Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Why the Affordable Care Act? This is real easy.

Men never want to go to the physician for anything. Staying well does not happen by accident.

From "Men's Fitness":

"Check-Ups Every Guy Needs"

In Your 30s (click here)

Annual physical exam by your primary care physician, including blood pressure, and height/weight checks

Screening for testicular cancer, including monthly self exams

Cholesterol testing every 5 years

Depending on your individual circumstances, your doctor may want to do an electrocardiogram to check for heart disease, and blood tests to screen for diabetes, thyroid disease, liver problems, and anemia

Depending on risk factors, your doctor may also recommend screening for skin cancer, oral cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection, and alcohol abuse

Vision examination

Screening for coronary heart disease in individuals with strong family history and/or risk factors

From a blog:

Apr. 1, 2008 @ 8:19p
So I just had a "routine" physical examination a few weeks ago. (click here) All they did was knock my knees to test for reflex, take my blood pressure, temperature, look into my eyes with a light, measure my height & weight, and also had blood drawn to test for cholestrol, hiv, and whatever else they normally test for, and also get two immunizations (tetnus booster, and heptatits vaccine).
I got my bill two weeks later....the examination itself cost $197 which was fine. and the immunizations cost another $364. I paid the bill.
Then now i just got another bill 6 wks later for "routine lab services" for $912!!!!!! WTF!? Is this what blood tests normally cost? My crappy bcbs insurance is not gonna cover any of these routine lab services. Is that normal?

The insurance companies are now REQUIRED to cover physical examinations and preventive care.

Do we really have to revisit this nightmare? For real. This is not fun.

Milaxx
After my last layoff, I was uninsured. (click here) WHY? Because COBRA would have cost $700 a month, far too expensive when your sole income is unemployment. So you hope you don’t get sick. So of course I did. It was quite the learning experience. For one thing I learned to let the Doctors know I was unemployed & uninsured. They have a different payscale for that. If you needs meds they will prescribe generics which tend to be cheaper. If you have to get prescriptions that do not come in generic. ask the doctor to only prescribe how much you need and not a 30 day supply like some doctors do. One ast trick I discovered was when filling out a prescription I would ask them to only give me a 3-5 day supply. If you are like me and occasionally have reactions to medications, this will prevent you from paying over $100 for a drug that you later discover doesn’t work or in my case, you have a rather violent allergic reaction to.
Last thing I learned is check your local Public Welfare office. I did and although it took a while I was able to purchase insurance on their plan for 1/10 the coast of COBRA. It’s not the greatest. I had to switch dentist, but my primary accepts the insurance and no long have that feeling of dread from walking around hoping I don’t get sick again.

Do Americans sincerely want to revisit this level of government corruption and Wall Street exploitation? Do we? We go forward as a nation and fix it.