{"id":1127,"date":"2019-11-03T20:35:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T03:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2019-11-03T20:38:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T03:38:29","slug":"helping-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1127","title":{"rendered":"Helping Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Normal left hand from Radiopaedia (without a bump)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This last week I ran into a guy in clinic that made me\nthankful for Idaho voters. We were able to help him out. You should know about\nthis. It\u2019s not about politics or policy, just about how we were able to help\nout a hard-working guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was in his work insulated coveralls since he had gotten\nin a couple hours on a chilly October morning before his appointment. He\u2019d made\nan appointment with our clinic since he\u2019d heard we offer a sliding scale fee\nstructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 16 months ago on a job he had been holding a board for\na brace and another guy shot a nail into the two by four. The tip of the nail\nhad come through the board and embedded into his left hand. He was able to\nwiggle his hand off the nail and it hurt like heck, but with a bandage in his\nglove he kept working. It got real swollen over the next week but never\ninfected so he figured it would be ok. The swelling and pain went down, but\nover time the wound developed a small lump that kept getting bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was on his left hand on the thumb side of the junction of\nthe pointer finger knuckle. It would hit on things when he grabbed them and it\nwas now, when I saw it, the size of a marble. It felt really solid, not like a\nfluid-filled abscess or cyst. His finger moved just fine. He wanted it taken\noff. I didn\u2019t blame him. I could see how it would get in his way and be a\nproblem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trouble was, I am not the right doctor to take that lump\noff. Hands, especially fingers are tricky to work on. He needed to see an\northopedic doctor, maybe a hand surgeon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you have health insurance?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He looked at me blankly, a young healthy working man. \u201cNo sir, that\u2019s why I came to you guys (meaning the clinic with the sliding scale fees).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you file a workman\u2019s comp claim?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNaw, I just kept working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I explained to him the delicacy of dealing with this part of\nhis body. I could recommend a local orthopedic doctor that might see him for a\nreduced amount, but I expected the surgery would include hospital or operating\nroom costs; probably thousands of dollars all added up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The physician assistant was in the room with us looking at\nthe bump. He asked, \u201cCan you wait until January?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young man looked at him a bit confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNext week you can sign up for Medicaid here in Idaho and\ncoverage will begin in January. You\u2019ll have health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHeck, I\u2019ve lived with it this long.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I warned him if it got red or painful or started swelling\nmore he should come back in, but given his situation it was fine to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idaho voters did the right thing for this guy and their\nfellow citizens last November when they overwhelmingly passed Proposition 2,\nMedicaid expansion. The Idaho legislature did the right thing this last session\nwhen they were putting on all those waiver sideboards. They mandated that none\nof their sideboard waiver applications would delay the enrollment of those\neligible under the Medicaid expansion initiative. The Idaho Department of\nHealth and Welfare has been doing the right thing for the last ten months and\npreparing to enroll the newly eligible for Medicaid health insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t the story of a life saved or a bankruptcy\naverted. It\u2019s just a small story of how health care can be of service when a\nbump gets in the way. But it\u2019s also a much bigger story of how we can make\ndecisions to help out our fellow citizens. It made my day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This last week I ran into a guy in clinic that made me thankful for Idaho voters. We were able to help him out. You should know about this. It\u2019s not about politics or policy, just about how we were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1130,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions\/1130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}