Yes, I have bagged on doctors a little harsh lately. I think it’s just an old problem of my being talked down to by someone who I have no clue what their actual ability is. Doctors do play an essential role in healthcare; I know shocking right? So do nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants. We all have a different assignment, and we all have a different strength, so instead of spending so much time trying to one-up each other, we should spend that time collaborating like 90% of us do. The jury is out with me on whether I think DNPs should use the title doctor. I believe in our profession it can be a little misleading because it does indicate a different type and level of schooling. All in all, everyone needs to ease up and work together to provide patient care which they do anyway without me telling them.
With measles being so much in the news a couple of interesting things have come to light. Most healthcare providers are little baffled that they see a case of measles because thanks to vaccines the disease was nearly eradicated. However, we all decided that the book written by a Playboy model in the words of Deuce Bigelow American gigolo were far more educated than anyone who has spent their careers dealing with infectious diseases. I recently saw an interview where the doctor initially wasn’t sure what kind of rash the patient had and said I had to take a minute and look it up for comparison. If you think back to before the MMR vaccine physicians could identify this walking through the door of the clinic, if you look in cemeteries before the MMR vaccine, you will see quadruple the number of headstones for children. Even with advances in “modern medicine” as providers, we are mostly stuck helping a parent let the disease run its course. We have magical treatments that weren’t around before the MMR vaccine. The MMR vaccine was designed, so we didn’t have to treat it. Okay, Nursie poo will get off of his soapbox.
Many people don’t know who Carrie Ann Lucas was. Carrie and Lucas was a disability rights activist and attorney. She assisted the Colorado legislature in passing the family preservation for parents with disabilities act, and she was a powerful advocate (that’s an understatement) for disability rights. Lucas, who had a rare form of muscular dystrophy, used a power wheelchair and a ventilator. She also had low vision, was hard of hearing, and had type 1 diabetes. She died after an arbitrary denial from an insurance company caused a plethora of health problems, exacerbating her disabilities and eventually leading to her premature death.”
Access to health care was always a top priority for Lucas. Indeed, as a member of ADAPT, a grassroots group of disability rights activists, Lucas gained national attention in June 2017 after staging a multi-day protest inside the office of Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO). The group was fighting Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Doing so would have resulted in decreased Medicaid funding and would have jeopardized services and supports that allow people with disabilities to live in their communities. “This issue is just too critically important for my independence and that of my children, so I felt like it was time to do more,” Lucas told Rewire. News at the time.
According to her Facebook page.
Her health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, refused to pay for a specific medication she needed, owing to its cost of $2,000. Consequently, she had to take a different and less-effective medication, which caused deleterious reactions. Lucas’ health rapidly declined, resulting in numerous hospital stays over the last year and the loss of her ability to speak. The obituary on her Facebook noted, “United Healthcare’s attempt to save $2,000 cost over $1 million in health care costs over the past year.”
This comes from Rewire. News and it demonstrates the level of bullshit that we’ve had to endure from insurance companies. I was going back to some of the debate on healthcare a few years ago regarding the ACA and listening to the bobbleheads talk about death panels. This insurance company did just that and why isn’t that a problem for those bobbleheads. I’ll tell you why because they don’t know anything about what they’re talking about they couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation about healthcare without cue cards and a research department — spending time listening to anyone who makes a living as a talking head on television is not where to get your best information about a particular subject. We lost journalism back in the 80s and since then have had a slant put on the news. Journalism is dead just by the fact that a news reporter can spend time giving you their personal opinion.
We need people like Carrie Ann Lucas and anybody else with common decency to realize that healthcare is required a lot more than an ego wall. $8.3 billion would do a lot for healthcare and access for the disabled. I told you this is a political blog but it does get political and I call out idiocy when I see it — $ 8.3 billion wasted on an ego.
Well, the bats and I are going back to motorcycle maintenance. Be kind to yourselves and others.