lilo- talk to some friends or acquaintenances re. the doctor and cost. finding a doctor is the first part. there are drs. out there that practice w/compassion, and, if aware of your needs, can help out with the billing code they use and samples of medication.
just b/c add is a suspect condition among many, something having a harmful impact on your life is always worth addressing. it i less likely rit. or dex. will be used, (there are no free samples for this as it is highly regulated), but most md's will try to do something for you.
being that the health care crisis is growing faster than the solutions, even the few greedy health care professionals are more concerned about your health than not.
well, i looked into my state's insurance program, but they go by household income. the problem is i live with my parents, so when i include their income, i don't qualify for anything. it stinks because i pay all of my own bills including most of my food. the only thing i don't pay is rent or utilities... becaus i can't afford them. one whole paycheck each month (more now with the price of gas) goes JUST to pay for my car... car payment, car insurance, and gas. if only i could find a program that went by MY income... since it's not like i even have any access to the money my parents make anyway... and they have no intention of helping me pay for health insurance.Have you checked to see if you are eligible for medicaid or family health plus insurance?
My dr's office also has a program called Hill-Burton which will pay for things if you do not qualify for the others. I'm not sure what all it covers but I know that at one time it covered a hospital bill and ER visit for me. My Dr suggested it for me to cover her office visits and lab tests and stuff I am going through right now.
Contact your Dr's office and ask the receptionist about it.
also, i forgot to mention, the costs to business through down time and inefficiency directly related to health matters is tremendous. wouldn't any employer want more efficiency and a happier, healthier work force for their $$$$?p.s.- i misspoke about greedy health care people. i did not mean to imply anything but, as in all avenues of human endeavor, there will always be a few where the bottom line in $$$ is the only factor considered, and people are only good as vehicles for transferring wealth in their direction.glen, i don't know that canada would really want us!
plus, there is a general disdain here for canadians. don't know why. some people hold the opinion canadians are america wannabes, or card carrying socialists. i think it's really envy.
personally, i love canada. i'm 1/4 fr. canadian, and grew up in michigan. i like to joke i'm from so far north, my family are canadians that never got the memo that the border was moved!
in addition, there has been an informal media campaign to make us believe your system makes people wait for mos. just to be considered for urgent care, and that nat. health coverage would be the end of free market capitalism, just a step away from becoming the old ussr.
what they fail to realise is that addressing our nation's health through a nationwide system does several positive things, that would not only spare us a great deal of human suffering, but in the long run address many problems that artificially drive up health care and business costs.
1) #1 cost of our current system is administrative.lots of duplication, administrator salaries and benefits, etc.
2) everyone could get preventative care, reducing the amount of need for treatment of critical care- what's cheaper, an office visit detecting the earliest instance of cancer, diabetes, heart trouble; or the emergency heart attack, months in the hospital getting treated for inoperable cancer etc.
3) all our cost are increased dramatically because those that pay health insurance are paying for all the emergency care, and unpaid care administered to the poor, many of whom evntually either pay nothing or go bankrupt because of it.
4) big business would no longer have to worry about it coming directly out of their profits. look at gm- they are claiming increasing health care costs as one of the main reasons they are going down the tubes.
what they are concealing is the tremendous profits a few companies in health insurance, pharmaceuticals, and the like make now, and that their greed prevents any progress from being made in the area of the common good. people who are sick and suffering, and their hurting families, are these companies gold mine. the more drugs you need, the more expensive procedures you need, the more time you spend in a hospital bed..... ever see 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre'? you know what gold does to people!
This is another of the MANY reasons I am SO glad I'm Canadian!!
I see this every time I'm on here and it saddens me that any government would keep such an important basic human right as universal medical care from it's people! Canada's system may not be perfect but it works!
I also have a fantastic plan through work at Frito Lay which covers extras like 80 percent of my pharmaceuticals (most of them they banned strattera for whatever reason) and councilling (a few a year - the rest I write off as an expense).
If I was in the US and at the social strata I am here I would still be going job to job thinking I was just a slacker with some problem unnamed. Sad.
So when Bush got in a lot of Americans said they were moving up north. Where the heck are you all? LOL. The immigration department just released info that immigration is still the same amount as pre 9/11 so it confuses me. Did everyone decide to stick to what they know even if it's imperfect? Just curious.
- Glen