Primary Medical Care For Chronically Ill
Have you ever been refused primary medical care if you have are chronically ill? If so, do you have one chronic illness or multiple ones? I’m trying to get a handle on this issue because it seems to be a trend that I’m learning about. It has also happened to me.
I’ve either been turned down by doctors’ offices on the phone before my first appointment when I explain that I have multiple chronic illnesses, been told that I can longer remain a patient because my care is too complicated or have had to “fire” doctors who refuse to maintain the tests and/or relationships with the many specialists that I must see.
You may be wondering why I divulge my health information on an initial phone call to a doctor. I’ve learned to do that because I don’t want to make an appointment, drive there, fill out forms and then be told that I’m not wanted. It saves me time and energy.
I’d like to hear what your history has been with this situation please. This can be the first step in promoting our issue and trying to get a solution for it.
I have not had to experience being turned down yet myself. Michigan I believe has laws against that. I do know a few people it has happened to though and it’s so difficult to deal with.
I really think there should be a law against doctors refusing to care for patients.
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My daughter (almost 5) has juvenile arthritis and other chronic health issues. We are fortunate that her visits to the pediatric rheumatologist are free until she turns 18 (though it feels like we are just numbers there sometimes), but what is frustrating is that our health insurance doesn’t consider her medications to be preventive, so they won’t cover them, not even partially, until we hit our deductible. Unfortunately the deductible is quite high, but the meds run $1500/month, so we’ve since hit the deductible and now pay 20-50% depending on the medication. Without the meds, she’ll be permanently disabled and wheelchair bound, so I don’t know why they are not considered preventive.
I do find it is trying to keep all the doctors informed of what’s going on and not all of them are good about sharing information among each other.
I’m sorry to hear of your difficulties with doctors. I hope that changes or someone figures out what’s causing all these autoimmune diseases.