Is access to health care more determined by policy or location?

(I'm talking about current conditions, this isn't a healthcare reform issue)


I had kidney stones last year. My employer required that I have a follow-up exam this year and demanded a spiral CT.

I made an appointment with my doctor. He asked if I had any symptoms. I told him that I didn't. He asked if he could just write a letter to my employer stating that I was fine and they were idiots for demanding a CT. I told him that I'd love to see the letter, but it wouldn't help me much.

...so he wrote a prescription for a spiral CT (and, since I hadn't had a cholesterol test in a year, he ordered one of those too) and sent me to the lab (in the same building).

The lab told me that the CT needed to me preapproved by Aetna and that the earliest they could schedule me was Thursday (3 days). I opted for a Friday appointment (4 days).

I arrived at 9:45am and sat in the waiting room. 10 minutes later, they drew blood for the cholesterol test and sent me back to the waiting room. 10 minutes later, I was called in, switched my jeans for scrub bottoms, did the CT, and was out in 15 minutes.


I have a pretty standard HMO, yet I don't have problems with access to healthcare. Cleveland IS saturated with medical facilities.

Is this an issue of my coverage being great or am I just lucky that I live in an area with an excess of healthcare facilities?

had cancer or some other life threatening health needs or disease that may cost your insurance company 100 thousand dollars or more for your medical cost, and with stays and treatment in hospitals & doctor visits adding up to much much more....

This when the insurance corporations find ways to drop people..... not for routine checkups or procedures....the insurance companies will gladly pay for that inexpensive shit to keep stringing people along to continue paying their premiums for years...UNTIL....

One needs major care & huge cost that's when the insurance companies hatchet people go to work to find ways to eliminate you with technicalities or fine print that they say your not covered for....and the insurance companies save big money and profits for the company doing this.

And why over 60 percent of bankruptcies in this country are caused from just this...expensive medical bills people thought they were covered for through work or their own premiums and then dropped and left on their own to mortgage or wipe out their savings or worst.

Add that up by tens of thousands they throw off for little or bullshit reasons and you can see how many millions they save and make in profits each year.

Tens of thousands of people die and lose their homes each year believing they were covered...it's all about profit for the insurance companies not health care for those who get sick....it's why insurance companies CEO make 11 or 12 million dollars a year one even has a 200 million dollar bonus...that comes from denying people coverage.

As far as facilities, shit they are everywhere a dime a dozen...not just where you live, But EVERYWHERE - the cost for small things like what you went through are no problem for most people...that's NOT the issue.

It's when one really needs health care and can't get because they are sick, or the ones who pay their premiums every month for years & years and find out they are being given the run around, some strung along until their finally die because of the red tape purposely put forth by th insurance industry to insure profit.

We need a public option health care for all to give people a CHOICE....What do you think?

Some people have coverage and find it impossible to get labwork or meds authorized by their insurance company...and/or they wait weeks or months to get them.

My insurance company authorizes anything my doctor requests and my wait times are a few days...but I live in an area that has a LOT of medical facilities.

Is the difference due to insurance company (Aetna HMO) or availability of care or something else?


And I agree with you about the need for a public option.