Had an interesting thing occur in February. I was working at my desk and felt heart palpitations. It was nothing new. I have been experiencing them for years. However, I suddenly felt dizzy, and passed out. When I regained consciousness my wife rushed me to the emergency room of the local clinic. I passed out two times thereafter. It was affiliated with a major research hospital whose name you would all recognize...on paar with Johns Hopkins, Sloan Kettering and the Mayo Clinic.
When I awoke There was a team of 4 or 5 people working on me...I V hoses in my arm, etc, They told me the palpitations were of a life threatening nature, and that I had to be transported to the emergency room of the hospital.
It turned out that the diagnosis was wrong. In any event an ambulance showed up to transport me. What a joke. There were two EMT's. one drove. The other sat in the back with me. It was deemed to be emergency treatment for billing purposes. When I mentioned that i was an attorney one EMT tried to pick my brain throughout the ride about entertainment law. It turned out that he was a local music producer. The other EMT sat there and cracked jokes for the length of the ride which was rather short I might add.
Anyway I spent three days in the hospital only to find out that the original diagnosis was wrong. There was some risk but no emergency. On the third day I was told that a procedure called an ablation was needed. They pass a tube through a vein (Not an artery) in your groin into your heart and quarterize the whole in the heart which apparently I had been born with. They wanted to keep me for another three days to accomdate the doctor's schedule to perform the procedure. I objected, and said I have a schedule to maintain also, and cases which reqired attention piling up in my office. Either perform the procedure that day or let me out of the hospital , and I would be back in three days for the procedure. I had clients that required my attention...just as the doctors had patients. They performed the procedure that day, and I was out of the hospital the next day.My biggest problem seemed to be assuring that I could get something decent for dinner after the operation. It began at 8:00 PM and ran until midnight. The kitchen was closed at that time, and they would not let me advance order. They were going to send up a box lunch, which tastes like garbage. After getting into an argument with the supervisor of the kitchen one of the nurses took pity on me and saw to it that there was a hot dinner waiting when surgery was completed. I had not eaten all day in preparation for surgery.
Sorry for this rather lengthy diatribe. However, for those of you that have read this far there is a point. It would seem that no matter the quality of healthcare...the doctors get paid whether or not there diagnosis is correct....the EMT's get paid for emergency services which consisted of trying to get free legal advice and telling me jokes...payment for overly extended hospital stays to accomodate the surgeon's weekend....garbage for meals... the isurance companies get paid their premiums (in my case approximately $20,000.00 per year).
It is time to invoke price controls, get the insurance companies out of healthcare or go back to Obama's original plan of a co-existing government option. England has had a successful National Health Service since 1948. Please spare me the tired arguments about extended waiting in line for treatment. I have spoken to both Brits and Canadians that prefer the system to private insurance which by the way co-exists and is available to them as an alternate form of coverage.
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