Quote:Sorry for the late reply, and I'll try to answer this one well enough to maybe steer away from healthcare in a minimum wage/welfare queens thread.


My son weighed in around 35 pounds at 3 1/2 years and 32 pounds on his 4th birthday. Unbelievably, this didn't raise a red flag in the doctor's office. My ex-wife had my son on a goofy gluten-free, dairy-free diet because he's slightly behind socially, and she believes diet contributes to autism.


I'm not making this up.


Now, just from a social awareness standpoint, shouldn't the docs have asked "What's going on here?" Nope. It just didn't meet the parameters of malnutrition because he was otherwise extremely healthy, just very light for his age and height. These guys are supposed to be on the front lines of detecting child neglect and abuse for crying out loud.


So I took my son off the diet despite a legal threat from his mother, but had to schedule - get this - a separate, unscheduled visit to the pediatrician just so she could tell my ex-wife, "yeah, maybe you should let him eat pizza." Personally, I believe it's my ex-wife that needs a few doctor visits.


I have enough money to cover a couple hundred bucks, but what if I didn't? The docs should have caught this, and they didn't. They didn't ask enough questions, and unless I REALLY wanted to make a fuss to the insurance company, they didn't care either. As you mentioned, this should have been a follow-up and not an unscheduled visit, but the hassle of arguing over the money isn't worth it.


Anyway, I'm really not impressed with American healthcare, but I don't have much of a frame of reference having not been sick anywhere else. It just seems we pay an awful lot for mediocre results - at least at the general, diagnostic level.