Kaiser Permanente review: Can be pretty good, but when it is bad it is hell

Gave it a three because over 40 years I have had some excellent physicians and staff.
BUT my past six months with sciatica has been pure hell.
It reminds me of my first year in the USSR back in the mid-1970s. We learned that if someone called an ambulance and told the dispatcher the patient was older than 50, it would never arrive.
Being over 65, I was told that I am too old for their pain program and too old for any medication stronger than Advil.
Physical therapy helped some, but when things got rough my Therapist suggested a "dry needle" treatment and electrical therapy. This pushed an unpleasant experience into the realm of sheer agony. That is why they insist on patients signing the consent form. Now even putting on my clothes is a source of massive pain.
I did manage to find a Neurosurgeon who convinced the Kaiser gatekeepers to allow him to schedule surgery to fix the disc bulge that is causing the problem. My "personal physician" sees no reason to provide stronger pain relief before the procedure.