cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21148286
I was kicked off Medicaid at the start of this year and subsequently lost access to my ADHD and depression medication. In February, I moved to a new area and got a new job, but had to wait several months until I qualified for health insurance through it.
After that point, I had to wait for a weekday when I wasn't working and when I had the mental capacity to tolerate back-to-back disappointing phone calls... all without medication that would make the process significantly easier to tolerate. These are only the calls I've made today.
Finally, FINALLY, I have an intake appointment scheduled.
It's absolutely shameful how much a struggling person is expected to do in order to access basic mental health care.
It's been a few years since I was in the US but can't a family doctor/gp write scrips for you once you've gotten the physche eval? When I last lived there getting a scrip written and filled every month felt like a task designed to make people with ADHD fall off medication first time they slipped up but I could usually get the scrip written by my gp.
Also, not to make yall jealous but I moved to Canada and HOLY FUCK it's awesome. I get my meds filled in batches of 90 with a phone appointment (no going into the office), it gets faxed directly to my pharmacy (no losing the fucking paper) and because I am out of country my last fill from my gp was a 180 day supply. I feel like a fucking human who is actually supported by society.
Changing insurance and moving locations means I haven't got a PCP either. That's another chain of phone calls I still have to do. ๐
Oh, I'm sorry, that's such a shitty process to go through (it's even shitty up in Canada). I've usually been able to luck my way into one... there's a hilarious loophole up here where if you lack a gp and see the same doctor in a walk-in clinic enough times you can force them to be your gp whether they're accepting new patients or not. I accidentally did that when I first moved to Canada because my BCBS VT insurance only had a single doctor in network in Vancouver.
Paper? What backwards ass pharmacy did you go to in the US that they didn't send prescriptions via the internet?
Well, it was Vermont, and this was more than a decade ago.
(Does hard math)
It's been about fourteen years since I lived in America I think?