recent wonders, battle music

Mental Health problems make for intense battles.  Since February, i have been battling insurance and health care providers for timely and reasonable access to care.  Persons afflicted by diseases affecting mental health are the red-headed stepchild that everyone is so fond of slapping around.  Even though these are life long conditions they are treated as though they are a temporary malady.  Finding a Competent Medical Provider can be a challenge.  Very few psychiatrists are available, leaving CNP's, PA-C, and reluctant MD General Practitioners, the ones to treat the large  population.  In some states, as in New Mexico, there are prescribing Psychologists, both PhD and Psy-D. This does expand access, but with a largely impoverished population, access in new mexico is difficult in urban centers, but very limited in rural areas. Reimbursement rates for providers is not great here which has any patient seeing any number of different providers over the course of their treatment.  Exploitation of these patient populations by the Martinez administrations decision to eliminate access and then bring in out of state providers that have all but left, any provider that is currently overwhelmed by the number of people that have to be seen.

Then there is insurance.  We are dealing with an open market insurance that has now denied medications based on their cost cutting needs, not the patients best interest.

i wanted public option or medicaid for all.

This week has been spent battling with the medical provider and the insurance agency.  Missed work. Trying to avoid more costly measures for everyone, but they can't seem to see the long term costs in terms of now needing more expensive medical interventions due to them denying a medication that would cost them a third of what the more intensive intervention would.

So the soundtrack to the battles this week:

Zhrine

Icelandic Black Death.  Ævar Örn Sigurðsson is one of my absolute favorite bassists right now.  Don't expect this to be a review, you'd be better off just clicking above and hearing for yourself on their bandcamp pages. Zhrine has become one of my immediate favorites.  So it's fair to say that i have been playing them on Tombstone Rock on KUNM 89.9fm.  

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Another providing the serenity for battle 

Abbath: To War

Everyday becomes a different battle with those that aligned against each other attempt to use the patient as a pawn,  Meanwhile the patient comes closer to complete collapse.  All of it preventable.

A patient walks into a clinic with a pain in the arm after taking a fall.  the patient is examined, In some of our systems a 12 hour wait might be the norm.   they are x-rayed and determined to have a fracture, and casted, followup appointments are scheduled.  Pain management is prescribed, most likely in the form of a pain killer.

A patent walks into a clinic after three weeks of nonstop panic attacks, near constant crying.  The patient is seen.  medications are prescribed, but denied by the insurance a week later.  It takes another week for the clinic to respond.  A week later still no change.  

We react to physical ailments with no hesitation.  Physical pain is treated immediately.  Respiratory infections are provided with comfort measures.  Mental and emotional afflictions are pushed aside and attributed to a lack of drive or will, forgetting that these are most likely symptoms of the disease.

 

Not the only time that this song gets played.