You won't do what I want so you are discriminating!

[ThanosIsKing]

As background, I work as a optician that is located in a WalMart. Our doctor is quite altruistic, as he is the only doctor in a 100 mile radius that accepts people on Medicaid. This can be an issue during times like this as a lot of people on Medicaid are trying to get in and get eye exams for their kids. We do separate out appointments for Med patients from people who have their own insurance or who pay out of pocket because if we only served Med patients our doctor would never make any money. Anywho, we are booked out for a month for people with the Med card, and I just had someone say that it is discrimination to make people wait that long. I really wanted to ask her about the other locations that don't even accept the Med card at all. Are they discriminating against her?

Please take all arguments for or against the Med program to Fratching. I just wanted to say that I got my first accusation of being discriminatory from an SC who doesn't know how to plan very well!

[Slave to the Phone]

Personally, I don't think that a month out for a routine eye exam is that bad. I have job provided insurance and the last time I called for a routine eye exam, the appointment was 6 weeks out. (Of course, part of that was because I work and wanted it done on a Saturday, but still...)

My regular doctor won't take new Medicare patients (if you are an established patient and start receiving Medicare, she will still see you). She will not take what most folks know as Medicaid at all because the billing is just too complicated.

I never thought she was discriminating against poor people, I thought she was refusing to jump through excessive hoops to receive pennies on each dollar billed.

[Pixelated]

People LOVE to fling words around at random to see if any of them get a knee-jerk reaction. Most of the time they haven't got a clue what the words really mean.

[Hsaud]

I work retail and had a guy threaten to call corporate and tell them I was racist because I wouldn't return a pair of pants his kid has worn and stained. i gave him corporates number and my name and told him to go for it. Never heard from him again.

People like this make it hard for people who have actually been discriminated against.

[Lovecats]

I worked for a bank in Northern Indiana back in 2000. We had a woman come in and try to tell our asst bank manager that we wouldn't do whatever it was that she wanted because she was black. Can't remember what it was now. Anyway, our asst bank manager just looked at her and said, "Well, when I looked in the mirror this morning I was black, too". Woman just shut up and didn't really say another word.

[workerbee222]

i lived in such a small town, I think it took two months to get in to see the local GP, and two weeks before my appointment, his office called because it had to be rescheduled.

[Trixie]

I'm so tired of people taking everything so personal when they are told they can't have something the way they want.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Any time I call to set up the annual eye exam for both Mom and myself, it's at least a 6 week wait - our doctor is so booked up.

Which reminds me, I need to get our set up this coming week because we usually go around early October when I'm off on vacation (week of October 9-14 is MINE - MINE I tell you!)

These folks really need a grip on reality. It's not discrimination if a doctor doesn't participate in Medicaid . . . we learned that years ago when my brother's pediatrician (who worked with a lot of special needs patients) decided to retire and her daughter (also a pediatric specialist) took over the practice - and my brother was aged out of private insurance (back before insurance allowed minor children to stay on their parents' plans until age 26) and had to go on Medicaid. The daughter won't accept it, so we had to find a doctor elsewhere who would.

[HawaiianShirts]

The first time I listened to the radio program Coast-to-Coast AM was one of their open-lines Fridays. Some woman called in to talk about alien abductions. She said she had done everything she could think of to make the aliens come and abduct her, but it hadn't worked. Then she complained that many of her friends, relatives, and neighbors had been abducted, and she felt jealous.

Her final line before letting the host respond was: "What I want to know is: Why are the aliens discriminating against me!?"

[Catwoman2965]

My regular doctor won't take new Medicare patients (if you are an established patient and start receiving Medicare, she will still see you). She will not take what most folks know as Medicaid at all because the billing is just too complicated.

My parents had a similar issue when they moved from state a to state b. State b was considered "rural" under Medicare so i believe the reimbursement rate was less, therefore a lot of doctors wouldn't take any new patients on Medicare. They did find one who was ok, but in the end, my mom's friend asked HER dr. if he would take my mom on as a patient, and he agreed. But yeah, there's no law that says they MUST accept medicare.

Just like certain docs won't accept any insurance; you pay, then submit yourself.

[sirwired]

I realize why many doctors don't want to practice in poor or rural areas or take Medicaid, but it's a damn shame. If I want an eye exam (decent private insurance) in my pleasant suburb, I can call any one of about a half dozen optometrists in a ten minute drive and be seen within the week, sometimes the same day. Even a full fledged ophthalmologist doesn't have much of a backlog.

[WishfulSpirit]

Line from my roommate who gets the race card frequently for kicking beggars out of his store (they are harassing customers) and calling the cops on shoplifters:

I'm only racist against Romulans and assholes. Your ears are too round to be a Romulan.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I always try and book my annual eye test on the first week of a new term; appointments are up for grabs then, as all the families clog up the optician thruout the school holidays, so first week is best. Since my eyesight is so bad, and there's glaucoma in my family (my maternal grandad has it), I know damn well that I have to have an eye test every single year, so I always make sure that I make the appointment well in advance. If a person knows they have to have an eye test, and leaves it late to book, then the fact that they can't get an appointment in less than a month is their own fault. Planning ahead is not hard.