Medicare Makes My Blood Boil

My previous pulmonologist and I had a very controversial, odd relationship. He insisted on seeing me every 3 months, which I always stretched to six months, because this is how it went every time:
Doc: So how are you doing?
Me: Pretty much the same.
Doc: {listening to my lungs} They sound okay.
Me: Mmm-Hmm.
Doc: So have you thought anymore about getting that BiPAP machine (machine that kind of breathes in AND out for you...CPAP is constant "in" pressure).
Me: I've told you that the only way that can happen is if I get the Shiley trach again. The Shiley is uncomfortable, painful, harder to change, harder to clean, makes me cough like crazy, requires more suction, and I will never get one again for the rest of my life if it's up to me.
Doc: Well, okay then. See ya in three months.

Every time it was the same. I'm like, if this isn't the biggest waste of time on the planet. But I had to keep going because he signed off on my oxygen. My oxygen supplier wasn't super huge on speedy billing, so once in a while when they started billing me again, they would call and tell me I needed a doc to sign off on my oxygen, so I'd go back to the pulmonologist.

Then for a while my neuro. was doing it, but now Medicare decided I needed to SEE a doctor, have an exam and a "requalification test" that I have to do every year. Medicare is SO GOVERNMENT. They tell you what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and if you don't, they will not pay and you will not get what you need.

Yet if I were on welfare, I would get food stamps and other monies to pay for alcohol, cigarettes, junk food, pop, shampoo and stuff, with no regulations. But heaven forbid you and your doctor try to manage your health in a positive, LEAST RESTRICTIVE way. I have to go to the diabetic doctor every 3 months now. I have to send Medicare 30 days worth of my blood sugars every 4-6 months or they won't cover my supplies. So now the GOVERNMENT is telling me whether or not I need diabetic supplies?

So I had to find a new pulmonologist, drive all the way to Kalamazoo, Doug had to take work off because I felt like crap, we had to take Jacob because everybody and their brother was sick and couldn't watch him...it was a total nightmare. Except for the actual doc....he's AWESOME.

My friends, do you see where this is going? And this is BEFORE the "government overhaul" of health care. It's only going to get worse. Chronically ill people and the elderly will suffer the most. I'm sure there will be a "cap" on what the government will pay in a lifetime...and I would have met it already, I'm sure. A million dollar hospital bill...yah.

Change is coming all right. And you are NOT going to like it.