Just letting you know that this directly affects me too!!! I'm 79. Please pass it on. r.m.
From
Alice and John: Seniors on Medicare (not a joke)
Dear Family, Friends, Neighbors and former Classmates,
Some of you might ask, "why is he writing this?",
others will be very aware of my reason.
I just found myself in the middle of a medical situation that made it
very clear that "the affordable care act" is neither affordable, nor
do they care. I'll go back about seven years ago to a fairly radical prostate
surgery that I underwent. The Urologist (a personal friend) who performed the
surgery was very concerned that it was cancer, though I wasn't told this until
the lab report revealed it was benign. Since that procedure, I have experienced
numerous urinary tract infections, UTI's. Since I had never had a
"UTI" prior to the prostate surgery, I assume that it is one of the
side effects from surgery, an assumption
since confirmed by my Family Doctor. The weekend of March 8-9, I was
experiencing all the symptoms of another bout of UTI. By Monday afternoon the
infection had hit with full force. Knowing that all I needed was an antibiotic,
I went to an Urgent Care Center
in Mesa
Now, "the rest of the story", and the reason for
sending this to so many of you. I was taken to the nearest hospital, to
emergency. Once there, I was transported to an emergency examination room. Once
I had removed my clothes and donned one of those lovely hospital gowns, I
finally got to see a Doctor. I asked "what is going on" I'm just
having a UTI, just get me the proper medication and let me go home. He told me
that my symptoms presented the possibility of sepsis, a potentially deadly
migration of toxins, and that they needed to run several tests to determine how
far the infection had migrated. For the next 3 hours I was subjected to several
tests, blood draws, EKG's, and demands for specimens. At about 7:30 the nurse
came back to my room to inform me that one of the tests takes 1- 2 days to
complete, I asked if they could be emailed, at which point she informed me that
I wouldn't need them emailed because I wasn't going anywhere. I started arguing
with her but was told, "if you don't start behaving, I'll start taking
your temperature rectally, at which point I became a perfect gentleman. I did
tell her I wanted to see the doctor because I had no intention of staying
overnight.
Now, this is what I want each of you to understand, please
read these next sentences carefully.
The doctor finally came in to inform me that he was going to
admit me. I said, "are you admitting me for treatment or for
observation?" He told me that I would be admitted for observation. I said
Doctor, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you admit me for observation my
Medicare will not pay anything, this due to the affordable care act , he said
that's right, it won't. I then grabbed for my bag of clothing and said, then
I'm going home. He said you're really too sick to be going home, but I
understand your position, this health program is going to hit seniors
especially hard. The doctor then left
the room and I started getting dressed, I was just getting ready to put my
shoes on when another doctor (the closer) came into the room, he saw me dressed
and said, "where do you think you are going?" I simply said "I'm
going home, to which he replied, quite vociferously, no you aren't. I said,
Doc., you and I both know that under the "affordable care act" anyone
on Medicare who is admitted to a hospital for observation will be responsible
for the bill, Medicare won't pay a cent, at which point he nodded in
affirmation. I said, "you will either admit me for a specific treatment or
you won't admit me. Realizing he wasn't going to win this one, he said he would
prepare my release papers. A few minutes later the discharge nurse came to my
room to have me sign the necessary papers, relieving them from any
responsibility. I told her I wasn't trying to be obstinate, but I wasn't going
to be burdened with the full responsibility for my hospital stay. After making
sure the door was closed, she said, "I don't blame you at all, I would do
the same thing. She went on to say, you wouldn't believe the people who elect
to leave for the same reasons, people who are deathly sick, people who have to
be wheeled out on a gurney. She further said, the "Affordable Care
Act" is going to be a disaster for seniors. Yet, if you are in this
country illegally, and have no coverage, you will be covered in full. This is
not internet hype folks, this is real, I just experienced it personally.
Moving right along, this gets worse. Today I went to a
(required) follow up appointment with my Arizona Family Practitioner. Since my
white count was pretty high, the follow up was important. During the visit I
shared the experience at emergency, and that I had refused to be admitted. His
response was "I don't blame you at all, I would have done the same
thing". He went on to say that the colonoscopy and other procedures are
probably going to be dropped from coverage for those over 70. I told him that I
had heard that the affordable care act would no longer pay for cancer treatment
for those 76 and older, is that true? His understanding is that it is true. The
more I hear, and experience the affordable care act, the more I'm beginning to
see that we seniors are nothing more than an inconvenience, and the sooner they
can get rid of us the better off they'll be.
So where do we go from here? Young or old all Americans will face this
sooner or later if something is not done.
Everyone knows people used to come to America
from Canada
November is coming
folks, we can have an impact on this debacle by letting everyone in congress
know that their responsibility is to the constituents, not the president and
not the lobbyists. We need to let them ALL know that they are in office to
serve and to look after the BEST INTERESTS of "we the people", their
employers, and not to become self serving bureaucrats who serve only out of
greed. And if they don't seem to understand this simple logic, we'll fire them
all.
Alice and John
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