Mummy in the foothills

They handed me a bill for £75 for Ds (dual citizen) when he managed to get an ear infection on holiday in UK I also had to buy his prescription (it was cheaper than my prescription co pay in US) The pharmacy was filled with women for some reason and there was an uproar that they were charging for a 2 year olds prescription, no matter how much I said "it's fine really" they just kept on.

DeltaSierra70

Here's a reply anyway!

Let's start with them (the so called specialists) taking nearly two years to come up with nothing other than unnecessary treatments and more bullshit. Her true diagnosis was done by her old GP in rural South Wales, near Swansea. QUOTE: "Lee haven't seen you in years! How long have you known you had Scleroderma?" "What's Scleroderma?" On returning to the pratts in Savannah, they disagreed until the expensive tests came back to prove positive for Linear Scleroderma. Naturally, they needed other tests done by other needy specialists before they all agreed she had Scleroderma, but by the our insurance had been cancelled for "Lying on the application"

To explain all of it would take too long as it has been going on since 1991/2.
Some kinds of Scleroderma are pretty damn good for a few years, as it attacks most things that attack a body, but after a while, it gets bored and attacks the host, ably mimicking other things like AR and RA, Rosacea and others, depending on what strain it is. The Linear variety 'eats' the tissue under the skin, and often in straight lines. Hence 'Linear'. Normal start place is in the woman's forehead at the hair line. Next is the fingers and toes.
In 1998 it had eaten a path 3/4" wide by 6" long from her forehead back to close to the 'crown'. It was not just eating the scalp, but also the skull. So we had to get that fixed. First quote from a surgeon in a well known clinic in Florida, who proudly told me he had done this op 5 times before, wanted $160K just for him. God only knows what he's want now! He went on to say he would do the op over 5 days! So, 5 times theater, 5 times anaesthetist, 5 times theater staff, and so on.
I called someone in England, who called someone else to be told; "If Lee would let us video the op for teaching purposes, we'll do it for free." It's still used in training at that teaching hospital. And her surgeon had done that op 'many' times. All done the same day. However, that op showed that things had been left much too late, and the LS is inside her skull. Her last cat scan, done in England, shows that most of the soft tissue that buffers the brain is now gone, and she must be careful not to bang her head about too much. Just another thing that happened due to a bunch of crooks playing the "I'll refer you to my other friend until your insurance runs out..."
With the Scleroderma comes other things, she needs hip and knee replacements, her ankles are like ballons by mid afternoon, 'it' has folded one kidney around a kidney stone making removing the stone inoperable. Locally, the so called specialist said it could be 'bombarded' at a modest cost. "How modest I asked?" He couldn't say it would be up to the hospital admin people. Asked them, and they were vague, when pressed we got over $25K and she was still talking when we left.
My wife went to the UK privately, to be told that it was not possible to 'bombard' the stone as the Scleroderma had enclosed it, and the stone wasn't where the local chancer stated it was. Still paying that wankers bill.
It wasn't possible for that op to be done within the time frame that she had in England, so she had to come home.
If you want more Ian, let me know, and I'll write a few thousand words on the subject. More women die of Scleroderma than men, so just like hard on tablets, their problems tend to be side lined a bit in favour of things for men. Not enough women get tested for Scleroderma, as it looks much like AR, but it is a close cousin to Lupus.
Need to go and make something to sell so that I can keep these pricks in BMW's

ian-mstm

Since you decided to respond even after I had deleted my post (having thoughtfully reconsidered what I wrote)... while "greed and incompetence" may not have slowed her illness any, I don't believe they are responsible for it, nor for it getting worse, and I don't believe they are responsible for the ultimate prognosis.

I'm sorry your wife is ill, but the insurance companies and physicians are not killing her. She would have this disease whether they existed or not, and she would have this disease whether they helped or not.

Ian

DeltaSierra70

Perhaps we shouldn't have decided to stay here in 1990, at least it wouldn't have cost us what it has, and continues to cost. Plus she would have been correctly diagnosed on day one as opposed to year 2. By the way, missed out were the over charging Pharmaceutical companies.

meauxna

My DH & I aren't far off from your ages and we're both self employed as well. I understand your complaint. Fortunately, we weren't so disillusioned when we arrived but the past few years have been very unsettling WRT the insurance issue.
Sorry you're having trouble with the locals; we don't get that here.

PS: you should check your email.

meauxna

No, what you wrote was what I quoted. As you sound sincere, I'd just say 'proceed with caution' WRT your new biz venture.

I'm very sorry about your wife's DX; one of my clients had a very advanced case of scleroderma and a very loving husband who took great care of her. All my best wishes to the missus.

DeltaSierra70

The venture you mention is just a hobby, that won't be mentioned again. As I have said here before, it is unlikely that there is anyone on any of these groups that would qualify as even a potential customer for what I do.
I came here by chance as I was researching a solution around the nonsensical 'not being able to ask someone if they are here legally!!!'
The SP, PD and SO can pull a motorist over for many violations, and demand their license and proof of insurance, but can't ask them if they are legally in the country! Whereas under certain interpretations of 'Green Card' regs, it must be carried at all times, and a copy is not acceptable.
We got rid of a lot of them when the old Sheriff was here, but the new one ignores them as most of the illegals are employed by the people who voted him in!
Having spent the money I did for me and my family to become a resident, I am probably the most anti illegal Mexicans, in the County.

Giantaxe

So you just hassle every brown-skinned motorist? Niiice.

DeltaSierra70

Not me, no, as I'm not involved with being a traffic cop. Now our black deputies, are another story. And to me for the obvious reason.

CelticRover

Explain please.

Thanks.

Sally Redux

Something to do with tromboning wives in 1945.

md95065

Hmm - this thread has really started to drift way off topic ...

GeoffM

I don't know whether you were agreeing or what, but anyway. My point was that even those (especially those?) with UK private insurance will get a shock. With UK private there's always the fallback option of the NHS for essential surgery (as opposed to cosmetic, for example, which I'll ignore here). I don't know how much my company pays but it's likely to be a fraction of the US equivalent. But the UK private sector generally don't do emergency work so of course it's going to be cheaper. Not to mention that - around here at least - all the private hospitals are only a couple of dozen beds with doctors on-call, not a full 500+ patient provincial hospital with doctors on-site 24x7.

While I don't suspect US healthcare for the end user will get any cheaper, reforms or otherwise, I do suspect that frontline staff (doctors) will be getting hit hard and lower their costs accordingly, just to get more work.

NHS dentistry is probably about as close to US healthcare as you're going to get in the UK, and even then it's still a long way off.

Mummy in the foothills

I agree about the insurance thing, not too sure about the NHS dentist part.

GeoffM

Simply that you do have to pay for treatment, unless you're young or pregnant. I haven't been either for a while . Almost call it a co-pay since the NHS pays about 10%?!