Unfortunately opiods can have longer range effects...but it's his job to explain them and inform you so that you can make the choice. You aren't a minor and he/she isn't your guardian.
Unfortunately, the system here (largely as the result of bureaucratic red tape/bungling and government carackdowns) has fallen into such decay that doctors have been limited as to what they can do, and I suppose their way of dealing with it is do make excuses and do nothing... it beats prison time and/or being struck off.
I'd ask to see that directive/law. This is yet another reason to keep the uninformed out of our lives.
The thing here is that the government has cracked down on both doctors and patients alike. One of the reasons, to stop doctors over-prescribing and over-medicating, thus reducing costs to the NHS/Medicare. The other reason is to stop/reduce/eliminate doctor 'shopping', whereby some NHS/Medicare patients would visit several doctors for prescriptions of the same drugs... and in many cases selling them at a profit to people ineligible for subsidised drugs via the NHS.
So yeah, restictions have been put in place to combat fraud and abuse... what I don't understand is why the government took many standard medications for common and serious ailments off the PBS (Pharmecuetical Benifits Scheme), thus forcing pensioners and low income earners to suffice with less than adequate medication. For example, a while back I was prescribed a pain relief med (didn't end up getting it so don't recall the name) that would have cost me $5.70 at the time of writing, but when I went to fill the script 3 days later it had been taken off the PBS list and I was asked for $97.95... for friggin' 24 pills.
Yeah, sure, I could afford that once a week on a damned pension (at the time) of $270pw. So I had a choice of being pain free but homeless and hungry, or eat with a roof over my head but in pain. I ended up getting an inferior alternative, something with Paracetamol and 10mg of Codeine, but now I'm even having trouble getting that... blah, blah, blah, "it's not good for you" I guess, then, chronic pain and associated limited mobility is?
immigrants to fill the slots. They probably fear the government.
Yup, take away the cultural differences/beliefs, and that would be a large part of it, given many of them are from countries with harsh governments, laws and prisons, etc.... and our governments (State and Federal) introduce measures to exploit this fear, thus compromising both the (immigrant) doctors and patient care alike. Still, they are better off than from whence they came...just wish the benefits were mutual. Sadly, the corrupt and greedy have ruined that for us all for all time.
Not that the Insurance companies run a better system. They don't. Their system is corrupt as well.
Actually, the insurance companies are more corrupt... certainly more greedy. True, our government collects taxes to fund our health system, but we can see where the money is going. We have among some of the best hospitals in the World... sadly, however, we have a bureaucracy that stuffed it all up and doesn't adequately staff them, thus there are long waiting lists and people not receiving due care when needed. On the other hand, however, insurance companies collect huge sums of money, in some cases far more than government does for health care, and it mostly seems to disappear into black holes and is unaccounted for.
The truth is, large amounts of it go towards huge executive salaries and bonuses... fringe benefits ordinary people would never ever see in a lifetime... and patient care is an after-thought that comes out of what's left. For example, my brother-in-law down in Tassie has paid into a health insurance fund ALL his life, yet has only recently called upon it due to illness, and they are telling him that some of the required treatments are NOT fully covered and he must pay the first 32% to access it. Shit, he has more than doubly paid for that treatment in the 55 years he's been contributing, yet he still has to pay an excess of 32%, which he doesn't have (as a struggling, drought stricken farmer who has had his markets obliterated by the large supermarket chains greedily buying up everything to increase market shares), so inevitably the illness will prematurely kill him.
So the question here is, where the fuck did thousands upon thousands of his money go? More to the point, how many millions of health insurance contributors are asking the same question when the health care they over-paid for isn't forthcoming or anywhere near adequate? What happens to all the money of those who pay in for years but never or rarely seek/obtain medical treatment? It sure isn't being allocated to the appropriate places, that's for sure... and the fact that insurance companies can use their own discretion to give a clain the thums up or down (in too many cases down) really stinks. And like you say, Doc, the real money isn't going to ordinary rank and file doctors, just to the heirarchy of surgeons and specialists with rich clientele
We may have long waits in our public hospital system (usually with outpatient/specialist clinics) but we can present at a hospital in an emergency situation and GET treatment, without being asked if we are insured... being turned away if we aren't. Sure our public hospitals can be lacking due to idiotic bureaucratic bungling, but private health insurance companies have turned the duty of primary patient care into a farce through greed. It is lacking because it's just business and the Hippocratic oath has been replaced by the bankers creed... profit at ANY cost.
