Had you been someone without insurance, you could probably call them up and get a HUGE discount.
I've done it both ways, Alison, and it's true that once when I didn't have insurance, I did get a discount on a hospital stay. BUT, it's because instead of being charged the insurance company rate, I was being charged the uninsured rate, which is much higher. So the hospital basically extended to me the lower insurance company rate. I'd have ended up paying the same either way.
This is one benefit of insurance that I didn't understand--that insured people get a lower rate to begin with.
I've done it both ways, Alison, and it's true that once when I didn't have insurance, I did get a discount on a hospital stay. BUT, it's because instead of being charged the insurance company rate, I was being charged the uninsured rate, which is much higher. So the hospital basically extended to me the lower insurance company rate. I'd have ended up paying the same either way.
This is one benefit of insurance that I didn't understand--that insured people get a lower rate to begin with.
Jay
It's illegal (at least in California) to charge a different rate for insured vs. uninsured. Where the hospitals can offer a discount to uninsured is that insurance companies typically contract with hospitals to pay a much lower rate that what the hospital charges. Sometimes it's a flat rate discount (say 70% for outpatient services) or a per diem charge for inpatient services. Hospitals often take the most prevalent reimbursement rates (think Blue Cross) and offer the same type of discount to the uninsured.
It's illegal (at least in California) to charge a different rate for insured vs. uninsured. Where the hospitals can offer a discount to uninsured is that insurance companies typically contract with hospitals to pay a much lower rate that what the hospital charges.
So instead of charging a different rate, the hospitals give insurance companies a contractual discount. Comes out to the same thing, though, doesn't it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bargoo
Don't forget we pay that premium every month whether or not we require service.
Oh, I can't forget that, believe me.
Here's a story about someone I know in Massachusetts, where health insurance is required. If you don't have it, and you can afford it according to the state criteria, then they hit you on your state income tax form with a penalty. It's not a trivial penalty, either. Anyway, this person I know refuses to get health insurance even though her company offers it. She pays the penalty to Mass. every year. Her thinking is, the penalty is less than what she would have to pay for health insurance....
"Yeah," I said, "But you don't have health insurance!" It's like she's out the money without any benefits at all!
Frivolous lawsuits make me mad. Probably because my family is all lawyers, and none of them ever do frivolous lawsuits, but frivolous lawsuits give all lawyers a bad name. It's like everyone forgets the fact that in order for a lawyer to be arguing a civil lawsuit, there has to be someone who hired the lawyer in the first place. Sigh. Nowadays I don't tell people that my relatives are "lawyers" -- I tell them my dad is a retired prosecutor and my sister works in civil rights.
I am waiting for DH to make my dinner. Good thing I had a snack at the dog's house around 4 p.m. - looks like DH is still out shopping for the groceries. We complement each other in that I have excellent time-management skills and he doesn't. Most of the time that works out.
I am taking "restorative" yoga classes - probably not a "real" yoga discipline but I love it. A lot of very, very static poses using straps, blocks, etc. for support. I usually fall asleep at least once in every class. Heaven! The only time life doesn't intrude on my relaxation.
Lotsa cute dog stuff happening but I'll leave that for another day as DH and the dinner groceries have arrived.
At my sister's in CO. Made dinner for them last night and will again tonight cause they like everything hot and spicey and I just can't do that right now.
Went to Red Rocks Ampitheather today with my artist friend to see the magnificent piece she did of 3 of the rock formations. Then we went to a Medditerian restaurant and I was able to have baba ganoush and spinach pie.
Tonight I'm making roasted beets, yams, onions and garlic with olive oil and almond crusted flounder.
Need to put my sneakers on and do my arm work out with my resistance band. Need motivation!
Every morning the cars are wet with heavy dew and there's a slight ground fog, which I don't care for driving through in the nearby game management area on the way to 5:45 AM spin class. Tonight or tomorrow night we're supposed to get the first frost of the season.
Like many of you who've once been heavy but have lost a lot of weight, I am often extremely cold. My mother, who's obese, is nearly always overly warm. We're in that weird fall period when sometimes you need the heat turned on, and sometimes not. It's not unusual these days for my mother to be moving about the house in a short-sleeved, round-necked summer top, while I am motionless at the desk, working at my laptop, wearing a long-sleeved shirt covered with a hoodie sweater. (During the last few days, I've even added a down vest.) I foresee a lot of discussions about the temperature. My apartment downstate had radiators, was heated by the building and was usually overly hot, so I'd turned a few of the radiators off completely. Thus I did not have a lot of heavy sweaters in my winter wardrobe. That is going to have to change for my winter upstate.
I need to excavate in my old chest of drawers for my Lands End & L.L. Bean lambswool sweaters from the 80s & 90s.
I no longer own any gloves. I have just one scarf. They all drowned except for one gorgeous magenta cashmere pashmina-size scarf that I had the presence of mind to give to the drycleaner, and which the drycleaner was able to clean and save.
I went for a walk on the beach with a friend with two dogs last night. She picked me up in her car. I was surprisingly pleased that my Emma behaved best in the car, pulled towards other dogs the least of the three, and when we let them off the leashes for a short time (we got to a spot where there were no people) Emma also behaved really well, came back and let me put her leash back on instead of running away. Some of my training efforts are sinking in! And other people's dogs are crazy too, lol.
Shannon, thanks for the website. I'll have to check it out when I'm at home (work blocks a lot of websites. not sure how 3fc gets through but it does... ). I do have trouble "making" myself do things at high intensity, but I'm going to have to buckle down and work on it anyway, or accept myself at this weight, which I'm not ready to do. As you suggested I think writing it down and checking it off will help. I've done one workout from the bodyrocktv website and it kicked my behind. I was glad I was alone at home and nobody could see how often I stopped for breath, or how ungraceful my moves were. But if it's online I can do it at home and not be embarrassed, since no one can see me. I will have to look up Tabata and find out more about it. Today is my yoga class but I've "scheduled" a high intensity workout for tomorrow, maybe bodyrock or I can try some tabata.
Dagmar, your & DH and me & BF sound similar in our time management. I'm also much more time efficient and he is not!
Carolyn, that dinner sounds delicious! Your friends are lucky you're cooking for them. Sorry to hear your acid reflux is acting up so much. When you were active about a year + ago here I don't remember you mentioning it. Is this a new thing for you or has it been going on a while?
Michele, . I'm sure it's really tough for you to hear about your DD going through those things and you not knowing about it. It does sound like a service dog might be helpful and calming/comforting for her to have that support.
Allison, I like to make protein pancakes with pumpkin, pumpkin "custard" (really healthy & high protein but tastes like pumpkin pie filling!), lowfat pumpkin raisin muffins, and I love to add it to my oatmeal with cinnamon for extra nutrients. I've learned to add it to other baked good recipes that are lowfat to help make them really moist. I've got an equally obsessed friend who wants to try recipes for a Pumpkin-Sage-Sausage pasta dish, and a pumpkin mac & cheese, and made a pumpkin roll a few weeks ago - not as diet friendly but they sound delicious. Lately the two of us have been on a 100-mile search to find the best source of pumpkin nearby, bc we're crazy like that.
DH is sleeping in today. He got up yesterday at 3:30 to fly to Yakima and got home at 1:15 AM this morning. I think he deserves a couple extra hours of sleep. But then, so do I! I woke up several times both nights--either due to him snoring, my own restlessness, his absence, or the animals antics (a lot of that this morning). I rarely can fall back to sleep easily once disturbed, so I often feel a bit light headed in the morning.
Megan~I can see why you and your friend need to be on a search like that! I saw a recipe for pumpkin mac and cheese yesterday. I still don't know what that would taste like, but it sounds interesting. Pumpkin custard sounds good, though.
We have an unusual cold front moving in here and I'm looking out at a gorgeous sunrise. I may have to go out and take a picture!
Megan, I don't remember, are you pumpkin recipes on the recipes sticky?
My big adventure last night was slicing up my thumb on a mandoline while making dinner. Obviously I am somewhat lacking in first aid knowledge though I know the very basics. As soon as I realized I sliced it I applied pressure and held it under cold water in the sink. The problem is that before I always had a small enough cut that it would stop bleeding in 1-2 minutes. This time after 5 minutes of solid pressure, it was still bleeding all over. So I probably looked ridiculous as I tried to get out the phone to call DH (who was still at work) on speakerphone to figure out what to do, while bleeding, trying to apply pressure, and having two dogs running around my feet wondering what was going on. DH looked it up online and told me to hold my hand over my head while applying pressure, and said he would come right home.
Eventually (after another 15 minutes or so) the bleeding slowed down enough that I was able to let go for long enough to grab the first aid kit and wrap it up, so by the time DH got home it had stopped entirely and I was able to use both my hands again. Of course then we weren't sure if I should just slap a band-aid on it or if it was serious enough to need stitches or something, and DH's parents (a doctor and nurse) were out of town so we couldn't ask them, so better safe than sorry we drove over to the urgent care center for them to look at it. No stitches, but they did soak it in betadine, put on a couple of steri-strips, and wrap it up for me. In retrospect given all the time and effort of going to the urgent care, I probably would have been find just putting a band-aid on it. Oh well.
The moral of the story is don't use a mandoline while home alone!
Mandolines are dangerous! I've cut myself on mine so many times I'm actually scared of the darn thing now. I think the worst is when you cut your knuckle on it.
It's like she's out the money without any benefits at all!
). I do have trouble "making" myself do things at high intensity, but I'm going to have to buckle down and work on it anyway, or accept myself at this weight, which I'm not ready to do. As you suggested I think writing it down and checking it off will help. I've done one workout from the bodyrocktv website and it kicked my behind. I was glad I was alone at home and nobody could see how often I stopped for breath, or how ungraceful my moves were. But if it's online I can do it at home and not be embarrassed, since no one can see me. I will have to look up Tabata and find out more about it. Today is my yoga class but I've "scheduled" a high intensity workout for tomorrow, maybe bodyrock or I can try some tabata. 
. I'm sure it's really tough for you to hear about your DD going through those things and you not knowing about it. It does sound like a service dog might be helpful and calming/comforting for her to have that support. 
Oh well.
