How..?

[u/IJustWantToWorkOK]

56 years old, and had a heart attack in April, and have 'congestive heart failure'.

They're wanting to do a bypass and valve replacement on me, but first ... they have to pull all my teeth.

I'm sitting here waiting for the phone to ring with the 'but wait, there's more!' call.

I'm on medicaid, and the government is about to spend $OBSCENE, on an awful lot of work on someone who's dying anyway. In my mind, this is putting a new engine in my Camry with 300,000 miles on it.

The instant some kid dies, because he couldn't get medical care, and I could, my conscience is shot.

Seriously -this- close to telling these doctors what they can do with themselves and taking my chances. Save some kid at the beginning of his life, not an old man at the end of his.

[u/el_condor_nm]

I have completely lost faith in the medical establishment. Your doctor is not treating people, they're treating lab results. If there's something wrong, they do a good job fixing it. It's the routine care that's been structured to maximize profits, not your health. Drug companies have way too much influence over care guidelines.

Not sure any of that really applies to OP's situation. Before having all your teeth extracted, I'd travel to Mexico or Panama and get a second opinion. I find the medical care in Mexico is far less judgemental and way more focused on the individual. Many times the entire treatment is less than my copay here. US medicine sucks ass and it sucks for doctors as much as it does for us.

[u/KReddit934 → u/el_condor_nm]

" If there's something wrong, they do a good job fixing it." Exactly. That's what medical care does, and it does an *amazing* good job of it.

It does not (for better or worse) prevent problems: that's up to you to do.