I understand. At least here in Bulgaria it’s not criminal to use any kind of test or steroids and I recently discovered they sell test in the pharmacy without any script, at least in a lot of pharmacies(maybe in some will refuse). You go and ask “one box of omnadren please”, “Sure”…
How does the socialized medicine work for you? Is it private or state?
Here we have National Fund that takes takes money from your salary to give you some very basic medical insurance, which covers GP, 2-3 free of charge specialists per month if GP redirects you and emergency, but in emergency they may ask you to pay many things. Of course the real purpose of this is a lot of money to be stolen by the governors and the businessmen close to them
On the other hand there are private medical insurance companies and if you have a good job in a decent software company like me this is offered by the company as a bonus. They offer free examinations to all kinds of specialists, dental work for 300 dollars per year(here dental work is cheaper) and some kind of surgeries. But they are not much into paying for hormonal treatment or blood work.
For example I managed to get 1/3 of my last blood work covered from this private insurance that my company pays but I needed to be very persuasive to the young female endocrinologist and made her a lot of compliments to get this.
And I don’t think she will do it again because from her perspective and also the insurance company this blood work is not necessary since I don’t have a clear medical condition and she is afraid of audit from the insurance company.
In the US, it’s not socialized. At all. You pay for services, or you obtain insurance through a private company, AND pay for services. Insurance pays part of the cost, and all of some things. Obamacare is just a set of regulations, it’s not in any way socialized medicine.
I’m in Nicaragua right now. It has public socialized medicine that I do not qualify for as a foreign national. Which is okay, because it sucks. I can, and do, simply pay for things. It’s very cheap, and I can buy anything I want without any prescription of any kind, if it is available in the country. If I want a blood test, I go get one. They give me the results online, usually the same day. If I want a medication, I go to the pharmacy and buy it. In the US, good luck with that. I do still technically have my residency in the US, officially, for now, so I also am required to maintain health insurance there, even though I don’t use it.
Haha, socialized medicine… here in 'murica, we believe people are responsible for their own healthcare. Especially poor people that can’t afford it. That way the poor people die off quicker.
The way it works here is you now “have” to have insurance because of Obamacare. Many people used to just not have any insurance at all and were screwed/bankrupt if they had a major illness. Before Obamacare insurance companies would also find loopholes to not pay or to drop coverage on people that had literally paid for insurance their entire life and never been sick… as soon as they had a major illness like cancer they’d get dropped and no one else would insure them for anything close to what they could afford because well, they had cancer… If you have a “pre existing condition” from before you started a new insurance plan, they wouldn’t cover it. It was pretty shitty and reform was needed no matter what Fox News says. Obamacare at least made this part better.
Anyways. So the way it works now is you have to have insurance or you have a penalty on your taxes each year. Most employers pay part of peoples premiums for full time workers. I pay about $300 a month right now for coverage. If I had a couple of kids it could go to $600 a month… but that’s only part of it. You still have deductibles and max out of pocket amounts per year you have to reach before they’ll cover much. For mine it’s something like I have to pay the first $5000, then after that I pay 10% of anything after that. But it gets better… there’s also a “family” out of pocket max, so if I had a kid then I’d have to spend $5K for me and $5K for them before insurance covered the majority of the expenses. This is per calendar year… so if you had $4K in expenses in December and $4K of expenses in Jan the next year, you’re going to be paying both of those out of pocket.
Then there’s “in network” vs “out of network”. In network are docs/hospitals that have agreed to the insurance companies rates and are in their “network” of providers. The $5/10K I mentioned earlier is just if you’re using in network providers… if you want to use someone outside of their network you have even more out of pocket you have to pay before they cover… usually higher, so something like another $6/12K for individual/family.
So yeah, if you’re doing the math, it’s pretty easy to pay premiums, and spend another $10-20K per year if you have a major health issue and prefer to use an out of network provider.
Prescriptions are a whole other topic. I can literally get most prescriptions without insurance for less than they are with insurance.
It’s insane. But the politics here won’t really allow for any sort of reasonable change. It’s all watered down middle of the road garbage by the time it gets approved (and it’s very rare for anything to even get approved). Neither side wants to let the other side have a win so they just block everything. The joys of a 2 party system.
Seems I should not complain at all. The only thing I can complain is we don’t have any doctors here proficient in managing hormones, with or without insurance. But otherwise seems much cheaper and affordable than USA
Yeah, it’s a mess. I mean, they forced insurance companies to cover some things like birth control and annual check ups so those are free now but it’s still a mess. Obama tried to get a national healthcare type system through but couldn’t get it approved, for better or worse.
My insurance right now is actually very, very good. The example I used above is what mine will be like next year. Right now I think the most out of pocket I can have to pay is like $1000, but that’s completely outside of the norm. I’ve never heard of anyone else having that.
These doctors are making some bizarre comments about obesity related false testing scores, so they are trying to sell you that your T levels are higher than your testing has revealed, unreal. We know obesity can lower testosterone and it seems they are just making shit up to make their case more reasonable so you go away and stop presuing TRT.
I like the part about its unusual to see 39 year olds with low testosterone which just shows you these providers live under a rock. You’re not gonna get anywhere with these whack jobs.
These providers actions or lack thereof is a reflection of how insurance companies are doing business, deny, deny, deny medical coverage at every turn.
Pateints need to start dogging their providers on review sites like Yelp and hurt them where it counts because they continue to get referrals regardless of whether or not they provide a positive health outcome.
Its refreshing to see someone that doesn’t just rail against Obamacare. I live in a very red state so that is all I hear. My wife has asthma and a heart condition that has a good chance that she will need open heart surgery at some point in life to correct. Having that hanging over our head is enough as it is, but the thought that insurance could be dropped on her if I ever lost my job or something is scary as shit. My father-in-law had double bi-pass surgery last year and I believe they said it was around $300,000. I could be wrong about that number but pretty sure it was that high and that spells bankruptcy for me.
Obamacare isn’t perfect but it corrected a lot of what was just plain wrong in my eyes.
Agreed. There was some stuff that insurance companies were getting away with that was just plain wrong… borderline murder. At best it was bankrupting people to save them a few bucks after people had paid premiums forever. Then it’s like, how are they going to fight an insurance company when they’re deathly ill and already broke? They didn’t have a chance. I don’t like big gov’t stuff more than the next guy but some of the stuff that was legal before Obamacare was just plain wrong
It’s politics as usual I suppose. One party tends to concentrate on what isn’t perfect about it, not the really shitty stuff that was happening that it actually did fix (or at least improved).
If only there were a way to improve it besides repealing it. But that wouldn’t really happen either, because then either dems would have to agree with repubs to get enough votes to make changes, or it would be seen as a win for dems if Obamacare was better… so yeah, no winning that one. It’ll stay as-is for a long time I imagine.
Some of this is not true. My ex quit her job and didn’t feel like finding a new one and was instantly put on Medicare and got everything covered for free including weekly psychiatrist visits, birth control, any surgery, any doctor visit etc. I pay $600/month for insurance and have a very low deductible and everything is covered. You can get $200/month health insurance that has a high deductible and may not cover as much. Socialized medicine basically just gives you the $600/month version and takes it out of your taxes. It’s not free or cheaper. The issue is people don’t want to pay for the better insurance until they need it and when that time comes they bitch. Look at how much more people are taxed in places like Canada that have socialized medicine. It’s not free or cheaper. Many of the socialized health care countries benefit from drugs created from non socialized countries.
To be honest I didnt realize medical care in USA makes life so difficult there. I thought you are screwed only by the food there(no offense please).
And I also realize why a lot of people from my country have emigrated to Canada - to parasite on their social system while in USA you gotta get your lazy ass to work
To be fair, it’s totally possible to have very good insurance and just about everything is close to free. $20 dr visits, cheap prescriptions, low max out of pockets expenses, etc. That’s actually what I have now. The example above was what my fiancé dealt with last year before she could be on my insurance.
Most employers don’t provide insurance that is at that level though. I hit the jack pot there.
Ok I had posted on here before my levels came back after my second test at 312 my dr. Said that was fine she tested me again saying I was overweight and said that could mess with the test. She tested me again I came back 289 then she made me test again a week later and I came back 223. Reluctantly she prescribed me a 25 mg dose of trt per week. I got my prescription and having plenty of extra started on 100 ml once per week 3.5 weeks in and I feel amazing but here’s the problem I saw the main dr. And he wants to test me in four weeks and until then keep me on the low dose. I thought I might just cut my dose back and maybe he would move me up. But I finally feel good my sex life is great again I’m motivated at work and the gym, I’m happy. At this point I don’t know what to do. I can cut back and suffer through this while I’m waiting on the 3rd dr. now. I can got to a private clinic online. (I haven’t found any real clinics around here) Any advice would be appreciated. I did not tell my dr. Today that I have been administering 100mg or that I feel amazing it was my first visit with him.
Wow! This may be a record low dose for TRT. Find someone who will keep you on at least 100mg a week. You need a different doctor. Reluctant? What? Reluctant to make you feel terrible?
My thoughts exactly. These docs want people to barely survive rather than thrive. Should take 50mg T Cyp twice a week for 8 weeks to create a baseline. Then, check bloodwork for TT, FT, SHBG, and E2.
I was told that is the standard dose. I explained to the dr that at that Dose all it would do is destroy my natural production. He said he wanted to be careful and then warned me about prostate cancer. At that point I knew he was clueless
I had the same warning from my pcp a long time ago. Told me I was crazy for even considering TRT, and to settle with the low energy. I said fuck no and never returned ever again.
You’ve been quacked, this doctor is a newbie at TRT and this is the new lowest prescribed TRT dose in human history.
This seems to be the way sick care operates, optimal doesn’t seem to compute. A month ago I told my doctor my diabetes is worsening and A1C was 6.6% and doctors refused treatment, now a month later A1C is 7.7%.
You have to hit this arbitrary number to get treatment. You have to be dying or seriously ill to get treatment these days. I would argue an A1C of 6.6% is room for improvement.
Healthcare is dead, welcome to sick care where doctors keep you in a diseased state.
