” is essentially a string of personal horror stories told by Americans without health insurance, or those that had it but couldn’t get their HMOs to pay up. It uses Moore’s patented one-two punch of humor and pathos to make a simple point: A great nation like America should have universal health care.

 

MSN Health & Fitness spoke with Moore on the eve of the film’s opening to get his thoughts on the political nature of the health care debate, his role in that debate, and why he chose to take a boatload of sick people to Cuba for treatment. Following is an edited version of that conversation.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: How political an issue is health care?

 

MOORE: It shouldn’t be. It should not be a partisan issue. It should be an issue that people of all different political persuasions can come together on. Everyone gets sick. Everyone has to see the doctor. Everyone is vulnerable and might face a time in their life when the system isn’t going to work for them, because it’s not set up to care for everyone. So I’m hoping that liberals and conservatives can find some common ground on this issue.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: That brings up an interesting point. Many people view you as a politically polarizing force. Have you thought about how that reputation affects this debate?

 

MOORE: First of all, I don’t consider myself to be a polarizing force. What I’ve done is make films that stand up for the little guy and ask questions the mainstream media isn’t asking. I’ve made films about General Motors laying people off. About the gun culture and school shootings. About being led to war for fictitious reasons. And every time I’ve made a film it ends up that what I’m saying is eventually something that the majority of Americans agree with. So when you find yourself in agreement with 70 percent of the public—as I do now—I wouldn’t call that polarizing. I would call that someone who is really in touch with where the mainstream majority is at.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: Is there anything good about the American system of health care?

 

MOORE: Yeah, the quality of it is quite good. If you’re able to use it, and you have a good doctor, you’ll often find that the quality of the system is good. But the problem is that 47 million don’t have access to it. And many that do have insurance often find out that the insurance company doesn’t want to pay for it, and they become bankrupt. Medical bills are the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy and the No. 1 cause of homelessness.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: What is your personal experience with the health care system?

 

MOORE: Nothing but good. Right now I have Director’s Guild insurance. I have very good health insurance. I’m part of the 9 percent of the non-governmental workforce that belongs to a union, so as a result of that I have very good coverage. But I don’t just make films on things that affect me. I look to see what I can do to help others who are not as lucky as I am. So I wasn’t going to have a kid being sent to Iraq, but that didn’t stop me from making “Fahrenheit 9/11.” I don’t have a kid who was a victim of a school shooting, but that wasn’t a requirement for me to make “Bowling for Columbine.” And I wasn’t laid off from General Motors (as were many people featured in the 1989 film “Roger & Me”). So I try to do films where I can use the resources that I have to get into the issues that affect other people that may not have the resources that I have.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: You make some pretty convincing cases for the systems of health care in France, Canada, and the U.K. Is there anything about those systems that you didn’t like?

 

MOORE: In France? No. France has a perfect system. You’ll find, in the attacks against me and the film, they’ll never use France as a whipping boy. The French have figured it out. The British and Canadian systems are very good, but they’ve been under-funded for a number of years so they have some problems with waiting times for non-emergency things. But the Brits have brought the waiting times down, and so have the Canadians. And the people are somewhat satisfied with what’s been done.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: You hinted in the film that the real culprit in America’s health care wars isn’t actually the HMOs, but rather the American culture of consumerism and debt, and the cycle of financial dependency that it creates.

 

MOORE: The point is made in the film that when you have a nation in debt, carrying so much personal debt, people essentially become wage slaves. Because they don’t have a choice but to work jobs, often jobs they don’t even like. I was interviewed today by a freelancer, a cancer survivor. He said the only way he was able to make it was that his wife was able to tie herself down to a dead-end job. But because her job had health insurance, she did it so he could live. It’s a remarkable way for employers to have control over their employees. Because clearly she was not going to give them any trouble, or form a union, because she can’t lose that health care. It creates a system of control—as do all the other things that put us into debt, whether it’s college loans or whatever. We are carrying the largest credit card debt we’ve ever had, more personal debt than we’ve ever had. And it really helps the system to have millions of employees that are going to behave themselves, because if they lost their jobs, they’d be in real trouble.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: Did you learn anything in during filming that really surprised you?

 

MOORE: Yes. I was surprised when a British doctor told me that his salary each year, his bonuses, are all based on how many of his patients are healthier at the end of the year. If he has patients that lower their cholesterol, or lower their blood pressure, or he’s gotten them to quit smoking, he makes more money. He makes more money depending on how well his patients do. I’d never heard of such a thing. What a simple idea. What a great idea.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: In the film you take a group of people whose health was affected by the work they did at Ground Zero following Sept. 11to Cuba for treatment. Given the three good models of health care systems—in France, Canada, and the U.K.—why choose to take these folks to Cuba, of all places?

 

MOORE: Well it wasn’t Cuba, at first. There was so much irony when I found out that the Al Qaeda detainees were receiving better health care than the 9/11 rescue workers. So the people that we accuse of plotting 9/11 have free universal health care down in Guantanamo Bay, and the people that went to Ground Zero to rescue people are not getting their medical ailments taken care of. These are ailments that were caused by working at Ground Zero. So I decided to take them down to the American part of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay. But when we were not received there, I sought to get them help while we were there in Cuba. I think Americans don’t feel very good about the fact that a poor, third-world country is able to do as good, and in some cases better, than we do here in America. And they have fewer resources.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: You’ve been getting some heat from the Treasury Department about that trip. What’s the status of that battle?

 

MOORE: Well, they’re investigating and I’m fighting it. They’re not going to drop it.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: You’ve held up Canada in several of your films as a somewhat idyllic place. Why don’t you just live there instead?

 

MOORE: I grew up on the Canadian border, and when you live in Michigan, you almost live in Canada. I guess I would like us to be more Canadian-like. Instead of moving to Canada, bring some of what Canada’s got to the U.S. Bring some of that Canadian mentality. You know, like, you don’t just invade other countries whenever you feel like it. You take care of your people. And on and on with all the other great ideas the Canadian people have. I mean, if your neighbor was doing something better than you were doing it, you’d see them doing it and maybe you might copy it.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: In your best-case scenario, what comes about as a result of this film?

 

MOORE: The best thing would be for people to start operating with the concept of “we” instead of “me.” In the decisions they make in their daily lives, to think about their connection to their fellow citizens—that would be a wonderful thing. And if we start thinking like that, everything else would fall into place.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: And what are those things that need to fall into place?

 

MOORE: Creating a universal health care system in this country. That would be one thing. Also, college education should be free. I don’t ever want to hear again that we don’t have the money for something. This war has proven that when we want to come up with the money for something, we’ve got the money.

 

MSN Health & Fitness: Do you think this film will make a difference?

 

MOORE: I hope so, but you never know. I believe that boiling just beneath the surface is the anger of millions of Americans over a really broken system. And the politicians should pay heed to that.

 

so there you have it. i don't know about medical debt being the #1 cause of homelessness (which is a much more complex and multi-factored issue than just being in a huge debt) but i mainly wanted to post this to clear up the "why did he go to cuba?" thing.

[archangel]

no, i mean that i expect to see that occur in any country to a certain extent. i never said that our rural or urban area clinics were to the level of cuba's or any other underdeveloped or developing nation's clinics. i'm just saying the same concept exists in other countries and the lack of resources will just exacerbate the problem like it has in cuba.

Urban Hospitals, because of overcrowding, lack of funds, hospitals going into the red because of unpaid services, etc. But again, if you look at a hospital like, say, Jackson compared to an average hospital in Cuba, Jackson looks state of the art, modern, clean, and brand new.

 

Yes, that's why the Euro isn't worth the money it's printed on.

Think about that: it's taken the consolidation of, what? 27 European economies to give themselves a passable economy, and yet they're still struggling there, as we see with France and Britain. Their socialism is costing them a fortune, and they simply cannot afford it.

 

Also, I just got the statistics on the number of people who died this year because they didn't get a hip replacement in a timely manner. What's this? Zero? Yeah, it's an elective procedure. Boohoo.

so so long as they stay alive it's ok? I see.

 

So an elderly woman with osteoporosis in her hips who's forced to wait an entire year in excrutiating pain bent over double because she simply cannot stand upright without passing out from pain is supposed to feel better because 'at least you're not dead'.

 

Riiiiight.

 

btw, here are some articles on how the British system has it's own share of MAJOR problems.

 

Arthritis patients denied drugs

 

Too successful: the hospitals forced to introduce minimum waiting times

 

In a Dentist Shortage, British Do It Themselves

 

Doctors opt to have private operations

 

British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine

 

*There's No Place Like Home

 

*No new hips or knees for fat patients

 

*Go private or wait 80 weeks, patient told

 

Sex health crisis swamps clinics

 

Toothache Boy nearly Died

 

Tax-funded NHS 'cannot go on'

 

In Conclusion: Socialism DOES NOT WORK.

 

on Moore:

 

Well it wasn't Cuba, at first. There was so much irony when I found out that the Al Qaeda detainees were receiving better health care than the 9/11 rescue workers. So the people that we accuse of plotting 9/11 have free universal health care down in Guantanamo Bay, and the people that went to Ground Zero to rescue people are not getting their medical ailments taken care of. These are ailments that were caused by working at Ground Zero. So I decided to take them down to the American part of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay. But when we were not received there, I sought to get them help while we were there in Cuba.

well, first things first: the reason we give the detainees a form of health care our politicians don't receive is because of International Law and because International Organizations will be breathing down our necks if we didn't, and charging torture, etc. NOT because we want to.

 

Secondly: if they turned you away...why not hitch a ride to Paris, or Toronto, or London? It's only, at max, an 8 hour flight...if these people waited, what? 5 years for treatment, and they were able to travel to Cuba, then they can certaintly wait an extra few hours to go to a country who's leaders are NOT exploiting and torturing their own people while living an extravagant life.

 

That's just me.

 

I think Americans don't feel very good about the fact that a poor, third-world country is able to do as good, and in some cases better, than we do here in America.

It's a good thing they wont have to feel bad about that, because that country CAN'T do as good or better as we can. At all.

[archangel]

oh, btw, in one of the articles, this was said:

 

But a handwritten note at the end of the letter gave a telephone number for the hospital’s “self-pay” private clinic, where she could have the procedure in two weeks for £983.

 

Bunny had to have the exact same scan done to her a year ago. The insurance paid a grand total of $420 with contrast.

 

Here's the receipt

btw, this is a bill Bunny received DIRECTLY from the hospital (they had written down the wrong insurance number, so the insurance said 'that doesn't exist' and they billed her as an uninsured person. It was later fixed).

 

 

Now...I'm not exactly a math wiz....but if they're charging £983 for this exact same proceedure....that makes it...

 

1964.6238 USD.

 

Ok...so how, exactly, is this better than ours?

 

Oh yea...and it also didn't take 80 weeks. didn't even take 26. It took 1 and that's because it was HER earliest convenience.

[crimsonfire]

I'm a latecomer to this thread and im not reading back through everything so i'll just say this:

 

Another Michael Moore movie? *Groan* The guy just annoys me.

[Senshik]

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't really heard any of the Euro kids state their opinion about their HealthCare System. Is it really as is portrayed in Moore's film?

 

Come on! I want to know if it's worth moving over there. I'm seriously thinking about it.

[the division of joy]

well, i havent seen it, i'm not too sure if its out here or not, but i find our health care a bit of a joke... the government say they need more nurses which is why more hospital wings are being closed down, and waiting times are up and up... the last time i was up there for my own personal needs i was waiting 6 hours to get seen over my thumb... and i got charged through the teeth for an xray and a bandage

[La Lindsay]

so what you're saying is that it's like america but with shorter waiting periods to be seen.

[the division of joy]

you mean.. you gotta wait longer in america?

 

for once im glad to be irish....

[La Lindsay]

a lot of the average wait times for non-emergency issues (i.e. not a stroke, heart attack, TIA, or pneumonia) were at least 8 hours, usually more...especially after 6 or 7 PM. and that's at a private for-profit hospital. i've heard that the wait time at the county hospital is even worse, even for emergencies.

[the division of joy]

i remember when i broke my shoulder down in the back arse of nowhere cork, i was brought to the local hospital and waited 12 hours so be seen... that was agony

[Reverend Jax]

When you say you were charged through the teeth, how much are you talking here? In the thousands? Tens of thousands?

[the division of joy]

When you say you were charged through the teeth, how much are you talking here? In the thousands? Tens of thousands?

 

well for an xray and getting it bandaged up, it cost about 250ish

[La Lindsay]

well for an xray and getting it bandaged up, it cost about 250ish

 

well, if that's paying through the teeth for you, if you ever have plans of coming to the U.S., I highly recommend that you get travelers insurance first to cover you during your stay.

[The NZA]

I'll download the movie and watch it, and ONLY because I can only truly comment on the movie once I've seen it. But no dime of mine is going to that commie fuck.

 

that statement was like 3 pages ago; what happened to that?

 

im gonna watch it tonight. those who are just making fat jokes on Moore: reviews say its more about the movie than him, so you might wanna, you know, check things out before forming an opinion, too.

 

ps Awful Truth was great, shame i just never had an opportunity to see it more. Does anyone have it?

[Newtype]

I went to the emergency room around 7 P.M. I had to wait 4 hours in the waiting room before I was taken in . The next few hours I'm being told that I have kidney stones or that it's gas that causing the pain that I'm feeling. Never mind the fact that I telling them that I've been throwing up something black for hours so it can't be kidney stones or gas. So sometime in the early morning they bring in a doctor to check me out. He asked me where was I feeling the pain to which showed him and he poked me in that spot. I like to point out I was full with drugs that made my body feel numb yet when he touched that spot I was screaming in pain. Turn out it was a brust appendix and my body was purging the waste trying to keep me alive. They turn around and said they'll start operating around 5-6 PM. The doctor in his own words called the others Idiot and that I won't be alive by that time seeing it's been over 12 hours at that point. The best part out of this was when I was in texas visiting nick my healthcare insurance was canceled and my appendix brust a week after I got back. So my total bill for 3-4 day at the hospital was 50,000 + dollars. When I got the bill I went to lawyer and declared bankruptcy cause no way was I going to pay them for almost getting me killed and lets face it but I wasn't about to spend the rest of my life paying that bill.

[The NZA]

wow, i didnt know it came to alla that - that's 2 of us that had to sell our shit and declare bankruptcy over medical expenses. we should form a club.

[Newtype]

wow, i didnt know it came to alla that - that's 2 of us that had to sell our shit and declare bankruptcy over medical expenses. we should form a club.

 

Yeah no kidding.

[Reverend Jax]

well for an xray and getting it bandaged up, it cost about 250ish

Consider yourself lucky.

[the division of joy]

well, if that's paying through the teeth for you, if you ever have plans of coming to the U.S., I highly recommend that you get travelers insurance first to cover you during your stay.

 

 

Consider yourself lucky.

 

well in retrospect, yea, it wasnt too bad, but at the time i was a broke student....