85lebaront2 wrote
I read things like this and am very grateful that I retired from a major defense contractor. They pay almost all of my and my wife's annual premiums for our Medicare supplement. As far as "free" healthcare, I need to look no further than or VA system. Veterans have died waiting for appointments, there was even one who died in the waiting room. Worst part, it varies wildly from one VA center to another.
My daughter, who had managed at one point to "game the wellfare system", said to me one day "Medicare is free like Medicaid" I straightened her out on that, as I have been paying into it since LBJ started it and still have it taken out of my Social Security check.
The VA almost killed me...TWICE. They say that the worst pain a man will feel is kidney stones. I had two one was 7mm the other 5.5mm stuck in my kidneys and kept blocking the ureter so my kidneys would back up. After a month or so of waiting on surgery, I woke up from the surgery in 10000 times more pain then I went in. Never saw a doctor. They had me on oxy and Vicodin... they wouldn't let me out of the bed to pee in the recovery room until my pain was a 4. They wouldn't even give me a urinal. After about an hour I said my pain was a 4, stood up and pissed blood.
They sent me back to my room, the nurse found me on the floor of the bathroom, still no doctor, brought me one Vicodin. I laughed and said I feel like my inside are being ripped out and I was on more meds than that before I came in. I have an extremely high pain tolerance, like laugh at a broken arm level pain tolerance, I have actually cut myself bad enough I severed and artery and drove myself to the hospital no issue, had my finger caught in a log splitter too, never went in, anesthetic doesn't do much for me either. Heck the stones I had would lay up most people I kept working every day. BUT Kidney stones +distended ureters + kidneys backing up = the most I have ever been in.
She came back and said the doctors couldn't get the stones and put in stints (I was 24, too young for stints and they are extremely painful) so now I have stint pain, and they effectively turned the stones into medieval maces, and my kidneys were at risk of backing up and rupturing.
They put me in a wheel chair with a pocket full of Vicodin and rolled me out on the street. No kidding, 100% didn't care I was worse off than I came in. Told me I would be back in a week... try I dealt with this for 6 months, lived on the peninsula in WA state. 4 hours from Seattle VA hospital. They would tell me to just come in (at this point they prescribed me Vicodin, oxy and morphine tablets all offset by 2 hours), I would be like lady I can barely get down the hall, I'm on 3 narcotics and you want me to drive 4 hours, to get turned around to come back home? Jan 2010-Jun2010 I dealt with this, slept 45mins at a go with heating pads. Showed up in the local ER after an attack was so strong I had to crawl down the hall for help, sill pissing straight blood. The local ER told the VA to shove it and did the surgery. They had me fixed in a day. Walked out pain free but hooked on pills. So I dumped them all less 10 and had to suffer through withdrawals. Yea... screw socialized medicine and the VA. I can go to the VA, but refuse. I have my plan through work I will use. Costs me but I don't care.
1985 F-350 XL | 460 | C6 | "Rufus Maximus"
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