by INFORUM
Woman fights disease, bureaucracy
June 4, 2010 at 10:53 pm in INFORUM
Cheree Schneider is battling severe autoimmune diseases including scleroderma and lupus that have robbed her of her strength and vitality.
She’s also had a few run-ins with North Dakota’s medical assistance program.
The 35-year-old Granville, N.D., woman has been pushing since November for surgery to repair a painful rectal prolapse, a condition in which the intestine protrudes from the body. Continue reading…
Just reading about this makes ME sick. Is there anyone in this MA program who sees the person behind all this paperwork? And why do people always have to fight the very programs that are supposed to be there to help them?! it’s the same thing with Social Security disability. Something is definitely wrong when lawyers on tv are advertising to help people get their due benefits. If they claim that there is a local physician who is able to perform the needed surgery, the burden should be theirs to find this physician, and they should be accountable to the outcome as well! I hope everything turns out well for Cheree!
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Tim, are you saying the current ND republican health care system is pathetic? What is your point? Are you saying the new health plan will be worse than the current neocon plan and you are saying that is bad? Is it your position that healthcare should be improved? What is your point?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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More than 85 million Americans get health insurance through the government, including Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and the military (both active duty and retirees).
Currently, more than 46 million Americans have no health insurance.
Not all insurance companies allow you to seek care from any physician that you desire, you often times are locked into a specific facility (network) of providers and you are then able to select a physician that is participating within that network. There are also coverage area limitations, some insurances won’t cover you if you seek services out of that area, unless it is an emergency. To go out of that network and have it covered you would need to be referred. That is not unique to ND MA. That does NOT mean you are unable to go to the physician of your choice, that does not mean you can’t have any procedure done you wish but it DOES mean that the insurance company will not pay for it
To simply say “I can tell you that private insurance for a healthy individual is not all that expensive.” Is ignorant to say the least. The poverty level in America is increasing each year. In 2008 there were 39.8 million, or nearly 1 in 7 people, living in poverty and that has certainly increased in the past two years with the economy as it has been. “Not all that expensive” is interpreted differently by those of different economic situations and insurance companies rarely care if you make $7.50 an hour or $25.00 an hour.
Medicare, Medicaid, BCBS, Aetna and any other entity that deals with insurance and health care coverage do have their own rules and regulations and they must be followed. It can be extremely frustrating for both the insured and those providing the services as well as those dealing with both the providers and the insurance companies trying to get services covered.
To use an example of one individual seeking and obtaining services in America versus their own country in this case, Canada, and somehow using that to justify the American health system is laughable. I believe that the ‘average’ American would also like the “best doctors” and want “to receive the best care possible” but I would venture to say that the average American would never have the opportunity to see the same physician as Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams. So to use that as an example of the Great American Health Care System is discounted.
All one needs to do is compare the numbers – Where does the United States rank against other nations in not only in the delivery of health care and the results of that care but also the cost per capita to each individual?
Just a few other things to think of.
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This should not happen in any state! For whatever reason this woman in on ND MA. ND has a huge budget surplus so there is really no excuse to let this person suffer and be bounced around like a ball of silly putty when the money and knowledge is available to fix the situation. To do less is to have no moral ethics.
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I say to live off the system has no moral ethics as well – not sure if this is what she is doing or not, but only asking the questions the reporter should have asked.
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With as many problems as she has I would think she probably has to live off the system. I doubt any insurance would take her with all the pre-existing conditions. If this is just a case of shuffel the patient until it is to late to help think of the money that could be saved.
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If people are going to mod me and my comments down, I’d at least appreciate a response saying why you disagree with it.
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I did.
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