A Firefighters Fight With Government Run Health Care

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The debate into government run health care takes us in many directions. We hear stories of people that don't have insurance and how terrible it can be, but we don't hear stories of people that have experienced the horrors of a government health bureaucracy.

This is one such story, and it deserves attention. His name is Colby Hart and he is a firefighter from California. He fell through a floor while fighting a fire, and injured his back.

This is his story and his fight with the state of California:

I was hurt on April 17th 2008 I was sent to the ER where I was medicated and sent home. I then was assigned a doctor by my house in Orange COunty, CA. After a few weeks of pain meds and muscle relaxers I started having pain in my left leg and foot along with numbness tingling and burning. I was sent to get an MRI and assigned a Primary Doctor. The MRI showed an approximately 6mm herniation at Lumbar2 and lumbar3 and L3-L4 along with an annular tear at L4- and L5. During this time I also began physical therapy but was limited to 24 sessions.

My primary doctor sent me to a surgeon who said I would need a spinal fusion or disk replacement and a microdiscectomy . He also requested a second MRI in august of 2008. it was denied along with a request for a pain management doctor. The state did not inform my lawyer of the denial for the MRI. We had to appeal and request an expedited court hearing after months of misery the pain management doctor was approved and in January 2009 The Second MRI request was approved. It showed a slight worsening of my injuries.

It also took me close to a year to get access to mental health services. I was and still am suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, anger and other issues all related to this misery.

I have also seen a surgeon on my own dime to see what he said and he agreed with the first surgeon. I wanted a second opinion in the work comp system which took a few more months. He wants to do a disc replacement and the microdiscectomy. The surgery was denied. They said it is experimental yet it is approved by the FDA. They also requested that a request be sent back to them requesting a Disco gram Test. I will be having the test on sept 5 2009. After the results are in I will need to see my surgeon and we will then take the results and again request the surgeries.

State Compensation Insurance Fund is a non-profit company that is run by the state. It is kinda run like medicaid medicare programs. My doctors and I don't make medical treatment decisions. My doctors have to request all test and procedures to be done through a medical review board which consists of Doctors, chiropractors, holistic healers and so on.

If you look into Arnold Schwarzenegger and work comp in 2004 he made many changes to the work comp system. So state regulations have taken the doctors ability to treat patients away from the doctors and given it to a review board. State Fund ins. is run by the government, if you go to their site and state looking around youll find all roads end at the government.

Pass this story along to everyone you know, and maybe a Congressman or two.