alexseanchai | (no subject)

My name is Grace, also known as snowcoma, and I am in desperate need of help.

I have several severe psychiatric conditions, including but not limited to, Bipolar Type One, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Agoraphobia. Lately, these conditions have worsened to unbearable levels, and both my physician and psychologist have come to the decision that I must receive intensive psychiatric care or I will be forced to go into a mental institution. I have been voluntarily institutionalized once before, and it was hell on earth. It did nothing to improve my mental health, and made me even more reluctant to seek the help I need.

In order to receive help from a psychiatrist, I must raise a truly abhorrent amount of money. Each visit is $150, with the initial visit being higher, and I do not know how many visits I will need. We are looking at the hundreds to thousands range, and I am staggering under the pressure. The state is no help on this matter, and the friends that are taking care of me are stretched so thin financially that there is only so much they can do.

It is my hope that this community [savesnowssanity] will help me raise the money that I need to become stable enough to survive inside my own head. Even enough to pay for one visit is a huge step.

This is why the US needs universal health care.

Look for an offer post from me sometime when I am not supposed to be sleeping. Meanwhile, browse the posts already there.

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Yeah, this one really got to me because the US healthcare system is literally inhumane from my vantage point.

Hell, even if we look at things from a strictly bottom-line perspective, we spend an average of $2500 more a head on health care than the next worst (and since we spend an average of $8K a head on health care...), we get worse average results than every other developed country, and the one thing every other developed country has that we don't is a guarantee of medically necessary everything to everybody.

I do not want to think that a third to a half of the US hates ~~[insert powerless group]~~ the poor, but when we can't even get the rich folk to understand that hating the poor hurts the rich folks' bottom line...

I see a lot of the struggles poor Canadians have to receive adequate mental health care... and I can only think how much worse it would be if they had to lay down $100 just to get a referral. The amount of money the average Canadian doesn't have to spend on health services is staggering when I imagine trying to get treatment in the US. I deal with some of the poorest kids in the city... and they're still able to get counselling, to get speech and language assessments, and to have outpatient psychiatric treatment, no matter their parents' income.

the one thing every other developed country has that we don't is a guarantee of medically necessary everything to everybody

Not actually true! Medically necessary most things to everybody, perhaps. But the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme here (Australia) doesn't cover everything (case in point: at one stage the only contraceptive pill which agreed with me wasn't covered, so my costs went from forty dollars a quarter-year to forty dollars a month). Dental care isn't covered, either (yet); Private Health Insurance is still... highly advisable; psychological treatment was only recently added and currently only covers 12 sessions (with quite a high-copayment) per year.

And I've heard - staranise may be able to confirm - that Canada doesn't have a pharmaceutical scheme at all.

Point is, every other developed country may be streets ahead of the US (and thank glod we are), but medically necessary *everything* to *everyone* is still a ways off in some places.

The real thing Canada and Australia have over the US is, if you get hit by a car, you're not going to leave the hospital with a whopping medical bill. The things that are necessary to immediate survival are free.

Canada doesn't have a pharmaceutical scheme. On the other hand, our drugs are quite cheaper--my $16 birth control is $60 in the USA. If I wanted private health insurance instead of using my university's, I'd pay $60/mo and it would cover most things. Medicare here doesn't cover dental, prescription eyeglasses, mobility aids, or orthotics. For me to get special shoes or a wheelchair, I need to apply to a separate government-run program, which says I should spend no more than $500 a year on assistive aids. If I saw a chartered psychologist or psychiatrist, I could get coverage; as-is, I prefer clinical social workers so I have to pay out of pocket.

It's not wholly free, but on the other hand, I've had a battery of specialist visits, diagnostic tests, and surgeon's visits lately that didn't cost me more than parking, all to treat a condition that's in no way life-threatening. So I'm not much complaining.

Oh, yeah, I <3 my pubic health care. SO MUCH. But it isn't all socialist heaven, is the thing...

typo *snicker* *is twelve*

AHAHAHA GO ME!

Point taken. Medically necessary most things to everyone is still a great deal better than the US has, though.

Dental isn't covered? *beats head on desk* I remain appalled that dental isn't covered in the US after the kid who got a five-figure dental surgery on the state's dime, too late to save his life, because his mother could not afford to and the state did not want to shell out the low three figures it would have taken to deal with his infected tooth before the infection spread.