Thursday, May 28, 2009

It's A Shame Someone Had To Look Death Right In The Face To Illustrate Points I've Been Making Here For Years.

And it's a shame that that someone wasn't born in Canada, where none of this would have happened. If that were the case I could have spent the day writing about how the utter incompetence of CVS is making my worklife miserable. 

But the story of how I am being penalized for the fuckups of CVS when I do not work for CVS will have to wait. Today you're going to meet Eric De La Cruz. From all accounts I have seen, Eric is a pretty normal 27 year old, except for the fact he developed severe dilated cardiomyopathy. Bad news the dilated cardiomyopathy is. Those of you in the professions already know this means his heart will get progressively weaker until it's transplant or death. 

So Eric was sick, and he was ready to do everything he could to get better. Had he been born in Toronto, or London, or Paris, or Tokyo, that would be the end of this story and I could move on to how CVS sucks pud for making me bail out their sorry asses. Eric had the bad taste to be born in the United States though, where no private insurance company was gonna touch a kid with major heart troubles with a ten foot pole. Eric was placed on Nevada Medicaid. 

"Oh, well that sounds like the end of the story then" You must be saying. "Go ahead and tell us how CVS is ruining your life when you are in no way affiliated with CVS"

Nope. Because Eric was also rude enough to reside in Nevada, where there are no heart transplant centers. Nevada Medicaid will not pay for out of state care. So Eric would just have to die. Two times a court of law told Eric he was just gonna have to die.

That's what happens in the hodge-podge blend of senseless private for profit and 50 separate state government run except for the parts that aren't government run programs that we call a health care system in this country. If you're in the wrong place with the wrong problem you just have to die. 

Which is why I say burn it down. The whole fucking thing. What passes for a health care "system" in this country needs.....to be.....destroyed. Because what would save Eric....his only hope....was the one part of our system that is national socialized medicine. Medicare. 

If Eric could get covered through Medicare, the federally run health care plan that offers universal coverage for the nations oldest and sickest citizens for far less overhead than private plans, he could get back to only worrying about if a compatible heart would become available and the monumental task that is recovering from having a major organ ripped out of your body and replaced. Fortunately for Eric, Medicare is overseen by politicians and not CEO's. Politicians need votes, and when Eric's sister raised a ruckus about the screwing her brother was getting, the politicians realized letting one of their constituents die so publicly might not be the best way to get those votes they need. Eric was granted Medicare coverage. So thanks to his sister and the national socialized medicine part of our health care system, he has a chance. 

It shouldn't have been necessary. The ruckus raising. You shouldn't have to have a sister like Eric's to have a chance to live. Because not everyone has a sister like Eric's.

So burn it down. The whole fucking system. You, and me, and Eric, and everyone else in this country deserve a hell of a lot better. 

CVS sucks.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you mean those of us who don't have health insurance but aren't quite poor enough to qualify for government aid aren't supposed to 'just shut up and die' when we get a life-threatening illness?
I'm pretty sure that's what Rick Scott wants us to do. He's planning to run a 30-minute fake documentary infomercial Sunday on NBC following Meet the Press about the evils of healthcare reform.

midwest woman said...

damn, poor dude shoud have been born in minnesota where the court orders you to get life saving treatment and sends the law after you if you don't.

Scritches.com said...

I've got all the matches you want!

Anonymous said...

Is anybody else getting redirected away from this page?

Pharmacy Mike said...

"Burn 'em Down" by Sick of It All.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-1U55mNRlA

Just reminded me of that song.

I think there's a chance you just might like that song and possibly that band judging from the non-mainstream music you have in your playlist.

WonderTech said...

*golf clap*

Agreed on all points. And this is coming from someone who works for the previously mentioned sucky company.

Spock said...

A few points.
1. This person did get help in America
2. He would have likely died while in line in any other socialistic country.

I've read a few of your posts and your advocacy for socialized medicine. I certainly don't want my salary cut in half and then taxed in half yet again. I guess we differ on the amount of sacrifice we are willing to subject ourselves for an ideology.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

Spock,

Your comment is highly illogical. Let its destruction begin:

1) The only reason Eric got any help in America is because of the advocacy of people like his semi-famous sister and Trent Reznor. Seriously. The Nine Inch Nails guy. Raising money for young people who need heart transplants doesn't quite fit the image I have of Trent, but I'm glad he did it, otherwise Eric probably would have died. Like people with no one to advocate for them do in this "system" of ours. You see Spock, when average people are fucked over it tends not to make the papers. Because no one gives a fuck about them. That was kinda the whole point of my post. Guess you didn't really read what you were commenting on. Or didn't understand it.

2) Really? Because the only reasons he wasn't even in line here were strictly financial. Explain how this is different from the socialistic nightmare scenario that exists only in your head. Heart transplants are done all the time all around the world my friend, and nowhere but here would money keep a 27 year old man from getting one. You just got proven to be full of shit.

But wait. You're about to be proven full of shit again. If you really had read some of my earlier health care policy posts, you would know we could make a Xerox copy of the Canadian healthcare system and instantly take 45% off the amount of money we currently spend for healthcare. That's a trillion dollars of extra money floating around. You know what you could do with a trillion dollars Spock? You could both1) Give selfish greedy bastards such as yourself a big tax cut and2) Have money left over to use towards improving the things you don't like about the Canadian system.

Now I don't wanna call you a liar Spock, but I've made that point more than once here. Maybe you did read my earlier posts, like you claimed. And maybe you just didn't understand them.

So let's recap:

-Spock sends more of his tax dollars to his state and federal governments to pay for health care than he would if he lived in Canada. Canada spends less to cover it's entire population per capita than we spend just on Medicare and Medicaid.

-What Spock gets is a system vastly inferior to Canada's

-Spock could send fewer dollars to government and have a system better than Canada's

-Spock drinks the right-wing kool-aid we are all fed and is duped into vehemently defending the system that is wasting his money and providing an inferior product. Which makes Spock,

-Stupid, as does his claims to have understood what I have written.

Thanks for playing Spock.

Fucking dumbass.

The Geek said...

Well, I was going to tear into Spock but DrugMonkey said it perfectly.

Hearing crap like that about the medical system in the US makes me happy I'm a Canadian, and sad that our neighbours to the south have to put up with such sub-standard health care that is kept in place by lies and greed.

The medical system in Canada works very well. If you have need, you get treatment, if it's non-critical/life threaten or elective surgery, then yah you will have a bit of a wait. But you can walk into any hospital in an emergency and they will treat you, no asking for your insurance card first or refusing you because you don't have it.

Here's a perfect case described in yesterday's LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus27-2009may27,0,2252325.column

So Spock, you are full of shit. Get over yourself.

woolywoman said...

Yup- right up there with all the people walking around with leaky heart valves because their teeth are infected. See, we can't pay for people to get their teeth cleaned, but then when they are disabled as the sequela of their endocarditis, well, then, we are all better off, right? Oh, wait, not right...

Thom Foolery said...

"He would have likely died while in line in any other socialistic country."

Spoken like most of the upper middle class pre-med twits in my undergrad medical ethics class. First you posit the false dichotomy that you can either get great treatment for a few unnamed (i.e., wealthy) people or shitty treatment for everybody. Then, since your doctor daddy makes several hundred thousand per year performing boob jobs and insists that you do the same when you grow up, you whole-heartedly (or is it heartlessly?) pick the "great treatment for a few" option.

Thanks for the take-down, DM.

mongoose said...

your new blog poll = yucks!

Dave said...

While I usually agree with your post, you are woefully uninformed regarding the realistic goal of universal healthcare; as universal coverage does not equate to universal access. In addition, currently congress and Obama are slated to tax employer-sponsored healthcare benefits to fund such universal healthcare; taxing one population sect (i.e. middle and upper class) to give FREE benefits to another sect (i.e. poor, unemployed, disabled, illegal) is called socialism or as the Libtards call it "social liberalism". Having worked for more than 20 years on all sides of the healthcare system, solving the current ever-increasing burden of healthcare costs will not be solved by incompetent politicians, but rather by having all components including pharma, providers, and insurers coming together to formulate a long-term sustainable solution. Unfortunately Americans are programmed to demand quick fixes to long-term chronic problems (i.e. Iraq, economy, social security) and thus are doomed to create a very costly and unsustainable dysfunctional government-sponsored universal healthcare boondoggle.

I doubt you will publish this but at least you read it and just maybe you'll be enlightened and not be a typical uninformed entitlted American. Thanks for reading

Anonymous said...

I'm Canadian but now live and work in the U.S.A.(health care) in the beautiful, tiny, New England State of Vermont. I think that their model of health care is awesome and should inspire the rest of the country. They basically provide full health care coverage (including prescription and some otc drugs) to all Vermonters who cannot afford insurance or do not have access to insurance through their workplace.

Those like me who can get health care coverage through their employer and can afford it just do so which is fine.

The people who are covered by the state can get all the treatments they need and if the type of care they require is not available in Vermont, they can go to neighbouring states to get it.

Of course, we pay state income tax. But the beauty of the thing is that the income taxes I pay are much lower than in Canada.

I think that a mix of private and public system is the best system the US could adopt.

My only caution is that the government should make it mandatory for private insurers who have access to a plan through their employer to enroll those with pre-existing conditions if you don't want to burden and destroy the public system and also to force the private insurers to give at least the same coverage as the one provided by the public system.

I admire Vermont for having set up such a system at an affordable cost.

Dave said...

what does this have to do with cvs again?

Anonymous said...

2 years ago a buddy of mine was backpacking through Europe and he got in a bar fight. (shocker.) He ended up slicing a tendon or something in his hand.

He went to a hospital, had emergency surgery (gotta love the "waiting in line" bullshit argument), spent 6 days in-patient and walked out with out paying for so much as a bandaid.

He came home to the US and saw a surgeon for follow up. The surgeon told the guy that whoever took care of him probably saved his hand function and did a stellar job.

I'd take that over our bullshit health care ANY DAY.

Cracked Pestle said...

That was awesome, DM. Your post speaks to the heart of the problems with our current system. I am blessed to be working at a Catholic hospital that gives more than lip service to its mission to serve the financially poor. We do not turn patients away for lack of insurance. We treat ALL our patients with the dignity due a fellow human. We fight to save the meth addicts or prisoners as energetically as we do the community leaders or celebrities who come to us for care and healing. As you would expect, some of those people cannot pay their bills. According to Families USA, about 37% of health care costs incurred by the uninsured in this country last year were not paid. That's over $42 million. As a result, all of us who are insured, or our employers, assume that debt through an average of $1000 extra in health insurance premiums per year. If your employer joins the growing ranks of businesses that do not provide health insurance benefits, that's money right out of your pocket. It's a stealth tax.
One more comment, then I'll sit down and shut up for a while. My beloved daughter and granddaughter live in Canada. I have seen first-hand the excellent care that is provided by the Canadian system. I am confident they would be in good hands in the event of injury or illness.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

Dave,

I admire your subtle passive-aggressive attempts to express intellectual dominance almost as much as your desperate plea for me to publish your comment. Be careful what you ask for though, because when I publish comments from my friends on the right, I can't help but to make them look really stupid, it's a lot of fun, not to mention the right thing to do, lest readers of my happy blog garden become misinformed.

As opposed to uninformed, which is one of the things you accuse me of being.

I'll show you how uninformed I am bitch. While Congress and President Obama are debating whether to tax employer-sponsored healthcare benefits (conventional wisdom at this point says they probably won't) There was one politician who made such a proposal the centerpiece of his campaign:

John McCain. I wrote all about it back in June of 2008. So I guess you were going around during the presidential campaign explaining to everyone how John McCain was a socialist, huh? Because you're so much better informed than me.

Dumbass.

You also score slimeball points for substituting class hatred and thinly veiled racism for a proper response to the point I was making. Which I will make again. For the millionth time:

We could make a Xerox copy of the Canadian health care system.

The day we did this we would save $1,000,000,000,000 compared to what we pay for health care now.

We could use some of that money to LOWER people's taxes.

Lowering is the opposite of raising.

We could use some of the money saved to make improvements to the Canadian health care system.

We also might be able to funnel some money into public education, so people like yourself could comprehend what I write, and not make arguments rebutting points I didn't make.

Thanks for playing Dave, you have a little more brain wattage than Spock, so I won't call you a fucking dumbass. You're just a run of the mill dumbass. Who needs to stop letting his hatred of people different from himself, and the fear that someone different from himself might get something for FREE, keep him from supporting sound policy.

Because you'd be better off under Canadian health care too.

Unfortunately.

Erra said...

I'm in the UK, and suffer chronic illhealth.
Our National Health Service isn't perfect, and for non-emergency, non-critical cases, there can be a bit of a wait - though this is improving.

When there is an urgent need, however, then treatment will be imediately provided.

No one should have to worry about affording medical care in a civilised country. If people are dying in the US due to lack of money, then your system is seriously sick.

Anonymous said...

After ploughing through the line of logic of one of the posters (which I did not agree with) he or she began one to wrap up the argument with the phrase
"Unfortunately Americans are programmed..."

Whoooaaa! Stop right there buddy, I say.. . I am one of those americans... and I don't think that I am programmed for anything. Maybe, we have come to a certain level of expectation in the current era, for example, in traveling recently through central Europe there were different levels for society expectations from Scandanavia to Romania. I don't know that given the domino effect of: capitalism full-throttle (little man feeling pinch of corporate greed), bank failures, depression, bailouts, (yea! no bread lines), americans would be any less cynical about the 'current
level of expectations.

Also, using 'programmed' as a line of argument means in consequence, we can just as well be
'deprogrammed' or 'reprogrammed',
but given how the last national election turned out, on the face of it, I would say that at least the majority of americans are not stuck in 'I've fallen and I can't get up' mode.

C'mon, dear blogger, get with it! This is the time to ensure all involved are on board on equal footing.

But, here's a headscratcher of relevancy (from the old Russian proverb), 'Make some room at the table for a pig, and it's likely to put its feet up on it'.

Cracked Pestle said...

Sorry, I was mistaken. Unpaid health care costs for the uninsured last year was $42 BILLION, not million. That would pay for a lot of EMR systems.

Nicholas said...

Drug Monkey,

Will you please write my resignation letter to submit to CVS?

I'm quitting this week, have a new job, and I would like to punch them in the face on my way out.

Anonymous said...

I'll supply all the fuel you need or want, on one condition - we take out the insurance companies first.

spiffy said...

Eric got some press thanks to his sister, and one generous Trent Reznor found out about this unfortunate situation. Reznor started selling backstage passes directly to fans for his current Nine Inch Nails tour, and has currently raised nearly $1 million for Eric. Unfortunately, most people in Eric's situation don't experience this kind of generosity.

ThatDeborahGirl said...

The medical system in Canada works very well. If you have need, you get treatment, if it's non-critical/life threaten or elective surgery, then yah you will have a bit of a wait. But you can walk into any hospital in an emergency and they will treat you, no asking for your insurance card first or refusing you because you don't have it.
************

Or getting your credit report life ruined if you don't have money to pay for health care costs out of pocket.

Billigflug Bangkok said...

The post really shocked me. Here people are complaining about our health system, but compared to what the young man (and many others) had to endure, our system doesn't look so bad anymore.
You have to pay here more and more with every reform, but there is still the assurance that you can go to the doctor get treated even without money, if it's an emergency.
@anonymous: Did he tell which European country your friend was? It would be interesting to know.

J Man said...

I am Canadian, and believe that our healthcare system should be the envy of Americans. What gets me is that I am 32, and I don’t even really know what Americans mean by “paying” for healthcare. The only point of reference I have is my own experience.

My wife is pregnant with twins and things are complicated.

She has Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome, all diagnosed following a stroke when she was 21. The decision to start a family meant a lot of prep work. We met her Hematologist and Rheumatologist to modify her maintenance medications to a state where they would not endanger a fetus. We were then referred by our family physician to a perinatologist who took charge of her primary care. The perinatologist referred us to a high-risk Obgyn who is monitoring the fetal health during the pregnancy.

After 20 weeks we had one minor scare: due to some extreme nausea she suffered from dehydration, which mimicked the symptoms of a Lupus flare. We brought this to the doctor teams’ attention, and she was immediately (like within an hour) admitted to hospital, where her various levels were monitored and she was given IV fluids. Three days later she is at home and doing well.

The timeline is what makes me the happiest. The pre-pregnancy stuff, from initial consultation with her family doc, the adjustment of maintenance meds and monitoring, to the final go-ahead from the perinatologist to proceed took 4 months. Most of this time was waiting three months for the methotrexate to flush out of her system. When we had her scare we were in Emergency Thursday at midnight, to an appointment with the OB at 10 the next morning, and admitted to the gyno ward before 1 in the afternoon. And this is in the province with the fastest growing population and busiest heath care system in the country.

Our total cost out of pocket for this care has been zero. I work for a construction company, and she works in a clerical position for the city. We have no private insurance at all, just my company’s drug benefit and dental plan. The only costs that have had to been picked up by my benefit plan is the cost of prescriptions, and those are cheaper here as well. The biggest financial hardship we have endured is the outrageous cost of parking at the women’s hospital in our city.

On top of this we have been well educated in her condition, warning signs to watch for, and been given armloads of reference material to further educate ourselves. We are offered free consultations with nutritionists, pre-natal care classes are no charge, and our Capital Health Authority automatically registers us with parents groups and activity clubs. We are encouraged at every step to take responsibility for her health.

I have never been so grateful to pay taxes.

Jen said...

I should move to Canada.