Giving Up On The US Healthcare System

About this time last year, I had a heart attack. The treatment for this was to spend a week in the hospital only to be over medicated and overcharged for my stay there. I've seen a cardiologist at least once a month since then. He hasn't really done much for me even though he ought to know very well what to do. By that, I mean, that since he is the only cardiologist that my county insurance will pay for, that he should know very well what and what not the measly company will cover. All that he has accomplished is telling me of the things which I may need such as a heart valve replacement or, as in most recently, a pacemaker.

Good, I think, there are some options to help me get back to being a somewhat normal person, as he is at least giving me some options. Next, the result is that my heart is too weak for a valve replacement and the insurance has either denied everything else or they haven't gotten around to letting me know that something has been denied. Spending another week in the hospital just after hurricane Harvey blew through hasn't changed the mind of the useless insurance company either. The reason for this last hospital stay was due to atrial fibrillation, better known as AFib. After numerous shots to my stomach and countless testing, the only result to come out of this was a hospital bill the price of a slightly used house and about a dozen pills to take every day. Not all of the meds are for my heart. I've been "messed up" since suffering a traumatic brain injury when I was 17. This took place in the late 1970's. My treatment for that was medication for seizures and two weeks of physical therapy. Neither of which were of much help to me.

Imagine waking up in a hospital not knowing where you are or why you are there. I couldn't walk, as my left side was paralyzed. Most of the memories of who I was and what had happened in my first 17 years was gone as well. It's like I stepped into someone else's shoes and was trying to live there life. It just didn't work for me. The medicine for the seizures, that would come to me only later in my life, had to go as all it was doing was making me an irritable SOB. The last five months of my high school education was done through homeschooling with a teacher that came in every three days I believe.

My plans for where I was to go and who I was to be were taken away from me. No college or longterm employment was to be in my life. My attempt at going back to college, several years later, ended when someone thought texting was more important to them than noticing the road while driving.
They were approaching a stoplight with me stopped in front of them. Thanks to the unnamed driver for the back injury that ended any hopes of restarting my life.

The days of working even short time, part time or anytime for even meaningless minimum-wage jobs were taken away from me. Now that thirty years had passed since my head injury Social Security decided to pay me the monthly payments long overdue. I really wish that my parents had looked into getting a disability claim at the time of the head injury. I also wanted to kick myself in the behind for not knowing about the Americans with Disabilities Act which came about in 1990. Knowing this and using it to my advantage could have turned some short-term jobs into long-term careers.

Back from being sidetracked. Sorry if this is taking too long. It's just a thing us depressed people do. That of overwriting whatever we are sharing with you in hopes that you understand it better.

Social Security was nice enough to stop paying me when my wife passed away a few years. All they could say was that they "lost" all of my information. Without the Medicaid or Medicare, I have no way to see another doctor. The first two hearings were not enough to help them decide that my brain damage or back injury would keep me from living a normal life. I'm still waiting to find out the date of hearing number three.

The end result is that the only insurance and low-cost health care I can get is through the county that I now live in. Compared to adjoining counties the indigent health care program that I am being covered with is the worse of it's kind. I'm not going into additional details of that other than what I have already shared.

Besides the lack of offering me a useful life as a disabled person who is no longer considered disabled by the US government, all this county's blasted doctors are allowed to do is pump me full of medications that turned me into a mindless cow. I've learned more about this in detail experiencing some very unpleasant side effects including those that have caused me to question what is real and what is just false memories of mine.

Upon making notes, I have discovered that a majority of my medications were causing dizziness, severe itching, numbness, heart attack like issues as well as loss of reality. The sudden weight gain by one of the meds hasn't helped either so I've taken myself off of my psychiatry mediation and about half of my meds for seizure and heart defects. I plan on stopping the remainder once the prescriptions run out.

My doctors have been informed of this and the only reply from messages left were no replies. I'm tired of living in a system in which the health care system is based only on making money not making people healthier.

My plans are simple, no more medications for me. If I'm sick or hurt I'll just have an ambulance take me to the hospital under the false hope that there will something done to improve my condition.



This is how I feel...


One example of what it is like to have a tramatic brain injury.

Sorry to hear about your situation.
Not much I can offer asides acknowledging how crap the health care system is.
Their job is to fix us..yet it seems their priorities are to keep us sick....or in the very least, in need of their continued services.
Again, sorry to hear about your situation

a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

If you don't have family here, would you consider Canada? Their healthcare is much better for people with limited income. I have friends up there.

a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

Can you move to Canada?

a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

My heart goes out to you mate. I live in the UK and thankfully we have the NHS which has saved my Mums life after she had a heart attack and had to have a quadruple heart bypass and spend two months in hospital over the Christmas period and it cost us nothing. I don't say that to boast but to point out the difference, the NHS is there to keep us ticking over for as long as possible it isn't for profit like in the States.

It always shocks me that the States has all these god given rights but not the right to healthcare. Always shocked me and is one of the few reasons that I'd never consider going to visit the land of my cousins (although cash flow is a bigger one lol) but seriously if you can afford it try getting to Canada, they have a similar deal as we do or if you can get to the UK we have some of the best heart hospitals.

It sucks the way things work here in America. I won't take any long term medicines again. I will take short term meds and take actions to alter my diet to fix things. In your case with a bad valve, that could be impossible. I would go to a doctor that specializes in checking medicines and side effects to take away problem meds. There is a name for a specialist like that but I do not remember it. I know some people who did that with good success, there were complications with the medicines interacting with each other. The guy I know went from twenty pills a day down to three. He feels much better. I have heard of others who did that and it helped their thinking a lot. Don't wait till it is too late to do this.

When I die, I die.
I am at peace with that.
I am not going to spend my final days fretting over a #ty "health-care" system.
I have an exit plan.

I would like to thank everyone for their nice replies. I will address each later one

One thing that I forgot to mention is that the useless cardiologist had told me that without correcting my current heart issues that I could die any day now.

Per moving to Canada, if only I could. From what I understand that in order to take advantage of their healthcare I would have to at least apply to be a Canadian citizen. As a US citizen living in a country that technically owns me, I would have to present tax and bank statements for the past 7 years to prove I've been here or such. I would also have to pay a fee of about $2700 to denounce my US citizenship.

If I understood what I just read about becoming a Canadian citizen it would involve having employment, living there for about 6 months, paying an application fee of $530 and to have about $12,000 on me to prove that I'm not just moving there to take advantage of the country.

So without all of the above, without transportation to take me the 1500 or so miles, this will not be an easy thing to do. I don't think I can receive refugee status for just owning two cats.

The only option would be for a revolution to bring about proper healthcare and limited government to us in the states.

I wish I had some solutions for you.I will be saying prayers.

a reply to: kaylaluv
Canada is a non-option. Pre-existing medical conditions would keep a person out. You have to have a physical before immigration will even consider the application. You also have to have a sponsor who agrees to support you for a period of some years if you aren't working and if you apply for any sort of aid, your sponsor will be in serious trouble.

a reply to: LookingForABetterLife

Dang. I am sitting here reading this and I'm bummed out for you. At the risk of sounding trite, I will pray for you and hope that your situation improves.

originally posted by: LookingForABetterLife
Per moving to Canada, if only I could. From what I understand that in order to take advantage of their healthcare I would have to at least apply to be a Canadian citizen. As a US citizen living in a country that technically owns me, I would have to present tax and bank statements for the past 7 years to prove I've been here or such. I would also have to pay a fee of about $2700 to denounce my US citizenship.

If I understood what I just read about becoming a Canadian citizen it would involve having employment, living there for about 6 months, paying an application fee of $530 and to have about $12,000 on me to prove that I'm not just moving there to take advantage of the country.

So without all of the above, without transportation to take me the 1500 or so miles, this will not be an easy thing to do. I don't think I can receive refugee status for just owning two cats.

The only option would be for a revolution to bring about proper healthcare and limited government to us in the states.

You do not have to denounce your US citizenship. I didn't. There are many out there with dual citizenship. My youngest daughter is one of them.

You also do not have to be a citizen to get healthcare. You only need be a landed immigrant. That's what I am.

Macenroe82
Thank you for taking the time to read my thread. I think the only thing else we can do is say "Viva la revolución" and hope it happens in our lifetimes.

thepixelpusher
Dysfunctional family here that I have no problem leaving. Moving to Canada looks so not likely right now unless someone could give me a better understanding as to how I may do so. A more practical move for me would be to move somewhere in the United States that offered a better working healthcare system if there is such a thing in the US.

kaylaluv
As I was hoping to do I don't know I could.

Dwoodward85
Thank you, my friend. Moving to someplace such as the UK or Canada has been on my mind since losing my wife. As you say that we have our god given rights here in the States that reminds me of the problem. Too many doctors and others who thing they are god and don't consider us pions as equal human beings.

rickymouse
I have yet to figure out what your avatar is all about. Would that happen to be Elvis Pressley's fossilized hair on a stick?
I've sent learned that most medicines in the mental health field are for short-term use only. Not that the doctors will tell you this. I'm off of any mental health medicines for good and looking for something much simpler for my own well being such as the ancient practice of talking face to face with another human outside of family members.

skunkape23
We all started dying the day that we were born. No matter how much we spend on medical care something else is bound to come along and do us end.

buckwhizzle
Prayers are not a medical solution but that is just what the doctors want us to think. I have first-hand experience with prayers doing wonders for a person. Thank you for your prayers. They are most welcomed here.

Subrosabelow
Thank you for the incite. The only way I can think of to get in Canada would be as a refugee from the mental anguish caused by living in the States.

DictionaryOfExcuses
Your being bummed out was not my intention as I am usually the one with positive things to say about things.
Each day is a new page in my book of life. What it has in store for me is unknown other than that my cats will be in my face to wake me up to feed them.

Subrosabelow
There are so many rules and laws out there that are too confusing for me to understand. Perhaps if I make a movie out of this someone will come forward an give me a step by step on what I can do. Thanks again for being there in ATS land.

I had a heart attack and stroke at 60 about two years ago.

I had just a horrible experience. I had the stroke 6 mos before the heart attack and the same drs that treated the heart attack told me they saw it in the testing from the the stroke-but never told me.

Can't even sue them-the county I live in is major southern podunk and dirty politics between all the officials here. They removed my dear friend's healthy kidney! And she couldn't sue either/docs and judges good buddies here.

So, I agree, pathetic medicine et al.

Since then, I was able to get free total medical aid from a top notch north Atlanta Hospital and their specialists.

Maybe try that route.

My bro had a extremely serious heart valve replacement less than a year ago. Please consider the Cleveland Clinic and contact their financial aid office. I think it's #1 in this country for heart issues.

Sorry doesn't begin to state how I feel for your situation. I get it. I understand. Don't give up-you are too young and there are answers. Fight.

originally posted by: LookingForABetterLife
Macenroe82
Thank you for taking the time to read my thread. I think the only thing else we can do is say "Viva la revolución" and hope it happens in our lifetimes.

thepixelpusher
Dysfunctional family here that I have no problem leaving. Moving to Canada looks so not likely right now unless someone could give me a better understanding as to how I may do so. A more practical move for me would be to move somewhere in the United States that offered a better working healthcare system if there is such a thing in the US.

kaylaluv
As I was hoping to do I don't know I could.

Dwoodward85
Thank you, my friend. Moving to someplace such as the UK or Canada has been on my mind since losing my wife. As you say that we have our god given rights here in the States that reminds me of the problem. Too many doctors and others who thing they are god and don't consider us pions as equal human beings.

rickymouse
I have yet to figure out what your avatar is all about. Would that happen to be Elvis Pressley's fossilized hair on a stick?
I've sent learned that most medicines in the mental health field are for short-term use only. Not that the doctors will tell you this. I'm off of any mental health medicines for good and looking for something much simpler for my own well being such as the ancient practice of talking face to face with another human outside of family members.

skunkape23
We all started dying the day that we were born. No matter how much we spend on medical care something else is bound to come along and do us end.

buckwhizzle
Prayers are not a medical solution but that is just what the doctors want us to think. I have first-hand experience with prayers doing wonders for a person. Thank you for your prayers. They are most welcomed here.

Subrosabelow
Thank you for the incite. The only way I can think of to get in Canada would be as a refugee from the mental anguish caused by living in the States.

DictionaryOfExcuses
Your being bummed out was not my intention as I am usually the one with positive things to say about things.
Each day is a new page in my book of life. What it has in store for me is unknown other than that my cats will be in my face to wake me up to feed them.

Subrosabelow
There are so many rules and laws out there that are too confusing for me to understand. Perhaps if I make a movie out of this someone will come forward an give me a step by step on what I can do. Thanks again for being there in ATS land.

Yeah, face to face conversation is risky, you might find a real friend that way. I used to be very outgoing, a meek extrovert who talked to everyone, able to strike up a conversation with anyone. Now, I did it so many years, I feel like in retirement I want to just chill out at home. I don't want to go travel around the country and meet more people, I know a thousand people, actually maybe not that many anymore, lots of them are dying.

I spent my years as a social butterfly. I think I was obsessed or possessed with the feeling I needed to be part of society. I did my time, and now I want to just be "anonymouse".

I have a picture of the rock in a link on my wall here as it was found, the hole which is shaped like a marrow hole is filled with stranded clay yet in the picture, the fiber of the handle still existed. It takes a long time for the fiber to break down in clay.

For what it's worth, my dad (65yo) had a heart attack last year while visiting me and my family in the Cincinnati area.

He had to have three stents put into the arteries at his heart, where he had blockages of 99%, 85%, and 75%. The artery that caused the heart attack was the "widowmaker," and he could have very easily died that day had he not been relatively close to the hospital at the time and if it weren't' for the EMTs in the ambulance that mitigated the heart attack on the way to the cardiologist.

His experience was wonderful (as far as having a nearly deadly heart attack goes) and he couldn't say enough good things about the hospital, the cardiologist, and his nurses over his 5-day stay in the hospital.

Leave my area to go home, and he can't stand the cardiologist that he has in California.

The beef shouldn't be with America's healthcare, it should be directly with the people with whom you're having the terrible experience, because even in nations where there is nationalized healthcare, people still have good and bad experiences depending on where they live and the doctors that they see.

I wish the OP the best in figuring out the situation, but the healthcare system in the U.S. is not to blame--the health-insurance system, that's another story altogether.

a reply to: Subrosabelow

You do not have to denounce your US citizenship. I didn't. There are many out there with dual citizenship. My youngest daughter is one of them.

I've heard that the US collects income tax from Americans living in Canada until they give up their American citizenship. They've gone after people and collected thousands retroactively.
Double check on that, for you and your daughter.

While I'm trying to waken to pretend that I am a functioning human I read my emails. This one I had to pass on to everyone.

One of the odd things about people is that survival is not enough. If my survival is threatened, of course I work hard to save myself. But once my survival isn’t threatened any more, I’m left feeling empty. Just surviving doesn't make me happy. I need connection with other people, a sense of belonging, fun things to do, dreams, goals, aspirations...
--- Roger Fritz

a reply to: LookingForABetterLife It sounds like you have figured out the healthcare system. It wouldn't make any difference if you had the best insurance in the world. What you would get is an attempt to stop your symptoms and of course you get new one from the drugs you are taking. You don't have to be a helpless victom, however.

You can get many benefits from eating healthy food, exercising to the level you are able and learning to relax . In the end you have to take charge of your health. Learn about the drugs you are prescribed and decide if they are worth it. We are programmed to be so helpless, but it doesn't have to be that way. Many problems can occur from taking multiple drugs, you may not need all of them.

Justso
Doctors only tell us what they think we need to know, not the truth as to how we are doing. I lost a sister-in-law to a non-repairable brain tumor that her doctor saw no point in telling her about it as there was nothing he could do for her.

In 2001 I was admitted to the hospital for having a heart attack like symptoms and the onset of pneumonia. The so-called heart specialist found nothing wrong with my heart. From some of the testing that I have had with my most recent heart attack, the doctors saw proof that my 2001 heart attack symptoms were the result of a real heart attack due to all the scarring.

My overly medicated wife passed away in 2014. Since then I have wondered which if any of her medicines contributed to her death. Last night just out of the blue I found a story that shows that doctor mistakes cause 9000 times more deaths each year than by accidental gunshots.

rickymouse
I would love to have the opportunity to be away from this home to be with new friends (those who I don't even know yet). There is only one friend I have in the world outside of the internet world. As she works two full-time jobs and lives about 80 miles from me the friendship has deteriorated to an occasional text. Living someplace with little if any forms of transportation other than your own has stopped the world from being a part of my life. A walking cane and my two feet don't get me very far.

SlapMonkey
Thank you for your wishes in trying to make sense of what is going on. I'm not trying to put all the blame on the doctors involved in my so-called health care. It's the system that they have to work with that is causing the problem. Blaming one doctor is like blaming a German soldier (other than Hitler) for starting WWII. I'm just so frustrated that I live someplace where proper health care is a privilege, not a right.

snowspirit
So true, the US government is out to get as many pennies from a person no matter where they live.