Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 05, 2021

The best part is when they all come up with the wrong diagnosis.

When in the hospital and asked anything by a doctor I don’t know I tell them to get out: otherwise you will get a bill from them.

In 1995 I was in the hospital in the Neurology ward. A doctor came followed by his students and said, “This gentleman is a very special case.” A series of questions from everyone followed.

I didn’t know whether to be happy with so much attention or not

I had an operation in a FLA Hospital after it I had several Doctors stop in ask my name name and type of operation. They all billed Medicare $280 consult fee.

My daughter was in a hospital for 7 hours and the doctor did not even talk to her. She got a bill for $20,000 and that did not include x-rays, internist, etc. Mrs Doonesbury without insurance, would have been in the parking lot by now.

When I was in hospital for open heart surgery (gosh, five years ago already) the staff soon found out from the notes that I was a former nurse. I was swamped with requests to be examined by the student doctors and nurses. Of course I said yes, after all we all had to start somewhere. I got very good care too.

Well, it appears to be teaching hospital… No evidence it’s a learning hospital.

I think she’s seeing so many doctors because of her hallucination after the crash with the old doctor. All these guys are just trying to get lucky.

I always stopped off at multiple patients in the wards when I wasn’t in surgery, same as the other docs. Difference was, these were VA hospitals.

Off topic *45 years ago (March 5th 1976) through is interpreter Honey, Chairman Mao remarks to Ambassador Duke (at least according to Honey he does) “The Chairman has heard you have a lovely wife and he wonders why you did not bring her with you to China” to which Duke looks stricken and says “My wife?.. Oh.. no…” then putting his hand over his face say “I forgot again..”. This is not the only reference to Duke’s wife, I remember her talking to him, though I believe from off strip, about his new neighbor, John Denver. I do not recall Trudeau ever explaining why she is no longer in the strip, perhaps she divorced him or passed away? Duke’s wife was only in earlier strips however.

Same at the dentist. Get a cleaning, then DDS pokes head in door and says hi. Added to bill.

I gave birth in a teaching hospital. A military teaching hospital. Enough said.

Be careful. They may need to take your temperature. No telling where the trainees will stick that thing.

Reading all the horror stories and complaints about greedy doctors & hospitals in the U.S. makes me sad and angry about what the U.S. insurance companies and the health care industry have become.

Ironically, I am in the process of going to see a cardiologist, for a consultation. Before I could see the specialist, I had to go to a family physician for a complete check-up, then to a lab for a complete blood workup and urine analysis, then to another department for a complete EKG and scan … then when the cardiologist has all the results, I will see him/her Monday afternoon. Oh, my cost for all of this care? $0.00!! All are covered under my … wait for that dreaded phrase … National Insurance Policy! My wife and I have a shared policy for which we pay $83.00 per month! ( Because she’s under 65 she pays $69 and I, at 76, pay $14 monthly ).

Is it any wonder there are so many people leaving the United States and living in countries where they can get good, affordable health care?

I once went to get a haircut at a haircutting school, in order to get it for free. Bad idea.

I have said, “I know they need to practice but do they have to practice on me?”

Reminds me of when I was hospitalized for Pancreatitis. I didn’t get much sleep the night before (or any other night I was there!), but the next morning I was surrounded by a doctor with a small army of medical students.

I don’t know what was worse: the lack of sleep, or the doctor telling everyone I had Jaundice, because I thought the weird, yellowish complexion was from the bathroom light.

I was a difficult birth. My mother’s doctor brought in a class of students and discussed the case in front of her. “In cases like this we generally expect to lose either the mother or child…”

I once ended up in the emergency room dangerously dehydrated from the flu and needed an IV stat. Called the doctor and was told to go straight there. Bill was $13k. Got a letter from that teaching hospital saying that my insurance had backed out of their agreement the day before and that insurance was going to throw the bill back at me but not to worry about it, they would take them on and meantime they were only going to bill me for what the co-pay would have been because they didn’t want me to be afraid to come get care when I needed it. Nice!! Then I got the letter from the insurance company saying so sad too bad you should have checked to make sure it was still in network. (It was the ONLY hospital in network as far as I know—and now they were saying I didn’t have one I could go to?) So there’s a good hospital story for you. Bad insurers are a given. The state stepped in and had a word with them.

Better than not being able to find a doctor at all.

A typical “Explanation of Benefits” (preferred provider, Blue Cross/Blue Shield as supplement to Medicare) of ours states:

Submitted charges: $4005.00

Plan Allowance: $232.00

Medicare paid: $186.13

What we paid: $45.87

You owe the provider: $0.00

Medicare and good insurance is well worth having! Every time I see one of these, I think “What do people without insurance do???” (I know the answer to that)

Three times the doctors = three times the bills.

Someone must think she has a Ton of Insurance.

It’s a “Consultation” Feeding Frenzy.

Here in Canada, we never have any problems or questions about insurance coverage, in-network or out-of-network, or the like . However, it doesn’t seem that this is the problem in this strip.

Teaching hospitals generally give superior medical service, but at a cost—you’re a subject for learners. I, for one, consider this a fine trade-off, and I’m glad to participate in the training of future health professionals.

Long ago, my then-wife and I had a friend who was in a dual MD-PhD program at a famous university and teaching hospital. He had congenital nystagmus—a shaking of the eyes back and forth. One night he broke his arm and went to the ER at his hospital. The ER Resident, learning that our friend was a medical student, took the opportunity to gather the interns and medical students around him and—while our friend was (as he told the story) sitting in pain and holding his arm—lecture them on nystagmus, and how you could tell the difference between congenital (not serious) and acquired (potentially serious). Our friend said that one medical student came up to him afterwards and gave him fervent thanks. Our friend took it all in pretty good humour.

One of the classic descriptions of life at a teaching hospital is “Samuel Shem”’s The House of God (set, as it happens, at a hospital that my uncle was Director of for a while.)

Doctors are pretty busy but they really need to read the charts. My wife was in the hospital after a tracheotomy required by worsening ALS. The doctor objected to my answering for her. He told her to cover the trach hole and speak. Her chart would have shown that she had been unable to speak for a year before the surgery.