American Healthcare Hassles: Diabetes Issue

    This post is a flat-out rant against the bullshit that some people must go through in order to receive any medical attention, or help in getting medicine (s ) which they need in order to stay alive. I seriously doubt that the following example  happens in any other industrialized country, and I note that this is happening as I type this. This is my very own experience in trying to get medication ( Insulin )  in an emergency situation here in Tampa, Florida without having to use an emergency room.
   First, a little background.
   I have lived in Tampa since the summer of 2009, and I arrived here with a pretty messed up I.D. card. It had broke into 3 pieces after being wet while working on water fixing and cleaning pleasure craft. Obviously, it was not a Florida I.D., so I naturally made that much dreaded trip to the nearby D.M.V. office to get an I.D. card, only to discover that I needed my birth certificate. I lost my certificate while moving down to Florida, I guess, because I was not able to locate it.
    Going through the I.N.S. and all of the other agencies has been nothing but one big cluster-fuck due to the fact that some information is required on their forms that I have no way of getting, yet.  I was adopted by a German mother and an American father, so getting any info on the adoption has been a real pain in the ass, to say the least. My father was U.S. Army, so one would think that the military might be able to help, right? Nope.
    Back to the health care issue.
  With no I.D. card, I have not been able to enroll in the Hillsborough County healthcare plan that many are enrolled in. I have not had a complete physical in over a decade! Hell, I couldn't get a doctor to do one even when I had a handful of cash. The Salvation Army and other groups such as them will do nothing for you if you do not have a current I.D., so they were of no use to me. I should note that I do have an 13 year old N.C. expired driver license that I somehow ended up keeping. It is expired and of no use, even though I am not expired as of this post.
    I have lived in Tampa 3 times and there are medical records of me in at least 3 area hospitals, but it seems that even that is not good enough for identification.  Past employment and even current employment records are of no use either, it would seem. not that current employment would be of any help, since I have not worked for at least half of 2011. There is not enough work to go around here in Tampa. If there was, I would not be searching for ways to get my Insulin for free. I've been doing Insulin for 40 years and have always been able to buy my meds without government assistance up until now. Now I can't get the help because of an out of state invalid I.D.?
    I was able to register to vote here in Florida, but I will not be able to vote in the 2012 elections unless I somehow can get my I.D. I was also able to get SNAP benefits ( food stamps ) without an I.D., but no medical care or meds? WTF?
   I have had a Florida driver license in the past, and they can't just look that up with a few keystrokes?
   Here is what is going to happen unless something changes real quick.
   I am going to run out of Insulin on Friday,when all of the state offices will be closed thanks to the kindness of Governor Rick Scott, and then I will slowly begin to get a little ill. At that point, I will then be making a trip to an emergency room, where I will be hooked up to an I.V. with an Insulin drip and an Saline drip for dehydration. After about 4 or 5 hours, I will then be sent home, maybe with a prescription for Insulin which will be worthless to me since I will not have the money to pay for it. In the end, I will have a brand new hospital bill of at least $1,000 and no way to pay for it. This means that I will then begin getting collection notices and all of that shit, and it also means that the taxpayer will be footing the bill while my credit rating takes another hit from medical bills. All of this because I have no current Florida I.D. card.
   The really sad part of this whole situation is that I do not use Insulin that one needs a prescription to get. What I use costs only $25 per vial at Wal-mart, and what the prescription that I get from the hospital will cost anywhere from $35 up to $107, depending on what they try to give me, if anything.
    The taxpayers are going to get screwed and I am getting screwed also. American health care. gotta love it!

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