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Dragonfli

(10,622 posts)
21. I am not at all sorry your Medicaid story is different than mine, I am pleased it is.
Sun Jun 15, 2014, 02:25 PM
Jun 2014

I don't know if it is a state or county thing, perhaps the experience is quite diverse across the nation. I live in NYS in Erie county, here, my story is quite typical.

I am curious about something, has Medicaid been taken over by private insurance where you live like it has here? Here you pick insurance companies from something like five options and very few places accept the plans, none in the case of pain management specialists (the clinics and most doctors don't prescribe pain killers here and instead refer you to the pain specialists). They are sort of sub-bronze plans, I jokingly refer to mine as the "tin plan". They are superior regarding copays as most medications are practically free with very little out of pocket but they also have the lowest reimbursement rates of all plans including Medicare which may explain why our primary care physicians tend not to be doctors but rather clinics established to help the poor (while educating the young).

In the last job I had that offered insurance I had a real doctor that actually called the specialist before referring me and sent my xrays and such as well as his recommendations so I was well taken care of, he does not take welfare insurance however so I can no longer see him, I am glad you still get to see the doctor you had previous he/she sounds like a good one.

Maybe the state here just makes it harder to get pain relief, it would be typical of NY to do that, but in the end it is as stated, "the well to do get help, the poor are expected to suffer" due to the catch 22 of needing a specialist for pain relief and having none of them take the poor people's tin plan insurance/Medicaid card.

When I had pain relief, I typically only used half the prescription because like you I was careful, a good side effect of that was I had extra put away that I used for a few months at the beginning of the transition to extreme poverty, now I am usually in pain and it has made me very grumpy and incredibly depressed and unable to sleep, I may just see how long I can take it before jumping off the Peace Bridge in the end, somethings gotta give.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Poor, Sick…and in Pain»Reply #21