Get A Beautiful Gardening Book By Donating To A Healthcare Fund

My healthcare plan has high deductible, so I would like to give away my book to help fund it. After you donate $7.90 to help me fund my healthcare expense, I will mail you the following book which is very new in condition. This book has 672 pages and is full of inspiring gardening ideas. The book has always been sitting on my bookshelf unread since I bought it.

We Will Never Have This Kind Of Hospital In USA Or Canada

Correct me if I'm wrong.  There is no for-profit private hospital here in the USA or in Canada, is it?  For those of you who had never experienced private for-profit healthcare, I want to tell you that, you totally have no idea what quality healthcare is about.  I can't say I had the honor to be sick a few years ago when I was visiting Hong Kong, but that experience had sent me into a really great private hospital (not this new one in the video) where I was treated like a royalty.  The nurses there had such good bedside manner only the flight attendants in Singapore airlines can match.  I'm not kidding.  My travel insurance paid for it because it was a sudden illness and it happened when I was traveling, and of course that illness wasn't because of a pre-existing condition that I had. I had never seen such caring and handsome doctors my entire life.  But I have to say, I have been healthy enough to not have seen that many doctors to really conclude that American doctors aren't good looking.   But the few doctors whom I had seen in the USA are not good looking, and a couple of them look scarily deranged like those individuals who show up on police mugshots in the news, wearing dirty white coats.  I was really grossed out by those white coats that aren't starchy white and that had traces of dark rings around the cuffs and collars.  But you will never see that kind of white coats in a private hospital in Hong Kong, no no !

Other occasions when I witnessed how good the private "for-profit" healthcare in Hong Kong, was when I was visiting my mother who had her hysterectomy and my sister-in-law who had her  C-Section.  Those private rooms where they stayed were so nice that they made them feel like they were vacationing in a hotel and not being sick in a depressing hospital.  My mother's surgery and hospital stay was 100% paid for by her catastrophic health insurance, which even though didn't cover pre-existing conditions for her, covered all new conditions.  The premium was so low (compared to my health plan here in the USA) that the lack of coverage for pre-existing conditions wasn't an issue to my mom.  That surgery and week-long hospital stay had more than enough paid off her premium.  The hospital meals were so good that I actually paid my sister-in-law and my mom more visits than I needed to because I just wanted to have my meals there.  Then there was the frequent rounding of the handsome doctors who actually took an interest in my sister-in-law's and my mom's personal lives.  The doctors there were so reassuring, friendly and caring that they made them feel so safe and comforted.  I slept with my mom on the night of her surgery in her room and it was really comfortable, like it was just a hotel stay.  Then there were aids and nurses coming in to bring magazines to my mom and sister-in-law, to peel oranges, apples and even grapes for them, while offering great company and uplifting conversations. 

Now back here in the USA, I had never witnessed healthcare at this level, even though I suspect that I'm not paying any less than what my mother paid for her catastrophic insurance and what my sister-in-law paid 100% out of pocket for the delivery of my niece. My sister-in-law paid approx. a total of $12,000 for her week-long stay and C-Section. I'm not sure what my mom's insurance paid for her surgery and hospital stay.  But what my sister-in-law paid wasn't that much, compared to the fact that I paid thousands of dollars a year to just have health insurance in the USA, and to constantly pray that I will never have to ever use it because I have a $6000+ deductible... and I'm not sure if my insurance will pay 100% of the covered treatments or 80%, I forgot and I have to go back to re-read the fine prints.

So, as you can see, my sister-in-law living in Hong Kong doesn't have to really worry about getting health insurance because even if she doesn't have health insurance, paying 100% out of pocket can get her a better deal than what I pay here to be medically insured.  It's because the overall medical cost in private hospitals in Hong Kong is a lot cheaper than in the USA even though the locals in Hong Kong think private hospitals and clinics are expensive, so many of them opt for the universal care offered by the government instead.  For those who don't want to go to the government-run universal care, like my mom, they purchase catastrophic health insurance that they can use to go to private doctors and hospitals.  The low premium and flexibility made such  policies very popular among people like my mom, who prefer private hospitals but don't mind to be covered for each major condition only once in her life time.  I doubt my mom will ever have another problem with her reproductive system though, since it was all surgically removed, but she will not have to worry, and god forbids, when she is going to have breasts cancer next time.

I don't think I will ever see a healthcare facility in the USA that can match those private ones in  Hong Kong, in terms of comfort and patient dignity. It's because in Hong Kong, private hospitals can thrive at competitive pricing due to the lack of class action lawsuits or the extra high cost in bullshit compliance and paper works like here in the USA. In Hong Kong, private healthcare can focus on patient care, instead of paper pushing in the USA.  This is just what I observe. correct me if I'm wrong since I'm not a doctor and I don't work in the healthcare industry.

Are Doctors Aware That Their Fancy Computer Systems Are Turning Away Patients?

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I had recently read an article about how patients disappeared for years from the practice. But have doctors ever wondered there could be a reason behind.

This is what happened to me yesterday.  I got mixed up and I went to an appointment one day early.  I didn't realize it until I attempted to check-in and I was told my appointment wasn't yesterday but today.  But since I already took a sick day, I offered to just sit there and wait for an available slot and I told them I didn't mind the wait because I just had the entire day. 

The staff at my  doctor's office told me, "No, you can't wait here, we won't check you in no matter what, we can't service you even if you wait here till the end of the day. You can't just wait here."

"But I'm willing to sit here the entire day, I don't mind.  You can process the appointments first until there is an empty spot that I can fill in, I'm here in case there is a slot open. If not, I don't mind being here for one day.  If you don't want me here taking up the space, can you please call me or text me when there is an open slot, I will be around the building."  I pleaded.

The girl at the reception said, "No, we don't do that."

So today I overslept a little and I went back to my day of appointment and they said I was 35 minutes late and they would not check me in!  I pleaded again and a different girl from yesterday told me,  "No, your name isn't on the computer and we will not serve you if your name isn't in the computer, the computer deletes you and marks you as no-show if you don't show up 10 minutes after the scheduled time."

I pleaded to  them again to let me stay as a waiting-list case. "No, we don't do waiting list with walk-ins.", the girl said.  

It really pissed me off at that point, because in the good old days when my same doctor didn't have that new fancy computer appointment system, I would be able to sit and wait for the next open slot even I was late for my appointment. But back then, it was also a different person who manned the counter. She was the old-school type who reminded me of a generation of  very friendly secretaries assumed by baby boomers.  Now I get these 20 something who are totally robotic and inflexible.  I hope they will all be replaced by robots in a few years because I'd rather deal with a robot than a stupid human with zero flexibility.

Now I am rescheduled and my appointment will be more than a month later.  A lot can happen in a month, sometimes it means life and death. If my doctor doesn't see me next month and an illness kills me due to the lack of  proper medical detection in time, she may also wonder, "XXX  hasn't come in for years. She probably has lost her insurance or she is too cheap to want to spend the copay to come in."  But little will she know I tried to get in to see her twice and I was turned away by her inflexible staff.

I have health insurance so sometimes patients don't see their doctors frequent enough isn't because they don't have health insurance. It's because they can't get through the lazy and inflexible gatekeepers.  Having health insurance and having access to healthcare can be two separate things.  Dear doctors, if you want your patients to come see you more, make it easier for them to schedule and reschedule appointments, don't have your staff turn them away at the reception area if they are late, give them the option and opportunity to amend their "no-shows" or to prevent their "late arrival" from turning into a complete "no-show", if they are willing.  This is what I will do if only I run a medical practice.  

Finding It Difficult To Keep Doctors' Appointment?

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I had missed my OBGYN's appointment today.... I worked till very late last night and I had just missed my phone's alarm clock to not make it to the first appointment in the morning that I had long scheduled a month ago.  I picked this early time in the morning because I was unable to get my appointment at another time. Yes, my OBGYN is this booked!  Now I have to wait another month to see her.   This is not a big deal, you may say... But before my OBGYN's appointment, I also missed appointments with  my dentist and  my Dermatologist.

I feel bad for being a no-show, in a sense that I can't even keep up with a doctor's appointment now?  I've been feeling overwhelmed and I've been experiencing anxiety over a lot of things.  I had no idea when I started to have a problem with anxiety. May be when my patio is overgrown with weed.  I  never admitted I had anxiety. But now, I think I am seeing a problem.  No, I didn't miss my doctors appointments because I was too anxious to see my doctors.  It was because I was so exhausted doing everything else and I was so overwhelmed by life that I just missed my doctors' appointments.  Missing my doctors' appointments is just the consequence of me feeling anxious about other things in my life.

My becoming a no-show with my doctors makes me feel like a failure.  I know I shouldn't call myself this but what should I call it when I fail to even keep my doctors' appointments?  How do I pull myself together?  I already input all my doctors' appointments into my phone's calendar which I also added alerts.  My phone's calendar allows me to add a maximum 2 alerts per appointment.  I always max out the alerts allowed!   But still, I missed my doctors' appointment.  Now  I need to start doing something to at least help myself keep the next upcoming appointment,  so I will feel some sense of normality about myself, about my life.

Right now, I have no idea if I should see a doctor for my anxiety.  But according to what I read from the internet, I need to see a doctor if my anxiety is affecting my daily life.  I think it is a problem now, but the problem is if my anxiety is voiding my ability to keep up with appointments, how am I going to see a doctor to help me with my anxiety?

Am I alone in this?  I would like to hear from anyone and everyone who feels overwhelmed and anxious right now. I would like to hear how you guys deal with it and get on with life.