My cardiologist told me to go to the Mayo Clinic six months ago.

I saw him last week and he wanted an update.

I said, “I filled out a request for a visit and my primary care referred me, but Mayo Clinic never called.”

He replies: “I will refer you.”

A week later I get a call from Mayo Clinic. But I do not have an appointment yet because

1. They are booked out until November 18th. I am advised to “call daily” to get my appointment. They open up a week at a time, but don’t say when. A new meaning to “maybe you’ll get lucky”.
2. They do not take my insurance and want a $5000 deposit prior to seeing me. I can fill out paperwork to ask for patient assistance. This would be the fifth hospital system in which I have filled out that paperwork. I have had to do it for four other places. The paperwork is different for each one and some even want a copy of my taxes. Do you think it’s secure? Of course it isn’t.
3. I have to go in person to Minnesota, so add a round trip plane ticket to that $5000. They may do tests while I am there, so I don’t know how much of the $5000 I would get back. If any.

At the moment this seems insurmountable, but I will keep chipping away at all the insane barriers and paperwork. What a stupid medical system the US has, right?

We still need single payer and medicare for all. There would be one set of patient assistance papers, not five.