Wednesday, February 12, 2014

They are finally awake.

Today I had to see my primary care physician. I don't have anything wrong with me. But to get my doctor to keep spitting out my thyroid pills like a pez dispenser I have to go in twice a year. Since prescription refills are all I really need, I get to spend a lot of time just chatting and catching up. Oh yes. You heard that right. Hey, I'm paying for an hour. That is how I'm spending my hour!

I was pretty apprehensive because even though I adore this guy, I'm at the stage where I'm not going along to get along.  At all. That's bullshit man. Not that I ever have been, but some things you are gentle about to be polite or not to look crazy. Especially when everyone is on the opposite side of the fence as you are. I think it's insane anyone on earth thought Obamacare would be a good thing and I'm not shy about saying it.

Last year I was still in the crazy camp. Read "Soon everyone will be Awake" from last October. The people they really need to reach to keep them out of the emergency rooms are not computer literate, or medically literate. Meaning people are set in their ways. No amount of poking them with a stick is going to get them to change their behaviour. Like morbidly obese people. Have you seen the sores these people get? If that doesn't change your behaviour - nothing will.

My doctor was first in line at the Obamacare trough. All the doctors I know were. They mean well - but honestly - most people don't think too deeply about things. The US isn't Canada. And while I'm not an expert on Canada - we have problems they don't. Like Illegal immigrants, and a homeless population that I can't imagine Canada has. Hell, even Canada's homeless come here! It's easy to sleep on the streets in at least half of the country because of the weather. All of the Bay Area has a pretty intense Urban Camping population. When you freeze to death, you kinda look for a job or find family.

So anyway... I wanted to find out how things were going for doctors. Since they all supported it an all. Yet, I was afraid he'd say something that I'd have to resist the urge to tell him he was batshit crazy for thinking. And that is a lot of effort right now. Again, they mean well. They want to do the right thing, but human behaviour doesn't care about you meaning well. That is just the bottom line. Underline it.

Turns out - President Money Bags is killing them with paperwork. Killing them! All I wanted to do is make sure my doctor still took cash because I don't want to lose him. Insurance plans like mine will be taxed at 40%. So, those companies are going to start dropping them. I think in open enrollment in October ( but I admit I'm not really sure of the date. Next open enrollment will be when the real fury begins. Mark my words)

The funny thing about doctors is - if you pay them cash - they give you a cash discount because they don't have to file all of that paperwork. I started out with this guy on cash because I didn't have insurance. Yet it seems most people don't pay at the time of service, or at all - so almost no one knows this. It's frustrating.

It doesn't feel as good as I thought it would to see them suffer at their own hands. Like I said - I think my doctor means well. He looked exhausted like I've never seen him. He said he spends until midnight every night now because of the rigid requirements the administration is putting on them.

Then I popped over to my chiropractor who is having a completely different problem because his clients (like me) are more likely to pay cash. We didn't get to talk that long, but he got on the topic of medicaid. He was thankful he didn't have that many. But as I was leaving he went to whisper mode and he said the following to me - "you can't fuck with medicaid because you will go to jail"! Since Medicaid isn't really on my radar and I didn't bring it up - it made me think that doctors are scared shitless about it. It's also probably why doctors are refusing to take it. The other thing I found super interesting was - he thought the system was only going to get worse. Which was a huge shock to me because he's the reason I made that post about everyone being awake soon. He was almost cradling the balls of Obamacare.

Last October, no one thought this would affect them. It's why they didn't fight against it. Now they are figuring out how wrong they were. Which I think is a good sign.




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