h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They came into my work place to check my colleagues. None were infected, and the family and friends weren't infected, either.

Good to know.
Another case I had to write a letter about was a man who got the infection from his wife... (the first test they made after she had her diagnosis had not shown any signs of infection for him, but the second some time later had shown an infection)

As far as I recall, family and coworkers and friends were checked several times.

I take it that co-workers aren't told the reason why they've been invited to screening? I'd feel a bit uncomfortable about that, if I was in that position (and not for any reasons of a stigma surrounding certain illnesses, either).

My co-workers knew why.

In the case I had today they will know as well, because they will have to fill in a certain form letter. Perhaps they won't know though who was infected first. The company knows though ..., but perhaps the person agreed to that, because these letters will have to be translated, and it is easier for the company to do so, obviously they do have translators

Ah, adventures at the hospital. There's nothing like them. My mom recently spent a month trying to get a prescription filled. (After she'd run out a few days, the doctor had to give her some free to tide her over till the pharmacy would sell her some.)
Anyway, they'd changed the thing she uses to inject the med, so that meant the doc had to write a whole new prescription -- even though the med itself was no different -- and then the health insurance company couldn't decide if they wanted to pay for it still, or not.

Meanwhile, there were phone calls to the doc, the pharmacy, the insurance assistance....

Anyway, this explains a few things. I knew you were recovering from something when we "e-met" back when. I never asked what; didn't want to be nosey. (I think I was waiting to get back a job where I'd been temporarily fired, so we both had time on our hands.)

Glad you got a clean bill of health!

Also loved the links. The applewine made me thirsty.

Oh, I had a great one (hospital adventure) last week. Some counsellor brought me into a room and started giving me a talk about how to deal with being diagnosed as having a brain tumour. Then she realised she'd got the wrong patient.

Better an awake patient than a sedated wrong patient!

That's true. I'd rather it was a confused counsellor than a confused surgeon!

Oh, and congrats on your miraculous recovery!

Good griuef KB, that must have been scary, no?

hstwrd, the health insurances here permanently change which medication they'll be paying for, so you can never be sure you'll actually get what your doctor prescribed.

That reminds me, I need to go prod some doctors before I move...

With what sort of prob, Mala?

Anyway, B'El, it is the same here for the old folks. You can only change your medicine covereage once a year, but in the between times, the coveage can change as much as it likes.

I'm hoping our new pres. will try to rework this one. It can't be much more confusing than it is now.

They're quite clever herem, because they leave it to the pharmacy staff to sort it out and give the right medicine to the patient (and that varies, depending on which health insurance the patient is with).
Give them the wrong one, and the pharmacy won't get the money from the insurance.

That's frightening!

At least the patients don't have to sort it out themselves!

True, but the patients never understand why they don't get what's written on the prescription, and what they've got for years, and nobody pays the pharmacies for all the extra time searching and explaining (and calming down the upset patients) take.

I'm following the situation your way, too, hstwrd. This is mainly because I just read "Choices" by Noah Gordon, which is about the sad plight of the uninsured in the States, as well as tackling the controversial subject of abortion, which is inextricably linked with the problem somehow. And now we're hearing about Ms Sibelius and her efforts, after the Clintons' failed attempts in the early 90s. In the book, Bill Clinton is about to be elected and the medical community are hoping that he'll finally sort the problem out.

Now we know he didn't. Questions for discussion: Are the European systems better? Would they be suitable for the States? Wouldn't it be sensible to analyse the various systems of health insurance in other countries which the States so admires, and take the best bits of each and put together the perfect Medical insurance system for the USA? How long would that take? What would it cost? and Is it feasible?

Whoops - big questions, I think we'll leave them to Mr Obama and Ms Sibelius.

with that