Who Is Really Your Doctor? 26

Who Is Really Your Doctor?

My neurologist is a very educated and experienced doctor. He understands my condition and what it takes to give me some relief because my condition is incurable and causes all sorts of pain. Why does my doctor have to ask the "insurance company" what they will allow me to have medically performed or prescribed to keep me in good health?

Real conversation that I had with one of my doctors:

Doctor: The insurance company won't pay for your Botox treatments to control your migraine condition. They say you are not getting enough pain-free days to justify the cost.

Me: What? How do they know how many days I have pain-free? Nobody's asked me how I feel every day.

Doctor: They say you must have an improvement of at least 7 pain-free days or 100 pain-free hours per month.

Me: Are you fucking kidding me? How am I supposed to know that? If I get the Botox to eliminate the pain how do I know how many hours a month I would have had pain? OMG, I am so confused. I am getting a migraine.

I know he is disgusted with the way things are in the medical/insurance scam that we call health care, but he has dedicated his life to helping people and he's not going to give up, he's just resigned himself to do what he has to, to help his patient.

While the insurance folks are getting richer, we get sicker and broker, trying to get relief from conditions that the insurance company has deemed too expensive to treat on a regular basis. You have 30 pain days a month, we will give you 6 pills a month that will make you feel all better.

And now I am getting a migraine.