An brusque abode for pathogens (Last Plane to the Doctor's Office)

[Ignatius]

Dollars to donuts, hear? Don't look at pictures of rashes on the internet and guess at stuff.

[dieblucasdie]

He's going to the doctor tomorrow; I just want to look smart when he gets his diagnosis!

The thing about dermatology is that either it's an allergy or it's something they don't understand and can't do anything about anyhow, but luckily it will probably go away eventually

[Ignatius]

My goodness, sir, that's not a very favorable opinion of the science! (I said two mean things I feel like I'm at my limit, but goodness!)

[dieblucasdie]

Aw, mane, I just trolled you in that other thread, you got one more in ya, at least

[elpollodiablo]

Oh, sorry I didn't see this earlier, pollo.  Given the location of your outbreaks, your age, and the time of year, dollars to donuts it's this (obvs. the wiki pictures the most severe cases), or else it's some allergic reaction you haven't managed to account for.

Hey, this actually seems somewhat likely! I'll certainly be pleased if it goes away on its own, though I'll be even more pleased if they can give me something for the itching.

[mountmccabe]

I will give you half a growler of Left Hand Cream Ale and a cookie from last week for your itching.

[mountmccabe]

Fine, make it two cookies, but that's my final offer.

[elpollodiablo]

It's a deal.

Taking care of medical stuff makes me dislike being alive. I mean that as literally as possible. There's always a sadness to it for me, the realization that there's all this work and time and effort and money and aggravation involved in just maintaining normalcy. And you see other people who spend even more emotional and physical energy to maintain even more pitiable circumstances than yours, and sometimes that's the reward for thick decades of this regime of unpleasantness and grief. And it just seems so fucking exhausting and pointless.

[coldforge]

That is exactly why I'm a buddhist, no shit. Entropy in the flesh.

[Greg Nog]

But if you become a Ranger you can get relics that increase your Stamina by up to +10

[coldforge]

That might tip things.

[FreddyKnuckles]

It's a deal.

Taking care of medical stuff makes me dislike being alive. I mean that as literally as possible. There's always a sadness to it for me, the realization that there's all this work and time and effort and money and aggravation involved in just maintaining normalcy. And you see other people who spend even more emotional and physical energy to maintain even more pitiable circumstances than yours, and sometimes that's the reward for thick decades of this regime of unpleasantness and grief. And it just seems so fucking exhausting and pointless.

Hey man keep perspective. So you've got rash hands.  So what? There are dudes in the Sudan who would think your life is pretty badass. If you've got to be alive, being a teacher in the Midwest with itchy hands ain't so bad in the grand scheme of things!

[elpollodiablo]

Yeah, sure. That's not really what I was getting at there, but yeah, you're right of course.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

just out of curiosity, what's the deal with healthcare for students in the US? i feel like half my posts hear are questions about NZ/US differences, but it'd be interesting to know. i don't know what i would've done without the student health centre at my university.

[clare]

I'm pretty sure that the answer to that question is sfa. I mean you can stay covered under your parents' insurance until you're n years old (where n is something like 25 or 27) but if you don't have insurance you're screwed, and the government doesn't cover anyone to a satisfactory degree (by our antipodean standards). Crazy system

[jess]

As a funded grad student (my tuition is covered, plus I get paid a stipend) who is older than 25/26 or whatever age that cutoff is, I do get health insurance through my school, but it's not great coverage. Most of my doctor's visits and tests are covered to a certain cap that I've yet to reach (though actually, dermatology is not, so pollo would be screwed on my insurance), but the prescription coverage caps at $1000, which only sounds like a lot if you don't have a chronic medical condition. As a type 1 diabetic who obviously takes insulin (which is a really expensive prescription since there are no generic insulins) and also takes a couple of other pretty expensive prescriptions, a refill of all of my prescriptions is over $800, so my insurance covers about a month every year. Otherwise, I pay out of pocket. There are some assistance programs, and depending on financial situations, you can get reduced costs from drug companies or aid or even just discounts from pharmacies (Walgreens is by far the best in the US when it comes to paying for scrips out of pocket, since they have a good discount program), but it sucks. That said, if you are generally healthy, take maybe one or two lower cost meds, and only occasionally need additional medical care, the insurance here tends to be just fine.

[jess]

Also, almost all schools have a student health center, and students (undergrad and grad) pay a health fee with their tuition to have unlimited access to it. In my experience, student health centers are good for gyno issues, very basic medical issues, flu shots, and not much else (though sometimes you have to go to the student health center first for the referral out). I've had some pretty bad care at those, like people who apparently didn't know the difference between Type 1 and 2 diabetes, and people trying to draw blood and not really knowing how. Few doctors who are good at their jobs or who have much experience would actually choose to work at a student health center, when they could make way more money working just about anywhere else. Same is true for university counseling centers—they are good for basic stuff (I'm kind of depressed, I'm kind of anxious, I'm having trouble adjusting to college, etc), but I would go elsewhere if at all possible for any serious mental health issue.

[Em]

I echo everything Jess said. Most of the people at the Student Health Centers at both schools I attended were beyond incompetent. Actually, the most competent thing they ever did was take one look at me when my bipolar disorder began to manifest in a serious way, tell me they couldn't help me, and refer me out. And the insurance is atrocious; at one point my meds were in a range similar to Jess's (although not quite so high) and it broke me. A good portion of my student loan debt is really just out-of-pocket medical debt.

[elpollodiablo]

Jesus christ, jess, how do you afford your medication? That's nearly twice what we pay in *rent* here.

[jess]

I am really fortunate and have parents who can help me out and don't mind doing so at all. I am also lucky to have a very good relationship with them and to thus not mind being dependent on them. Otherwise I'd be in significant debt and have to take out student loans. And yes, that's more than rent generally is here too.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

oh wow, that is terrible. here we have an organisation called Pharmac, which allocates funds to subsidise different drugs and treatments based on drug trials and price etc. Insulin, syringe kits etc i'm pretty sure are fully subsidised, so you'd just be paying a prescription fee ($3), plus the doctor's visit, which tends to be an outrageous price. unless, of course, you can go to a student health centre.

edit: here's the link for stuff that's currently subsidised if anyone's interested - diabetes meds start on page 29.
http://www.pharmac.govt.nz/2011/07/27/Sched.pdf

[jess]

Nice, that is better, and my insulins are on that list as fully subsidized. This is a lot of why I am behind major health care reform here, probably to a single payer system, because it's not just about having insurance, since plenty of insurance doesn't even begin to cover necessary health care adequately.

Also, pollo, when I had good insurance, both under my parents and then when I was working full time, I just paid co-pays for all of that with no limit, and I had no idea how expensive my meds actually were. Granted, co-pays were still about $120-150 a month, since I end up having a number of individual scrips at about $20-30 each, but that's still way better.

[FreddyKnuckles]

It is a really important distinction that access to insurance does not = access to health care or affordable health care.

[RavingLunatic]

That said, if you are generally healthy....the insurance here tends to be just fine.

This is one of the greatest indictments of the US health care system. If you don't really need insurance, the system works great for you. (Of course, everyone needs insurance for freak emergencies and stuff, but you know what I mean.)

My parents are insisting that I look into some kind of emergency coverage, though I don't think it's worth it. It's got a $5500 deductible, which is more money than I have, plus I'm sure they'll pull out the whole "pre-existing condition" thing if I have any serious condition that could conceivably be connected to my digestive problems. The little money I do have I keep in a safe at home so that if I do break a bone or something and have to go in, they can't clean out my bank account. I suppose having emergency coverage could save me some money years down the line if I ever get a real job. I think it would be about $75 a month, which is more than I can afford right now, but I can't really afford to eat right now either, and I still do that, basically on my parents' dime. Ugh, all very depressing.

[Em]

My workplace has a decent but too-expensive plan that is made that way by the fact that it has two tiers: a regular ol' basic insurance tier for everyone except one of our executive directors, and a premium tier for her. Every year when it comes time to renew our health insurance plan (I worked here for a time before I started by current stint), we have a staff meeting, and our finance and HR person lays out some less expensive options, and the ED in question explains to everyone why they're all terrible and declares that we're staying with our current plan. She doesn't want to give up her plum coverage or change doctors. Also, she pays nothing for her plan and everyone else pays a larger percentage with each passing year. I'm just saying.

So anyway, now the company that administers our plan has this new policy that a certain percentage of your employees must be on the plan in order to keep it, and we fall below that percentage because we're a small office and they just hired a few people right out of college that are still on their parents' plans. So she's basically going around badgering them about getting on the insurance plan and acting peeved when they decline. I'll be interested to see what happens with our insurance plan in the long run. All I know is, if the new plan doesn't have prescription coverage at least as good as the current one, I'll have to bail on this job.

Sorry, I'm sure there's a health insurance thread somewhere, but everyone was talking about it here so that is my story.