I agree that a small gift can significantly improve or speed things up. but imagine what a paradox it would be if one fucking chocolate sped up a million-dollar surgery.
It sounds amusing the way you said it, yet it's true
However, this is not what I had in mind... A few posts up yahoo62278 seemed to be reluctant to the idea of bribing the doctors. My suggestion was, in order to see if they are open to such practices, to test them first. And, in order to test them, to not jump directly to money. Instead, try to me more "gentle" with them and the nurses. And this could include some flowers or some chocolates or any other polite gift that can be offered. Then, if doctors and nurses will pay him more attention, it may be a sign that they would not remain indifferent to a bribe in money. And this is how we get to the main point.
Also, if the doctors would also want to accept bribes, which amount would be appropriate in this situation?
However, this question is very legit. In my country we use to talk with other patients suffering of same disease or we simply Google it... It also helps if you have a doctor as a friend (no matter his specialization). You can always ask him about the amounts used in various medical interventions. At least you'll have some hints... If you choose to bribe a doctor, you also have to give the appropriate amount. If it's too small the doctor could feel offended. If it's too big he may refuse it (or think he is being spied). This is why this question is so important...
in my country, a bribe is almost mandatory for every medical intervention. We got to the point where the authorities passed a law that allowed gifts to doctors in the amount of up to 300 euros. No one needs to explain anything about the origin of the money and the recipient of such a gift does not bear any guilt.
At least, in your country the govern legalized it. In my country it is also almost mandatory, but it's also blamed by the govern. Yet, without a bribe nobody cares about you if you go to a hospital...
looking at it now in yahoo's story, it seems that the surgery itself will be less stressful compared to this period of preparation.
It certainly feels so... I wish him good luck and nerves of steel, to help him keep being calm and support all this struggle...
You are not wrong GazetaBitcoin, but you are just framing the matter weirdly in terms of being able to bribe doctors, so there is a kind of offensiveness to it, in terms of "we don't do things like that in these here parts."
Also, you should attempt to think about timing in terms of these kinds of monetary negotiations that may well be able to affect treatment options.
One of the issues with Yahoo62278 is that when he had the discussions with doctors regarding means of payment, much of that discussion was likely framed in terms of what his insurance was offering, and surely if Yahoo62278 had the money to supplement his care based on paying extra or to figure out if there might be other options based on paying extra (or going outside of the insurance - meaning that he pays for all of it), then that would have affected his treatment options, and surely he would not have been completely precluded from later raising those kinds of discussions about being able to pay --- but there is some preclusion from raising the supplementing the pay or going outside of the insurance system once he is already getting treatment within the insurance system, so there could have been circumstances in which there ends up being back up options, because if the insurance is starting to say that they are not going to pay anymore or to suggest that the doctors have to jump through hoops 1, 2 and 3 in order to keep Yahoo eligible at a higher status on the heart waiting list, then the doctors might not have been wiling to jump through such hoops and they could no longer keep Yahoo in the hospital at that higher status level if no one is paying.
Surely, you could call it a bribe if you like, but it does not seem to be the correct way of framing the matter or considering how Yahoo had already been locked into a system in which the insurance is paying for it and they are not even discussing the various ways in which Yahoo might supplement payments in order to make up for any lackings of payment within the insurance system, even though technically you are correct that if Yahoo had some additional funds or other insurance sources, then that would increase his treatment options.. .. and sometimes there are times in which that can be discussed, but sometimes if he is already going down a certain payment path then, it would be a bit more abrupt for him to say.. "wait, wait, wait.. my rich uncle wants to pay for this in order that I don't get lowered on the eligibility list." If he had a rich uncle who is willing to pay, then he should have already disclosed that or left some kind of opening for that - because when the medical provider was saying that they had to discontinue keeping him in higher status, they may have already disclosed that situation to Yahoo.. but he had not considered that removal from status as being one of the possible outcomes, so they did not discuss how having additional funds or outside funding might allow for him to potentially keep his higher heart recipient status.
There are a lot of folks including healthcare professionals who are frustrated as fuck by the various ways that insurance companies in the USA dictate standards of care, and it becomes even more pernicious when regular people (like Yahoo) ends up falling into a trap in which it seems that the disclosures had not been sufficient regarding why the hospital is jumping through various hoops to keep him at a certain status and also giving him options that may end up affecting his placement on the eligible recipients' list.
So it is frustrating to read about how people get surprised about insurance companies rug pulling them in the midst of a process that it had already seemed to have had been authorized, as is the case with Yahoo.... and sometimes attempting to mix and match private funding with insurance funding will cause the insurance to be even less willing to pay. which also seems like bullshit for those who are trying to get the insurance companies to pay for the vast majority of their treatment, but then at some point the insurance company ends up not paying hardly anything and the individual ends up paying.. and that works out well if someone has several hundred thousand or even a million that they are able to upfront the costs.. or they may well even be able to negotiate way better prices because they are privately paying and health care professionals love it when they can avoid having to deal with various insurance companies (even though they spend a considerable amount of their time and their staff's time engaged in those kinds of "hoop jumping" activities
(that may or may not be medically justified) that the insurance companies frequently require).