Is there a doctor in the house?
Nov. 21st, 2006 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bladesparkSo, as all sorts of folks read this thing, and some of you may know more about this than I, I thought I should ask.
For most of my life I have had rather good medical coverage. My father is a teacher, and whatever else you may say about the poor pay of that profession, at least the insurance is very good.
But that coverage has long since ceased to benefit me, and as I am totally self-employed, I do not currently have other coverage. (This is a fairly temporary situation, as I do plan on getting medical coverage, one way or another, within the next year, but for right now I have none.)
I'm quite capable of dealing with my own minor medical problems. I apply bandaids, remove splinters, self-dose with echinacea, vitamin C and herbal tea for colds, and am generally okay, but now I am not so okay. I've got a chronic cough that I've had for at least a month now, which is starting to really worry me, and I fear I'm suffering from chronic fatigue and/or thyroid problems, because I'm sleeping ten hours a day and still feeling tired, and am having a lack of apetite and a high instance of headaches. These things need looking in to, and I cannot take care of them myself.
But given the lack of insurance, does anybody have any suggestions? Are some doctors cheaper than others? (I assume that some must be! But how does one go about finding a cheaper doctor that's still trustworthy?) Is there a way to get a basic check-up on a budget? If I must I will dip into the savings, and can thus come up with a few hundred, but if I can keep expenses low, I really would like to.
Any good ideas for where to go?
For most of my life I have had rather good medical coverage. My father is a teacher, and whatever else you may say about the poor pay of that profession, at least the insurance is very good.
But that coverage has long since ceased to benefit me, and as I am totally self-employed, I do not currently have other coverage. (This is a fairly temporary situation, as I do plan on getting medical coverage, one way or another, within the next year, but for right now I have none.)
I'm quite capable of dealing with my own minor medical problems. I apply bandaids, remove splinters, self-dose with echinacea, vitamin C and herbal tea for colds, and am generally okay, but now I am not so okay. I've got a chronic cough that I've had for at least a month now, which is starting to really worry me, and I fear I'm suffering from chronic fatigue and/or thyroid problems, because I'm sleeping ten hours a day and still feeling tired, and am having a lack of apetite and a high instance of headaches. These things need looking in to, and I cannot take care of them myself.
But given the lack of insurance, does anybody have any suggestions? Are some doctors cheaper than others? (I assume that some must be! But how does one go about finding a cheaper doctor that's still trustworthy?) Is there a way to get a basic check-up on a budget? If I must I will dip into the savings, and can thus come up with a few hundred, but if I can keep expenses low, I really would like to.
Any good ideas for where to go?
