MandoJohnny wrote:If that happened to me, an apnea patient who is 100% compliant and doing well, all the political philosophy would go out the window. I would not feel like this was for the greater good. I would feel that this is unfeeling, uncaring bureaucracy gone mad.
Exactly, that's the problem in a nut shell. I've never had a serious car accident, never lost control of a car except in black-ice conditions in which lots of other people were sliding all over the road as well (and I have to assume not ALL of them had apnea), and yet these rules generally don't have a whole lot of room for discretion in them.
Seriously, if I knew that by getting this diagnosis I was going to set myself up for potential hassles with the DMV (even if I did ultimately retain my right to drive and didn't see my insurance rates go up), I might very well have decided not to have the sleep study. Which in my case wouldn't have affected things very much, but for a lot of people would mean that instead of KNOWING they have a problem, working to fix it, and working to be careful when driving, you'll just have a lot more people out there willfully ignorant, not correcting the problem, but damn it, they can still drive.
It really works out to be a disincentive to diagnose and treat your problem, in much the same way that requiring doctors to report pregnant mothers who smoke and/or do drugs just serves to drive that population of pregnant woman most in need of prenatal care away from that care.
Unintended consequences...
Liam, twit.