DUmmy "DFW" having trouble with the German healthcare system

[Tess Anderson]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025540239

Mon Sep 15, 2014, 04:07 PM

 DFW (16,077 posts)

Corrupt medicine on both sides of the Atlantic, my wife suffers, no one cares


 Well, obviously I care and our family does, but her doctors don't and big Pharma doesn't either.
 
I haven't made a big deal of this, but she suffers heavily from restless legs syndrome, as do many women. If you don't know what that is, it is like having a swarm of fire ants running up and down the interior of the veins and arteries in your legs. No matter HOW tired you are, you can't sleep, or even lie down. It is torture.
 
She had a prescription of dopamine recently, but was warned (correctly) that it had side effects (bladder and heart disruption) and the effects would diminish with time anyway.
 
Recently her GP prescribed a shoulder patch for her with some kind of time-release medication. Wonder of wonders--it worked!! Her symptoms and bad side effects are gone.
 
BUT.....here in Germany, doctors can only prescribe a certain amount of any medication and still have it covered by insurance. If they go over the amount, the patient has to pay for it out of pocket, or get it prescribed by another doctor. She is trying to get another doctor to prescribe it, but her neurologist said, "you're another doctor's patient, get him to prescribe it for you. Go away." So she is now trying to get a spot in a specialty clinic in Göttingen that handles this kind of thing, but she is on insurance, and not "privat (i.e. pays up front)," which means "second class patient" in Germany. Her last patch runs out in 4 days, and she is not looking forward for the torture starting up again. The clinic won't take her unless her GP gives her a "transfer order," and he says he might do it and might not. He's in no rush, as there's no money in it for him. The German system works--sometimes.
 
We were thinking of trying to find the patches in the States, but German Pharma companies are pulling out of the US market one after the other. US Pharma companies are supporting huge lawsuits and claims payouts against German Pharma companies, hoping the huge money awards will discourage them from offering their products in the US market, so the US Pharma firms can jack up their prices to astronomical levels once they have no more competition.
 
So, in 4 days, either we find SOMEONE who will prescribe the patches for her, or she goes back to sleepless nights. The patches are expensive if we pay for them ourselves. Maybe $300 to $400 a month, IF her doctor gets around to prescribing them (no money in it for him any more, so he doesn't care). I don't care. I'll gladly pay it if I have to, but how many normal people can afford that?
 
I'm telling you, I'm beginning to understand why some people blow up buildings. I can afford not to, but $400 a month? How many normal people can afford THAT as a supplemental expense? This is corruption and torture on an international scale, and it's happening right under all our noses. I know books have been written about it, TV exposés have been broadcast, etc., but NOTHING HAPPENS. Germany is not always the medical paradise it is sometimes made out to be.

*cheep cheep*

[franksolich]

Oh now.

Marc can easily afford to pay for the patches himself, out of his pocket-change.

He just doesn't want to, that's all.  He's just too damned tight.

[franksolich]

http://conservativecave.com/index.php?topic=95782.0

 

[USA4ME]

DFW

Germany is not always the medical paradise it is sometimes made out to be.

Keep that up and someone will accuse you of being a traitor to the cause.

And if Germany ever has to pony up to support defending its own borders instead of having the USA do it, Germany won't even be the medical paradise it is now. You libs never think of that do you? No. No, you don't

.

[freedumb2003b]

And these people are too stupid to see they are staring obozocare right in the face...

[Carl]

Response to LiberalAndProud (Reply #5)

Mon Sep 15, 2014, 04:54 PM

DFW (16,077 posts)
8. Yes, but it's complicated

If you go over a certain income level, you HAVE to take the "private" insurance, but like in the USA, they can refuse to cover anything they want to arbitrarily, and it's not cheap, something like €2500 a month.

Normal mortals are shoved into one of the "Kassen," which means you are insured for most (but not all by a long shot) things, and are always shoved to the back of the line. Call for a cardiologist. New Patient? Let me see. We have an opening in 6 months. Oh, you might be dead by then? Well, then we'll move it up to five months, how about that?

The thing she has was invented in Groningen in the Netherlands. We are looking into going there directly

Response to CaliforniaPeggy (Reply #6)

Mon Sep 15, 2014, 04:56 PM

DFW (16,077 posts)
9. I will say this for my doctors in the States

My dentist, my GP and my Texas cardiologost are all friendly, conscientious warm-hearted people.

My doctors in Germany are competent, but (except for the cardiologist and my ear surgeon) unfeeling machines. Compassion isn't taught in medical school here, except as something to be avoided.

No you mongrel idiot,it is because any incentive to be better has been removed and they are reduced to drones.

That thread is so full of ironic deliciousness it makes me smile.
I should have sympathy and without knowing if the wife is a moonbat lunatic that isn`t totally fair.
Oh well,will get over it as she still is married to a cretinous moron that despite seeing exactly what socialism brings is too titanically stupid to realize why it ALWAYS ends that way.
Blame everything and everybody but the actual hopelessly impossible system you still screech for.
I hope her restless leg forces your nuts into your throat as you sleep fool...good luck finding a doctor to help you. 

[wasp69]

Response to LiberalAndProud (Reply #5)

Mon Sep 15, 2014, 04:54 PM

DFW (16,077 posts)
8. Yes, but it's complicated

If you go over a certain income level, you HAVE to take the "private" insurance, but like in the USA, they can refuse to cover anything they want to arbitrarily, and it's not cheap, something like €2500 a month.

Normal mortals are shoved into one of the "Kassen," which means you are insured for most (but not all by a long shot) things, and are always shoved to the back of the line. Call for a cardiologist. New Patient? Let me see. We have an opening in 6 months. Oh, you might be dead by then? Well, then we'll move it up to five months, how about that?

So, if I have this straight, "the rich" have to pay for themselves and "the poor", and take their chances on what kind of care they get for a king's ransom.  "The poor" get the shitty end of the stick and have the wait months before being seen in which time they might die.  The "European Model" has been hailed as the end all, be all of socialized medicine - until, like William Pitt, it bit you in the ass.

Did I get that right?

Hope your wife gets better, but I also hope her restless leg kicks you in your libtard ass until you spend some of your own ****ing money to get her what she needs.

[GOBUCKS]

There's nothing at the DUmp more entertaining than a DUmmy in distress, especially when it's a smug, conceited, far-left America-hater like DUmmy DFW.

I hope his wife's affliction drives him to bankruptcy in his eurotrash paradise.

[franksolich]

There's nothing at the DUmp more entertaining than a DUmmy in distress, especially when it's a smug, conceited, far-left America-hater like DUmmy DFW.

That's what's always driven me nuts about this clown, and I'm confused as to why it hasn't driven the primitives nuts too--his uppity condescending manner.

Surely even the primitives can see how he talks "down" to them.

The bottom line however is that just like all the other primitives, this clown excretes, pisses, sweats, burps, belches, expels gas, discharges phlegm, and under certain circumstances stinks.....making him no more than what the lowliest primitive is.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The reserve and professional detachment of German professionals is a characteristic, true, but I've found that dealing with them in a friendly way rather than simply demanding their services generally breaches that wall.  A DUmmie, of course, is primarily concerned with making demands and expecting a servile response, which is the very last thing you're going to get from a German doctor, lawyer, or engineer.

[jtyangel]

The reserve and professional detachment of German professionals is a characteristic, true, but I've found that dealing with them in a friendly way rather than simply demanding their services generally breaches that wall.  A DUmmie, of course, is primarily concerned with making demands and expecting a servile response, which is the very last thing you're going to get from a German doctor, lawyer, or engineer.

You would think he would understand this as his wife is German as I recall. Apparently, he's paid about as much attention to that as to the irony in his screed about a public healthcare system;-) Oh and I share your sentiments on German professionalism and detachment being of partial heritage myself in the near past. They are well aware of their competence in certain areas to accept the whining, brutish temper of an American leftist. Germans do not need the approval of someone like DFW, but do respect and appreciate professional courtesy and more gets accomplished when addressed in that manner then not. Amazing how such a highfalutin leftist sophisticate like DFW, married to a woman of Germanic background, doesn't seem to have caught on to this quirk of engagement.

[franksolich]

Amazing how such a highfalutin leftist sophisticate like DFW, married to a woman of Germanic background, doesn't seem to have caught on to this quirk of engagement.

The clown's the stereotype of the new "ugly American," presenting himself to foreigners as "hey, look, I'm not as bad as other Americans," and then turning around to remind us that he's more hip, cooler, trendier, more with-it, than we unsophisticated American peons and primitives.

Of course, his privileged background explains all that.

The guy's involved in a first-class, first-rate business, but as a person, he's an insufferable ass.

[jtyangel]

but as a person, he's an insufferable ass.

And if that is obvious to us, then it is grossly apparent to the German doctor's trying to assist his wife. It's a pity his wife suffers for his boorish ways.

[txradioguy]

BUT.....here in Germany, doctors can only prescribe a certain amount of any medication and still have it covered by insurance. If they go over the amount, the patient has to pay for it out of pocket, or get it prescribed by another doctor. She is trying to get another doctor to prescribe it, but her neurologist said, "you're another doctor's patient, get him to prescribe it for you. Go away."

Reap what you sew DUmmy.

You're getting a taste of what you and the rest of the Progressives are forcing on the rest of us via Obamacare.

[txradioguy]

This DUmmy must be working strictly with the base level (free) version of German healthcare.  Like with Obamacare...there are different levels of insurace...free...then different levels of paid for health insurance that get you different levels of care.

Example...you use the free healthcare here....and you go to a doctor for an appointment...the receptionist will tell you "we can see you in two weeks"...you have the coverage you pay for and they same receptionist will tell you they can see you either that day or first thing in the morning.

Thankfully they treat the military Tri Care insurance as their top level paid for coverage.