[fiblye]

I’ve got a relevant experience to back this up.

I had a urinary tract infection that I felt progress up to my bladder and eventually into one kidney and then the next. I would’ve liked to visit a doctor immediately, but with American medical costs being what they are and hospitals advising me to hold out a few more days until a doctor in my insurance network was available, I’d hoped that small stinging pain down there would go away. But nope, it spread to all the regions mentioned plus I was passing blood almost nonstop. I couldn’t sleep, could barely walk, and felt like I was on the verge of dying.

I made it to a doctor once I knew it was a life or death situation, described my symptoms and the progression, and the guy starts digging into me, trying to say I’m just fishing for antibiotics (what?) and it’s clearly a kidney stone. I all but called him a dumbass, because it wouldn’t make sense for a kidney stone to move backwards up to both of my kidneys. I had to wait around for a urine test to prove that yes, it was in fact an obvious kidney infection, but the doctor was still skeptical asserting that it’s probably just a mild kidney stone, and reluctantly gave my antibiotics that cleared it up instantly.

That wasn’t the first time a doctor tried to argue against my obvious problem (I also had one argue that I didn’t break a clearly broken bone), but it was the most frustrating experience.

[drieddust]

My experience mirrors yours. I have quite a few lousy experiences with doctors across the world. But the one I am narrating below was particularly scary and I might have gotten into serious health issues because of sheer incomptence of an entire hospital.

Some years back in London I fell ill with constant high fever. Following the protocol, I took paracetamol for 5 days but my condition worsened.

So I checked into the hospital. It is considered a decent NHS hospital. They promptly took blood samples and put me in isolation suspecting some infection. But despite being reporting that paracetamol is not helping they kept giving out to me religiously for 10 more days. Everyday they would collect blood samples and assure me that they are going to find the root cause and then start the proper medication.

After 15 days of constant 40C fever, they still don't wanted to treat me. On 16 day, barely conscious almost naked in ill fitting hospital gown I walked out of my room and screamed and probably abused the staff and collapsed on the floor.

Then only they have me broad spectrum antibiotics and in next few days I was back home.

At that time I researched that it is common protocol to administer broad spectrum Antibiotic if diagnosis is non conclusive.

I still wonder what would have hapenned if I hadn't taken it to the floor on 16th day.

[sjg007]

That sounds weird. If he really thought kidney stones then why not order an ultrasound? Also why not go to the ER? Your insurance has to cover it.. I guess it would depend on your coinsurance/copay though..

[DangitBobby]

Not necessarily. If it turns out it wasn't an emergency after all (just appeared to be), or if the insurance company decides that the remedy wasn't medically necessary (but the doctor treating you at the ER did), some states allow insurance companies to deny claims. They are slowly trying to unravel all of the protections created by the ACA, and they are succeeding.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/29/16906558/a...

>His company uses Anthem, one of the country’s largest health insurance plans. In recent years, Anthem has begun denying coverage for emergency room visits that it deems “inappropriate” because they aren’t, in the insurance plan’s view, true emergencies.

>The problem: These denials are made after patients visit the ER, sometimes based on the diagnosis after seeing a doctor, not on the symptoms that sent them, like in Cloyd’s case.

[Foober223]

Some doctors are idiots. No different than people in any other profession.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Some doctors are idiots. Some doctors are only in it for the money. Only a small proportion of the people who qualify have any genuine deep-seated urge to help fix human suffering.

When doctors get it wrong, people die. Anyone who genuinely does care about human suffering is going to find that difficult.

But a lot of patients are idiots too. For every educated more-or-less self-aware middle class professional a doctor sees, there are tens of patients who are old, confused, angry, hostile, lonely, unable to look after their own welfare in more or less obvious ways, or just plain dumb - and barely able to understand what their problem is, never mind explain it.

So it's not an easy profession - not because doctors have to be unusually competent to do it, but because they deal with all kinds of people with all kinds of problems in all kinds of situations, and it's normal for many of those people to be very bad at being able to explain why they're there.

[uberduber]

This. Essentially doctors go through 12+ years to work retail. Many people get an education just so they don't have to work with retail customers.

Also, it has gotten worse. Before the ACA there used to be a barrier where to see a doctor you essentially either had a job or money which would weed out a lot of the nuts.

[tropdrop]

And if you don't have a job or money (a "nut", as you say), you deserve to... die?

[chillwaves]

Incredibly offensive and shameful comment. Tell me more about the barriers you want to erect between people and health care.

[hnick]

I've found that the older they are, the listen they're willing to listen and discuss rather than tell.

[Aloha]

You could have gone to an urgent care for less than 300 dollars cash, even when I had no insurance, this is what I would do when I had this same kind of thing happen