I'm on SSD for a psychiatric disability, and thus on Medicare. Since last June I've been relying on my psychiatrist from Minneapolis to write my prescriptions while I've tried to find a doctor in central Texas. ( I'm down to one pill.)
My Mpls doctor is not comfortable prescribing anymore, not after a full year. He can't do phone appointments either. He's ethical, which is a blessing and a curse.
Since I arrived, I've contacted every psychiatrist in Austin (all 18 of them) and they don't accept Medicare. If by some miracle I could scrape up the money to pay cash, only a couple of them are taking new patients. I've been on a waiting list for 6 months for the one (1) who accepts sliding fee patients. When I called today, there was no guess about when I might hit the top of the list. I didn't have any luck in San Antonio, either. Today, when my doctor told me he couldn't renew my scrip this time I decided to go right to Medicare. They found one (1) doctor in my area - if 350 miles away can be considered my area - who takes Medicare patients. I called. She's not taking new patients, no waiting list, no don't bother to call back.
I called my family doctor and told him what's happening. He was sympathetic, but won't prescribe psych meds. One is an anti-psychotic, the other an anti-seizure. Most family practitioners consider those drugs to be way too much risk. (I have one pill left.)
I'm bi-polar, hard to manage. I've been fighting with this shit for 45 years, and am relatively stable right now, but that won't last. I can finally get effective medications, with help from Medicare and Medicaid, and I can't get them prescribed. Surreal.
In desperation, I called every doctor in my town. None of them will write scrips for the medications I take. (I heard a rumor that there's one woman who will write scrips for anyone for anything, if she hasn't been shut down yet. I may call her tomorrow.)
I called my doctor back. He was with a patient. The very sweet receptionist said "I'm not telling you this as a person who works here, this is just what I'd do. My friend was in your shoes a couple of years ago, and he checked himself into a psych unit by telling them he was suicidal. He had to stay 72 hours, but they got him back on his medications, and found someone who could see him. You might like this place - they're really good."
I had read, sometime back, about the dearth of available psychiatrists, but it didn't sink in. They're leaving in droves because of insurance reimbursement issues, because they can't get paid to do what they were trained to do - they've become med-check drones, and they hate it.
It isn't about Medicare, it's about what the insurance industry has done to health care.
The last time I was hospitalized was in 1986. The charge per day was $1000. For a double room. I made my own damn bed, we got clean sheets once a week, and they charged $1000 a day. I can't begin to guess what it would cost to hold me for 3 days now. This is true insanity.
I got really serious about taking my bi-polar disorder seriously about 15 years ago. I've been uninsured for so much of my life it was often just simpler to slog along until I went super-manic and had to be hospitalized. In 1993 I stepped back and realized that I was acting like a child. I have a serious health issue, and it's my job to take care of it. I swallowed my false pride, I went to the public clinics and waited all day to be seen. I took the medications I could afford, even though they weren't particularly effective - they were better than nothing. I finally broke down and applied for SSD. I was accepted within a month of submitting all my paperwork - 40 years of psych records carry a lot of weight.
In Minneapolis I could find doctors, although I did have 3 of them leave while I was a patient. Same story for each - they'd see patients on a cash only basis. No more insurance billing, because it cost more to collect payments than the payments added up to.
Two of them joined holistic medicine practices, one went out on his own to specialize in treating infertility patients. But there were clinics, and I could get help.
I'd gladly go to a public health clinic, but they don't seem to have any here - even the psych hospital I called today didn't have any resources for me. I can't quite take this in.
I may or may not be around for the next few days. It depends on whether or not I decide to play charades with St. David's.
If you talk to anyone who thinks our health care system is just fine, give them my e-mail address. I'd love to chat.
UPDATE: Writing and reading what people have offered has made a huge difference in how I'm looking at this mess. I have a list of numbers to call, and can always go to an ER for temporary help. THANK YOU to everybody who dug out information for me. I was so befogged when I sat down to write this I couldn't think of any possibilities. Bedtime now - mom care starts early!