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[tsali]

Hello all, I am new to the forum and seeking advice for my current situation:

I am in an MA/PhD program with full funding at the same institution where I completed my BA.  I was accepted to other graduate schools but chose to stay because the top people in my field were tenured faculty at my undergraduate school. 

During my first year, I started having medical problems.  I kept getting different advice from the doctors I saw, and I ended up in the emergency room twice.  I have since left school on medical leave to seek adequate medical care.  As it turns out, I was misdiagnosed by the worthless doctors on the insurance policy that comes with my program.  Throughout the whole ordeal I had to take out loans just to pay medical bills, which offset some of the benefits of my fellowship stipend.  I finally have an accurate diagnosis for what is wrong-- it's a simple problem but needs monitoring.  I am currently away on leave and afraid to go back and deal with the same sh*tty health care providers. 

Also during my first year I realized that I didn't get along with most other members of my cohort and was generally unhappy the program.  I have a good relationship with my advisor though, who is doing extremely well professionally-- so well that this person is likely to soon be entertaining job offers from more prestigious schools.

When I started grad school I felt pretty confident, but now I am considering transferring so that I can get better medical care and perhaps a more prestigious degree.  I am pretty sure I could still get good recommendations.  Should I go back, finish the MA, and see how it goes or waste no time in reapplying to different MA/PhD programs? 

[kedves]

First, congratulations on getting an accurate diagnosis and best wishes for ongoing success with your management of your condition.  

I don't know what you should do, but I would advise stepping back to breathe and evaluate where you are now as opposed to the spillover feelings from your rough year.  The diagnosis is the key.  Do you have any reason to think that the doctors with your student plan can't keep up with the simple monitoring required?  Do you have some choice among doctors on the plan?  Separate what went before from what is ahead of you, in other words.

How much of your unhappiness with the program was because of the medical crisis and how much the program?  I wouldn't care so much about my cohort if the program were high-quality and my advisor were good, but it is usually thought to be not the best idea to get all your degrees from one school (although in some more sparsely populated states with one good school, it's not uncommon).  When you say "transfer," do you mean that the other schools will accept you at this point without reapplication?  Have you asked?  Would you be funded?

[tsali]

Thank you... I appreciate your advice!  I can't tell you what a relief it is to finally know what is going on.  I actually came to Europe to get the diagnosis (my partner is doing a post-doc here) and it really puts the health care reform debate in the U.S. into perspective.  Socialized medicine is not the enemy!  At least that is my outlook. 

Since I haven't had the chance to really stretch my wings in the program, I have decided to go back after the leave is up, do the masters, and see how it goes.  If it continues to suck then I will go elsewhere for the PhD.  Honestly though, my field is so small that there are only a handful of places I could go without changing my topic completely.   

[kedves]

That sounds like a good plan.  Best wishes for a great year!

[helpful]

Seriously, I hope you write Mr. Obama with your story because his health plan wouldn't solve the problem you have since you did have insurance. Stories like yours are reasons why government's health policy needs to be stronger.

Flame away, but can those who flame provide a better suggestion?

[vardahilwen]

I would advise you to stay put for now, but in the back of your mind, keep the contingency plan of bailing out with a master's and applying elsewhere for your Ph.D.  You can always send out the apps anyway, and if you don't get accepted elsewhere the point is moot, and if you do, you can always decline the offer if you change your mind.

[tsali]

Seriously, I hope you write Mr. Obama with your story because his health plan wouldn't solve the problem you have since you did have insurance. Stories like yours are reasons why government's health policy needs to be stronger.

Flame away, but can those who flame provide a better suggestion?

Hm.. I'm not quite clear on what you mean.

Health insurance is mandatory for all students at my university.  The basic student plan is provided by a private insurance corporation which has a contract with the university.  The problem is that unless you can afford to opt out in favor of a more expensive plan, you are stuck with the basic one.  This of course is better than no health insurance at all. 

The number one issue I had with doctors at my school was this:  They didn't actually look at my medical records and they offered hasty (mis)diagnoses due to time constraints.  Basically, they treated me like a number and not a patient.  Without the ability to "take my money elsewhere," I am basically powerless beyond throwing a tantrum in the waiting room. 

I think the plan Obama has proposed would help someone in my situation because a government option would allow me to choose between two *affordable* insurance plans:  the school plan or the government plan.  If I wasn't satisfied with one I would have the option to go with a different one (instead of coming to Europe and signing on to my partner's insurance).  The element of consumer choice is key in stimulating competition between insurance providers, enhancing the quality of the care we receive, and keeping costs down.

Because the institution I have chosen to receive my graduate training has failed when it comes to covering my basic needs, I feel completely justified in leaving after the MA.  I appreciate your advice vardahilwen, and I will certainly keep this option available.  Of course that means I would probably have to change topics, but I suppose it just isn't worth the sacrifice. 

Hell, maybe I'll just apply to grad schools in Europe.

 



   

[helpful]

Thanks for the clarification. I don't understand where the insurance company gets off on deciding which doctors you can go to. Most single payer systems don't do that.

I would advise you to check Obama's plan; I am not sure it allows you to opt out of insurance coverage to use the government plan. I thought it was about providing another option for those who aren't covered.

In any case, what is really needed is a plan that doesn't require you to go to certain doctors. What is the point of that? I thought the USA was all about freedom; there is no freedom in being required to go to a doctor you haven't chosen especially because you didn't have a choice of insurance providers.

[dellaroux]

Helpful, just to clarify (not sure whether you're in the US or not, or in a school currently or recently, or not, but...):

Universities' health plans do not generally offer students a choice of doctors--they are essentially managed care clinics, but ones in which you take the doctor who's up next, like a bakery (the one I attended even had the stupid little number-machine, like my bakery at home had!) and hope they are paying attention.

To wit, while a student:

1) Once, I sat in the waiting room while two docs jabbered for nearly 15 minutes about sports, then one turned to me (I was 5 feet away) and said, "Oh, here you are! Let's get started!" and had me go into the examining room.

I had (probably) broken a rib while sneezing in the middle of bending down to pick up something--odd, I know, but it does happen) and I was in barely-controlled-by-aspirin pain.

He looked at me, said, "we'll have to have X-rays, you know" and wrote a prescription for me to walk 6 blocks away to a private radiologist with whom the school had a contract.

I got there, they wouldn't take the X-ray in the proper place because he'd written "Chest X-Ray." With no other instructions, like "localize pain" they had to do it like a chest X-ray for TB, which was too high. (I've worked as a hospital ward coordinator, taking off orders, so I understood this and had them call for a verbal re-write)

They wouldn't take a verbal order over the phone from him, even after I called to explain it. I had to walk back 6 blocks (in the snow) again, get a re-written 'script, and return. They then re-placed the guide marker where it should have been, took the picture, and sent me back to the office to await its reading.

I said I'd wait for it to be printed and read, and take it back to the office myself; they grumbled but said, "OK" then they film turned out to be out of focus and had to be re-done.

They never did locate a fracture (hard to do in ribs), but the whole thing was stupid, distressing and painful.

And I gave up on trying to get any pain meds, went back to the aspirin, taped it when necessary (you're also not supposed to do that, but stabilizing the bone reduced the pain, which should have tipped the doc-in-a-box off as well) and challenged the radiology bill when it came in (the school didn't cover such stuff.)

2) I had similar issues when hit with bronchitis--after several years of chronic issues with it, I knew I needed a specific antibiotic and asked for it, hoping to stave off the "week's first trial" with the cheaper one that usually just left me further tired-out, and didn't touch the infection.

No, it was written up as "drug-seeking behavior" and I still had to take the Amoxy, which did no good, until I could prove that Eurythro, which was what I'd requested to begin with, was needed.

Oh, and the brilliance of this plan was that it was REQUIRED. We couldn't opt out of any insurance at all, unless we had coverage elsewhere. I gave up on them and started going to a private MD as needed, paying out of pocket in addition to the "student health insurance assessment" automatically added to our fees.


Quite a scam those schools have going...by the time one is an adult grad student, some of the dysfunctional hand-holding should be out the door. But with only UG fees, they wouldn't make enough money to run the clinic; this way...and I believe this is fairly common now.

[histgradstudent]

If your health center is anything like ours, there are some things that I and others in my program have learned about how best to deal with them. First of all, it might be worth asking around and seeing if other people in your program have found doctors or nurse practicioners they like in the program. You might be able to make appointments only with them. Second of all, if you now know and have documentation of what the problem is, it should be relatively easy to get them to refer you to a specialist who can manage you better. Not sure what the story with your school is, but at many places, especially ones with a university hospital, once you get away from the health center itself, you can find people who are quite competent.

[vardahilwen]

^ if you get a referral form, double-check it for the number of visits allowed.  I was referred for ongoing care, but the health center (for some reason) had checked the "single visit" box.  The specialist scheduled a followup visit with me, but the insurance didn't want to pay for it, and we had a devil of a time finding out why.  It was because there was technically no referral for the second visit. 

They filled out another one marked "ongoing care," faxed it to the specialist, and all was well. 

Your school's forms may be different, but just make sure that the referral is good for multiple visits to that doc, if that's your intention.