ONE SENIOR WHO IS FED UP! (Frazer Chronicles)
My wife has an autoimmune decease that has attacked her body unrelentlessly over the past several years. It has taken her hearing completely, her eyesight has suffered, her balance is suspect and now the latest malady to strike is the cartilage in her body can develop what I call "the droopies." Her left ear lobe actually droops and has lost it's elasticity.
I have my own physical problems, but nothing like my wife. I take a whole diet of drugs to keep me going, I think my doctor is actually a drug dealer, and I'm one of his best customers, with a pill to go to bed, a pill to get out of bed in the morning and several more pills to get me through the day.
My wife does the eye drop thing 3 or 4 times a day, "I'm not sure, I've kinda lost track." In addition to her eye drops and artificial tear medication, she also takes pills to keep her going through the day and a pill or two to insure that she wakes in the morning, "thank God for pharmaceutical companies."
I though it might be interesting to find some sort of rating for the top companies who's job it has become to keep my wife, and me "kicking," you know.....above ground as it were. Not to surprising was what I discovered, and figured before I started researching for this blog, U.S. companies lead the list of companies, "rated by income alone," in the world.
I never figured that a band-aid company could sell enough band-aids to lead in total income, but Johnson & Johnson lead the world in income with a gross income of $61.897 million, and a net of $12,266 million. Pfizer was right behind Johnson & Johnson, while Abbott Laboratories checked in at 8th, Merck & Co was 9th. and Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers, Squibb rounded out the American companies in the top 12 in the rankings.
Some might make light at the list and and the gross figures of the companies, but those folks should keep in mind that the list was tabulated by Fortune Global 500, a legitimate company, who rates in a nonpartisan way. And also remember that the Fortune company is rating the world wide industry. In 2009, the rankings of the top 12 producers of medication were even more "bent" towards the U.S as 7 of the top 12 companies were based in the United States.
Hospitals used to be based on patient care and breaking even, now the industry is based on making a profit for shareholders or partners. I really never did understand way a hospital was only supposed to "attempt" to break even, but in recent years, that attitude has been replaced by a "make money at almost any cost."
Now prescription companies exist to distribute medication through the mail, paid for by health insurance companies who decide which medication they will pay for. In many cases, a doctor's prescription will be denied by an insurance company, leaving patient and doctor to scramble for another medicine.
Doctors prescribe a medical procedure, only to have his decision overturned by a health insurance company. The patient is left to dispute the health insurers decision to a medical board, and in many cases must give testimony to that board, even though the patient has absolutely no medical experience, and can only testify as to the pain, or the suffering from the condition that their doctor wants to alleviate through a medical procedure.
Hospitals, health clinics and doctors, through a program of reduced rates, work with insurance companies, where the insured must go to only certain doctors, hospitals or clinics for medical service. Other "benefit" companies, through deductions from paychecks will take deducted amounts and pay for that part of a prescription that is termed "deductible" by the health insurance company. My wife's insurance pays at an 80%-20% rate, we pay 20% and the health insurance company pays 80%. Dam good insurance.
To muddle up the works is the occasional clinic that attempts to push work, "their work," off on the patient. This crap happened to my wife several weeks ago, when she was fitted with an ear hearing devise that fitted snugly in her left hear, "the floppy one." The implant works out well, and the price was $104, for the device. The 2 visits it took to get the devise and then to fit it cost $140, and the health insurance company paid that without question.
When it came to the device itself, even though the devise was approved by her health carrier and was requested by her doctor, the clinic, who is a member of my wife's health plan requested $104 at the time of inserting the devise in her ear. The reason, "although my wife never asked, nor objected to the payment," is simple, they wanted their money up front.
We are now faced with a "load" of paper work, as is our insurance carrier, a perfect example of a wasteful practice by a stupid administrator who set a procedure with only one issue in site, money right now. The ear piece was approved by the health carrier, the procedure was approved by the health carrier, so whats the problem?
The paperwork, the issuing of a check, the "wait" on our part to get our money back for a procedure that was approved is just another example of how the health industry is broken and only getting worse. When somebody in government talks about Obama-care wanting to destroy the health insurance industry, gees, I hope the guy is right. The industry needs, "at the least" an overhaul, and at the most, a dismantling.
Thank God I'm (only) 67 and still have some
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