Yes, 20 months is a long stretch for someone who can pay cash for the procedure.
]]>Money talks, and if you can pay cash there is no way I can be convinced that it doesn’t affect your ‘place in line’. Medicine has become a business, not a profession, in this country, and privacy laws guarantee that there is no way of knowing the truth.
]]>– Badtux the Healthcare Penguin
]]>We need universal coverage, just like the rest of the civilized world, and to stop pandering to the insurance industry and Pharma.
Farmers, especially livestock farmers, Kryten, tend to be better grounded than the majority of the population, but the denial in the US is an amazing thing to absorb.
Ellroon, I feel certain if those thoughts ever intruded on him, he would just go out and shoot some caged animals until he got over it.
He has been on a mechanical pump for almost two years, so they’ll drop it in the case, like swapping a motherboard, Steve. I agree with you, it would be a waste to transplant an organ into my carcass, even though reaching 100 is not unusual among my ancestors on my Mother’s side.
]]>As things stand, I have zero respect for Dick Cheney. If Cheney, after multiple MIs and related problems, had decided to let himself go when the next one happened, I might have managed a smidgen of respect for the man. But noooo… he had to use a precious resource that could have gone to someone younger with the prospect of a longer and fuller life.
I am 63, and even though I’m eight years younger than Cheney, I would not seek a transplant heart, even if I could afford it. I have few complaints with my life, and based on my family history and my medical condition, I don’t expect to last all that much longer. But really… let someone who is 40 and otherwise has years to live take that heart. It’s the right thing to do.
]]>And it’s not just US society, BTW.
I am constantly amazed at how terrified most humans are about something that is 100% inevitable and that they have less control over than playing poker. The only guarantee we get when we are born is that we will die. And that’s not the only thing people spend their time worrying themselves to death about that they have no control over.
Most humans are insane (or at least unsane), and are conditioned that way by their insane parents. A few either get lucky or manage to escape and are at least reasonably sane. *shrug*
]]>They’ve done a complete work-up on him to get him on the list for a transplant but there’s one nagging little problem: There is no way in hell that we can pay for the meds he would have to have to stay alive after a transplant, and apparently no way we can afford the insurance that would do so. He’s also falling into the doughnut hole for the expensive meds he’s already taking for dialysis.
So, if you can’t afford to keep yourself alive after the transplant… it’s pointless to get on the list.
The Professor is being philosophical about this, saying it takes a lot longer to die by missing some dialysis sessions than it would by missing a dose of transplant pills. Still, there’s something not right about a healthcare “system” that chooses life or death for people based on their ability to pay.
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