[Maria]

I saw my OSS he said "I can't do anything for you, come back in 6 months" because I was there requesting an ESI to be ordered and then hopefully authorized. He said "forget it, WC isn't going to pay for anything anymore."

It's a manipulative move for WC to get me to settle out my future medical and have me go to Medicare Set Aside. He then said that Medicare wasn't going to pay for any surgery w/i a few years as well. Then he said "that's ObamaCare." Haven't been back to see him for 10 months. If I really "need to" I'll go though for now self managment and pain med seems to work. I had hoped to get off pain medication one day though at least can function fairly well on it so guess I'll be happy for that much. Used to be my OSS thought get off pain med and so did WC. Last few times I saw him he said if I could function well on it and not have much pain don't do anything surgically. Agreed. WC must like that it's a super cheap pain med. Has to be the cheapest on the market.

I agree w/get rid of HMO's. When working for one most of what I saw was a very few good medical practitioners pushing things through and being as thorough as I thought they should have been in diagnostics and treatment. Saw some really bad stuff. Saw a bunch of stuff that would get "hidden" or changed if attorneys involved.

Worked in nursing/medicine from when I was in my early 20's and really thought the good old days were much better re doctors being able to practice medicine instead of insurance companies in charge of decision making.

Very sad. Agree we need a big huge overhaul of our system as too many people don't have $ to pay to go elsewhere and shouldn't have to in order to get medical needs met. We're supposed to be healthy enough to be productive and work or at least function doing ADL's but can't get the adequate or appropriate care to make that happen esp. with ridculously high deductibles/copays/cobras and such??? Disgusting to say the least.