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> >you can get decent health care in the U.S. by paying
>
> Yes, you can get decent health care in the U.S. by paying for it. For
> erxample, our total medical expense for 1992 came to US$ 10,759 or roughly
> $14,847 Canadian and that's not taking 5 years inflation into account.
> Without a comprehensive health care insurance plan (or the Canadian health
> care system) how many of us on the list could afford this level of care?  We
> couldn't.

I don't want to debate this whole thing either, but I have to get my
remarks in on this one.  Now, maybe this is just me or something that I'm
doing wrong or whatever.  I can safely say that I live in US and I have
never once gotten decent health care whether I've paid outright or had
insurance.  I was diagnosed with CD back when I was about 15.  Now, I've
been to doctors since.  Back when I was a poor college student and had no
insurance, I paid cash money for my office calls.  When I told the
internest I was seeing at the time that I had CD, he took one look at me
and said, "Lady there's no way you have CD."  This guy hadn't even checked
my glands yet.

I have insurance now.  I was just recently in for my yearly physical....I
asked the doctor for her honest option on hormonal contraceptives (I know
this has nothing to do with CD).  She got a dirty look on her face and
said, "Well it's completely up to you. You tell me what you want, I'll
write the prescription. I'm not telling you what to do."  What the heck is
that?  I wanted to know if hormones would be bad for me and which things
are better/worse and if there were any risks involved with someone with
CD.....I told her thats the advice I was looking for.  She got a really
annoyed look and sighed heavily and said, "Look, I'm not telling you what
to do."

Anyhow, I'm mostly just irritated with medicine in general.  Why go to the
doctor if you're just going to be treated rudely and they won't give you
any advice?  I have more horror stories, but this message would be 50
pages long if I went into all that.

Ariel