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#1
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I have been to my clinic...
CATherine wrote:
Since I usually only eat one meal a day, I wasn't eating as much of the bad stuff as i thought. A lot for one meal, though. Of course, she would rather I spread the consumption out into more, smaller meals. Definitely! Going hungry al day makes you eat more when you finally eat. And screws w/your blood sugar. Maybe that's partly why you felt faint. ! I was dehydrated from fasting and they made me go drink a ton of water and then they poked me again. Wow! Had they told you not to drink water, either? Doesn't mae sense, if it ends up dehydrating you. Since I don't have insurance, she sold me the meds from the clinic at cost. They do that only for those patients without insurance. $20 for the two bottles for two months. A good savings. But she would like me to get company insurance as now I am in the age and health bracket where I am going to need it. I am thinking about it. But it is expensive. That is like $80 a month for the premium and then the co-pays for the doctor and meds, etc. A lot of money in the long run. But I have time to think about it as i can't enrol until November. $20 for 2 bottles for 2 months is an UNBELIEVABLE savings! I suspect you have no idea of the cost of drugs. (Or are you not in the U.S.?) With my company insurance, I pay $30 for 1 drug for 3 months for generic, & $50 for 1 drug for 3 months for in-formulary (approved) brand name drugs. And that's mail order. At a pharmacy it would cost more. I would encourage you to DEFINITELY get company insurance. Again, you have no idea. Ours just went up, as it does every year, & I think mine is $80/month also, on a plan w/100% coverage. Why in the world do you have to wait til Nov. to sign up? How long a wait period does your company have? I never heard of more than a 3-month wait. I think no wait is more common. Mine is no wait. I have health problems too. I eat poorly, don't exercise. I take statins for high cholesterol. I have high glycerides too. My BP, oddly, is good, even though my mom & brother both have high BP. And now I take 1 "child's aspirin" a day for my C-reactive protein, an indicator of heart disease. Insurance, prescriptions, etc. are something I know a little about, unfortunately. LOL. Katz |
#2
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On 24 Feb 2005 06:00:05 -0800, "Katz" wrote:
I would encourage you to DEFINITELY get company insurance. Again, you have no idea. Ours just went up, as it does every year, & I think mine is $80/month also, on a plan w/100% coverage. Why in the world do you have to wait til Nov. to sign up? How long a wait period does your company have? I never heard of more than a 3-month wait. I think no wait is more common. Mine is no wait. Some companies require that you sign up for insurance when you are first hired. If you don't you have to wait for an open enrollment period. Nan |
#3
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On 2005-02-24, Nan penned:
On 24 Feb 2005 06:00:05 -0800, "Katz" wrote: I would encourage you to DEFINITELY get company insurance. Again, you have no idea. Ours just went up, as it does every year, & I think mine is $80/month also, on a plan w/100% coverage. Why in the world do you have to wait til Nov. to sign up? How long a wait period does your company have? I never heard of more than a 3-month wait. I think no wait is more common. Mine is no wait. Some companies require that you sign up for insurance when you are first hired. If you don't you have to wait for an open enrollment period. Nan I always thought this was a legal issue. At both my company and my husband's, benefits can only be changed during the enrollment period, or if there's a change in your family situation (marriage, new dependent, or someone changes jobs). -- monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca |
#4
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On 2005-02-24, CATherine penned:
The doctor wasn't there but a Nurse practitioner was there. She is great. Very knowledgeable and helpful and answers my questions and gave me the most thorough heart exam I ever had. She told me i only had to cut my salt, fat and cholesterol in half after she got my full life history! I told you she was thorough! She got all my eating habits. Since I usually only eat one meal a day, I wasn't eating as much of the bad stuff as i thought. A lot for one meal, though. Of course, she would rather I spread the consumption out into more, smaller meals. Eek! I'd rather you eat more small meals, too =P Your blood sugar won't spike as much and your stomach will also shrink, allowing you to feel full with less food. Me, I couldn't survive on one meal a day. I'm on the five or six meal plan =P Since I don't have insurance, she sold me the meds from the clinic at cost. They do that only for those patients without insurance. $20 for the two bottles for two months. A good savings. But she would like me to get company insurance as now I am in the age and health bracket where I am going to need it. I am thinking about it. But it is expensive. That is like $80 a month for the premium and then the co-pays for the doctor and meds, etc. A lot of money in the long run. But I have time to think about it as i can't enrol until November. FWIW, those medication prices sound tiny to me. I've never been without health insurance; it would terrify me. As I understand it, a major reason to get health insurance is the problem of pre-existing conditions. If there are no gaps in your insurance coverage, insurance companies have to take you, even if you have a major problem like cancer or something. But if you get diagnosed with something and don't have insurance, they're no longer required to accept you. Something like that. I may have my facts wrong. I can't imagine not having health insurance, and specifically a PPO where I can go to a specialist without needing a doctor's note first. I had a problem with my wrist last year -- I'm not sure if it's really fixed yet, but just the MRI cost $1500 or so, of which I paid maybe $150. But I also had several sets of xrays, several doctor's visits, and a cortizone injection. That's just for one little thing. DH was hospitalized twice, each time totalling over $10K in costs, the vast majority of which the insurance company picked up. And insurance companies typically 100% cover routine preventative stuff, like yearly checkups, which can add up. Sorry; I don't mean to preach. Obviously you should do what you think is best. It would make me very uncomfortable to not have health insurance. -- monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca |
#5
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Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
I've never been without health insurance; it would terrify me. As I understand it, a major reason to get health insurance is the problem of pre-existing conditions. If there are no gaps in your insurance coverage, insurance companies have to take you, even if you have a major problem like cancer or something. But if you get diagnosed with something and don't have insurance, they're no longer required to accept you. Something like that. I may have my facts wrong. I would never want to be w/o insurance, either. I have several mild chronic conditions that need pills, Dr. visits, etc. You've got the facts just about right. It's part of the HIPPA law. You're allowed to go w/o insurance for something like 100 days (?). I had to literally count the days when I was laid off, then worked temp-to-hire w/o insurance for 3 months. I just made the cut-off time for how long you can be w/o insurance. I stocked up on my meds on my old plan, so I wouldn't have to pay extra for them. I didn't want to pick up the COBRA for that short a time. You don't have to get COBRA right away. You can wait. Katz |
#6
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Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2005-02-24, Nan penned: On 24 Feb 2005 06:00:05 -0800, "Katz" wrote: I would encourage you to DEFINITELY get company insurance. Again, you have no idea. Ours just went up, as it does every year, & I think mine is $80/month also, on a plan w/100% coverage. Why in the world do you have to wait til Nov. to sign up? How long a wait period does your company have? I never heard of more than a 3-month wait. I think no wait is more common. Mine is no wait. Some companies require that you sign up for insurance when you are first hired. If you don't you have to wait for an open enrollment period. Nan I always thought this was a legal issue. At both my company and my husband's, benefits can only be changed during the enrollment period, or if there's a change in your family situation (marriage, new dependent, or someone changes jobs). I worked in the insurance industry in one shape or form for years. Was even a licensed agent at one point, although I never "sold" insurance. For group benefits, they can indeed only change the plan provisions during open enrollment. But an insurer gives you 30 days to opt for the group plan and if you pass it up you are then subject to evidence of insurability rules. You may add or change dependent status at any time within 30 days of the qualifying event (birth, marriage, loss of a job). I have an individual policy I took out when I lost my job but due to the $500 deductible and the lack of Rx drug coverage I'll only use it if I wind up in the hospital. Jill |
#7
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Katz wrote:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote: I've never been without health insurance; it would terrify me. As I understand it, a major reason to get health insurance is the problem of pre-existing conditions. If there are no gaps in your insurance coverage, insurance companies have to take you, even if you have a major problem like cancer or something. But if you get diagnosed with something and don't have insurance, they're no longer required to accept you. Something like that. I may have my facts wrong. I would never want to be w/o insurance, either. I have several mild chronic conditions that need pills, Dr. visits, etc. You've got the facts just about right. It's part of the HIPPA law. You're allowed to go w/o insurance for something like 100 days (?). I had to literally count the days when I was laid off, then worked temp-to-hire w/o insurance for 3 months. I just made the cut-off time for how long you can be w/o insurance. I stocked up on my meds on my old plan, so I wouldn't have to pay extra for them. I didn't want to pick up the COBRA for that short a time. You don't have to get COBRA right away. You can wait. Katz LOL I'm sorry, but that strikes me as funny. COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) - I wrote the friggin book on it for The Prudential when it went into law in the 1980's. Try paying those premiums - you'll see exactly what your employer was paying for your health benefits. Used to irk me no end when people would gripe they had to kick in $100 a month for family health insurance. Take a look at the *real* premiums sometime. As it is I'm paying $124/month for individual stand-alone coverage and probably lucky to have it. I'm so fortunate my doctor gives me free samples of the meds I need for my stuff when he has them on hand. Prices for prescriptions are through the roof. Jill |
#8
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"jmcquown" had some very interesting things
to say about COBRA (WAS: I have been to my clinic...): LOL I'm sorry, but that strikes me as funny. COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) - I wrote the friggin book on it for The Prudential when it went into law in the 1980's. Try paying those premiums - you'll see exactly what your employer was paying for your health benefits. Used to irk me no end when people would gripe they had to kick in $100 a month for family health insurance. Take a look at the *real* premiums sometime. As it is I'm paying $124/month for individual stand-alone coverage and probably lucky to have it. You'd have probably gone into screaming rages here in Californa about a year and a half ago. The grocery workers went on strike because the poor babies were being asked to kick in up to $40/month for their very generous medical coverage. Infuriated me, when I was making less than they did (on a job that required a good deal more training and know-how) and was being asked to pay higher grocery prices so I could pay for their health insurance when I couldn't afford it for myself and DH (believe me, I'd have had MUCH higher premiums than they were being asked to pay). Heaven forbid the poor special widdle babies should have to kick in even a cent for what they were getting like 95% of their customers had to. -- "The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be doing just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding. :-)" - the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL |
#9
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Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2005-02-24, CATherine penned: The doctor wasn't there but a Nurse practitioner was there. She is great. Very knowledgeable and helpful and answers my questions and gave me the most thorough heart exam I ever had. She told me i only had to cut my salt, fat and cholesterol in half after she got my full life history! I told you she was thorough! She got all my eating habits. Since I usually only eat one meal a day, I wasn't eating as much of the bad stuff as i thought. A lot for one meal, though. Of course, she would rather I spread the consumption out into more, smaller meals. Eek! I'd rather you eat more small meals, too =P Your blood sugar won't spike as much and your stomach will also shrink, allowing you to feel full with less food. Me, I couldn't survive on one meal a day. I'm on the five or six meal plan =P Yes, same here. Eating 5 or 6 small meals a day is much better for you for the reasons Monique mentioned. Eating 1 large meal a day will also slow your metabolism to a grinding halt. Do not do it!!! -- Britta Sandpaper kisses, a cuddle and a purr. I have an alarm clock that's covered in fur! Check out pictures of Vino at: http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album |
#10
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On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 19:22:30 -0600, "jmcquown"
wrote: LOL I'm sorry, but that strikes me as funny. COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) - I wrote the friggin book on it for The Prudential when it went into law in the 1980's. Try paying those premiums - you'll see exactly what your employer was paying for your health benefits. Used to irk me no end when people would gripe they had to kick in $100 a month for family health insurance. Take a look at the *real* premiums sometime. As it is I'm paying $124/month for individual stand-alone coverage and probably lucky to have it. I was paying $366/month under COBRA (which only lasts 18 up to months) to continue what I had under my previous employer (Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO $500 deductable w/prescription plan co-pay). I tried to get individual stand-alone (went to the local insurance agent) because COBRA rates were killing my limited budget, and got denied for reasons neither of us understand. I ended up getting into a 6-month temporary plan (renewable) paying about 1/3 of the COBRA rate for individual stand-alone, but it's not as good as what I had (classic case of you get what you pay for). I'm so fortunate my doctor gives me free samples of the meds I need for my stuff when he has them on hand. Prices for prescriptions are through the roof. I have a deductable on my prescriptions that's completely seperate from my medical deductable. I'd better not start having to get prescriptions filled - once I clear the prescription deductable they'll only pay $2K max before that part of my coverage ends and I have to pay it all. Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha ============ http://www.jhedge.com |
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