On Wed, 4 Jul 2012 20:29:31 -0600, Ed Pawlowski wrote
(in article ):

On Wed, 4 Jul 2012 17:58:56 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:



On 7/3/2012 8:02 AM, Bruce wrote:
I have insurance and if I get a cold serious enough to warrent a
doctor visit . . .


OK, but that is not a cold. Antibiotics are a wonderful thing, but
often over prescribed to make a patient happy even if it does no good.

However there are bacterial illnesses that resemble a cold. You are
being pedantic about the definition.

For most people if their head is stopped up and they have a cough and
sore throat, it's a "cold" until they get to the doctor and find out
that it's throat cancer complicated by tuberculosis and pneumonia.

Call it what you want. The OP said he goes when his cold get bad. If
he wants to expand the definition of his illness, fine, but doctors
can't cure colds yet.

Take two aspirin . . . . .

Ahem. I think my point is being missed 8^)

Let me start again... If I catch some 'bug' that does not respond to the
usual home remedies, high fever, delirium, body covered in pustules, skin
rotting off, AND I decide I should seek the advice of a professional......


Locally, getting an appointment can take weeks (meanwhile my oozing pustules
are staining the couch). Go to the ER and I get nailed with a fairly high
deductible (thought weighing the cost of that against getting the couch
cleaned might be a wash). For me, it's either suffer and wait or fork out
some dough. This is with a fairly standard employer provided policy. For the
Medicaid folks, there is no penalty for going to the ER. Sure, they could
schedule with their primary and face the same wait a me, but since the cost
for an ER co-pay is only a few bucks (should they even eventually have to pay
it), why not go there? No skin off their back, the tax payers and me through
higher insurance rates pick up the tab.

It's kind alike the Medicare 'doughnut hole'
People who get the subsidized insurance can get immediate service without
financial worry. People with the 'Cadillac' insurance get immediate service
because that is what they pay for. Me (in the middle) pay for the subsidized
insurance (basically like saying "here, take my seat on this bus, I'll
stand").

It's fairly clear that the middle class get screwed whenever the government
decides to play charity with someone else's money.