LAT: Uninsured adults face yearlong delays for some surgeries

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-wait25jul25,1,5960669.story?coll=la-commun-los_angeles_metro&ctrack=1&cset=true

Adults with no health insurance face waits up to a year or longer for gallbladder or hernia surgery in Los Angeles County, a backlog that community clinic doctors say has worsened since the county downsized Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital last year.

...

With a quarter of the county's adult population lacking insurance, patients have always had to wait a long time. But delays are growing longer as the population ages and suffers complications from such chronic conditions as diabetes and obesity.

Now tell me again about the terrible waits for surgery that Canadians have?

Tell me how private insurance provides better care than "socialized medicine"?

because ... ?

Their system is a SINGLE PAYER system funded BY THE GOVERNMENT through TAXES.

Using the "S" word (although I have nothing against, and strongly SUPPORT a Socialist style system of government) is a hot button/"Red herring.

if they wanted shorter wait times, they should just get insurance.

:sarcasm:

In our fine health care system, you also encounter a "wait"
anytime you need to jump through a paperwork "hoop". Need
to see a dermatoligist because that odd spot on your skin
might be skin cancer?

Well, you can just wait while your PCP ("Primary Care
Physician") decides if your worthy enough to get a "referral"
to the dermatologist. And heaven forbid that the dermatologist
is "out of network"; then they might as well be on Mars 'cause
you ain't seeing them!

Tesha

spokesman for his special interests, the health industry.

You mean "Midland Dave" who spends his weekends in that Bastion of Upper Class values, Traverse City?

Don't bother. I've talked to him. He's a fucking Bushbot Idiot.

He was on WJ yesterday morning and a few callers reminded him of his health industry contributors after he talked about 'waiting time' in Canada. I posted his contributors on our WJ thread.

Major League chickenhawk, too.

Where are you at? I'm Owosso, and I don't think he's set foot in the county in since the last election.

I have a cracked tooth that is causing me a lot of pain. I cracked it almost two weeks ago, but my dentist cannot do anything until they hear back from the insurance company. So I take pain pills at night to sleep and just deal when I have to work.

As it is now he can't stand for very long or it causes him great pain. He's had the hernia since he was a teenager but it only started being painful in the past year or so.

He gets no health insurance through his work (laborer) and cannot afford private insurance. He has to work and since he cannot stand for long in his line of work it become a real issue and kept him from working full hours.

He has no primary doctor and none that he called would schedule to see him w/o insurance. He goes to the ER and tells them what's wrong and that it's keeping him from being able to work. They tell him since he's had it for so long there's nothing they can do for him on an emergency basis and they send him home. They also suggested another hospital that he might try later on. He did but after waiting for 12 hours to be seen and then being told they had no idea how much longer he'd have to wait, he left.

The twist to the story is he developed MRSA not long after and ended up very sick and in the hospital that had turned him away. After he had developed a very large bill from his time spent there they told him about a Gold Card that he can apply for and insisted that he do so since he had no way to pay his bill. The Gold Card is some kind of emergency funded medical program in Houston for those who cannot pay otherwise, from what he explained to me. From what he can understand he's able to get on a waiting list for his hernia surgery now that he has a Gold Card. Something that no one mentioned to him before.

We have one wacked out medical system.

It's my understanding that it's a medical discount card. I have a friend who had to apply for one after he became very ill and had to stop working due to his illness.

I'm going to print this and send it to my friend. I don't think he fully understands that aspect of the situation. Hopefully they've had him apply for Medicaid also already, but just in case I'll give him a heads up.

Damn, I have no idea if he'll even qualify for Medicaid.