I feel my life, even my mortality has been compromised by being denied “proper & effective” management for my pain. It has been my experience that disabled individuals are more like ponds in the care of doctors in S.C. Make no waves, take a minimum amount of doctors time asking questions, don’t second-guess your doctor, not even if you are an educated advocate, & the only true expert of your total health and well-being. Then maybe if you’re lucky, doctors will not think you are from the DEA or licensing department and just maybe, you will not be treated like a criminal or a patients seeking drugs to abuse. Could you please share what options a concerned, responsible disabled patient has to receive dignity and respect, coupled with “proper and effective” management of documented intractable pain. that is endured in silence, along with 50 million plus, other individuals. There are no balance in the pain policies and initiatives, that vary from state to state. Doctors should be able to treat pain our 5th life vital sign, aggressively, just like they would treat cancer or other life vital signs, though the undertreatment of pain, is more often the norm.

“Thank you and may God truly bless you this day! While I am totally blind and on Medicaid, my wife has become indigent thru the loss of her job as a nurse because of injuries sustained at work. We recently moved to NC from SC. We did this primarily because we thought there would be better medical resources for her here. We quickly got our street education on the free care system. You are quite right when you say that we indeed need to be on our knees for this sorry state of American medical affairs. Until you, with no thought of yourself or your own glory, sent [person A] at [place A] this message, I didn’t know how we were going to get my wife’s medicine. We have been unsuccessful so far at getting her into the free care system. We have filed for Medicaid on her behalf but have not received an answer yet. We are currently sitting on $25,000.00 worth of hospital and medical bills because of a fall she took Easter Sunday. I just got her back home with me June first, we have been married 23 years and spent our 23-RD anniversary, May 22-ND; apart due to this incident. Again I hope you will pray for us and may God richly bless you this day!

Quite Sincerely: D…

P.S. Some times, I think we can best learn from what our Lord did not do when confronted with a situation, as in the following example.

When Jesus walked on the Earth, he did his best for every blind beggar he came in contact with; he healed them! What he did not do but could have done was to whip off a loaf of bread and two fishes so the man wouldn’t have to beg for food that day. Instead, he restored his sight! Now, the man could go get a job as a chariot driver or something to support himself.

Please know that you have done your best this day and I love and thank you for it!!! ”

This was the email I sent out & included it here in case someone may find it helpful.

“Hi Everyone,

Please pass this along to anyone you know who may need help paying for prescription medications or anyone who works with people who may need help paying for their medications. This is good for the elderly, working class, people with no medical insurance or no Rx drug coverage or just about anyone. Anyway check it out, save the website in your favorites and pass it along to others.

I hope this will help many folks. Now we need a similar program that helps with medical care & especially something that helps with the medical expenses of treatable conditions that would result in a full recovery. There are too many folks out there needing hip replacements, heart valve replacements, and other surgeries but they have no medical insurance and no job because they either can’t work or told are by their employer they can’t work and consequently they are terminated despite it being morally and legally wrong. What’s wrong with this country that there is no help for folks like this. They talk about on the news that people are going to the emergency room for medical care they should be receiving in the doctor’s office. Well there are too many communities where the “clinics set up to serve the indigent” are refusing to treat them because they charge them for the visit and they have no money. They are told not to come back until they pay their bill and if they need medical care to go to the emergency room. It’s sad but those who work with this population or are among this population know it’s a sad fact. Please pressure your elected officials to act on this and demand something be done about this health care crisis. Please pray for this country. It’s really a sad state the problems in the healthcare system in the US. Something has to be done.”

We do not qualify for medicaid and now have no income and no possibilities of health insurance.

Looks like our only option is medical bankruptcy which really distresses us after working for 40+ years and now end up with nothing! Help!!!

Another man is in need of a hernia repair but again no money is available to help this man with the surgery which would then enable him to get a job & become a productive member of society.

A lady could not get medicaid or medicare because her husband’s disability check was a few dollars too high for her to qualify for medicaid. She had numerous medical problems which she couldn’t go to see the doctor for but she didn’t qualify for disability. She only received medicaid after her husband died of a heart attack.

It seems there is a definite gap in the medicaid and insurance system. There is a large segment of society who can’t work because of a significant yet treatable medical condition but with all the budget cuts the agencies and governmental programs that helped these people get the medical treatment they need, no longer has the funds to enable them to get the medical care they need and they can’t afford medical insurance (nor would any insurance company cover their medical condition for the first 1-2 years). This is not just limited to SC but is a problem in other states as well.

This problem really needs to be addressed. Simply a short term medicaid policy which would cover the one medical condition which is preventing the person from obtaining or retaining competitive employment would actually be a wise program because it would enable workers to return to the workforce. This program could simply cover 2 or 3 medical doctor’s evaluations to determine the treatment needed and then proceed to cover the treatment to enable the person to return to good health so he or she can go to work and then they would be paying back into the “system”.

Anyone who is good at “winning friends and influencing people” is more than welcome to take this idea and bring it into fruition. I know I sure am not good at impressing people and being “politically correct”. I’ve got to fight my own battles but do see this problem as a significant gap in the healthcare system.