Frustration at the Doctor's Office
Posted by desimarie23 10 years, 3 months ago to The Gulch: General
Almost two weeks ago I woke up with a sore throat. The kind of sore throat that makes drinking water painful and unworthy of the struggle. I don't go to the Doctor often...in fact I haven't been in two or three years, my fire department provides me with a yearly physical. With that being said, I don't have health insurance. I always pay out of pocket, even if I go to the hospital. It had never been an issue until this sore throat. I made this doctor's appointment, and arrived 40 minutes early to update my records (like I said, it's been three years). The nursing staff was unprofessional...to put it lightly. I paid the $90 copay and waited to be brought in. Once in the room, I waited another 35 minutes for the PA, in a COMPLETELY EMPTY OFFICE. I was their sole patient.
The PA finally came in and looked at my throat...and said "you have strep"...I have had strep at least 5 times as a child...granted its been 17 years but I don't recall pain quite like this. So I asked if they were going to do a throat culture to be sure ( I explained that I'm a volunteer firefighter aside from my day job, and on call overnight every night so I needed to be positive). Her response was "we typically don't do any testing on people that don't have insurance." I told her that I was prepared to pay whatever I needed to pay to be sure that's what I had...I'm not inclined to take medication unless absolutely necessary and it's worked for me thus far.
The woman refused to test me...that it wasn't worth it and she is positive that it's strep throat.
Well here we are, two weeks later, antibiotic has been finished for 3 days and I have the SAME pain and tenderness in my throat (if not slightly worse) along with cold symptoms that will not go away.
All of this over lack of insurance. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I'm obviously going to find a different doctor, but is this what I'm going to deal with because I actually want to PAY FOR MY MEDICAL CARE ON THE SPOT??
P.S. - I left a 'Who is John Galt?' post-it on the check-up table.
The PA finally came in and looked at my throat...and said "you have strep"...I have had strep at least 5 times as a child...granted its been 17 years but I don't recall pain quite like this. So I asked if they were going to do a throat culture to be sure ( I explained that I'm a volunteer firefighter aside from my day job, and on call overnight every night so I needed to be positive). Her response was "we typically don't do any testing on people that don't have insurance." I told her that I was prepared to pay whatever I needed to pay to be sure that's what I had...I'm not inclined to take medication unless absolutely necessary and it's worked for me thus far.
The woman refused to test me...that it wasn't worth it and she is positive that it's strep throat.
Well here we are, two weeks later, antibiotic has been finished for 3 days and I have the SAME pain and tenderness in my throat (if not slightly worse) along with cold symptoms that will not go away.
All of this over lack of insurance. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I'm obviously going to find a different doctor, but is this what I'm going to deal with because I actually want to PAY FOR MY MEDICAL CARE ON THE SPOT??
P.S. - I left a 'Who is John Galt?' post-it on the check-up table.
Love the post-it note placement!
They don't want your cash - they want to show the dotgov they are 121.93% supporting and pushing their agenda.
I would run - not walk, RUN - from such a doctor's office, and find one that is a Doctor's office, not a Government Aid and Propaganda Station... I wouldn't be surprised to see copies of the yet-unreleased book on proper nutrition written by Queen Michelle on their tables.