2009 was not a bad year. In fact, it had some really good parts. But 2010 is showing promise of being exceptionally good, all around.

We’re in our new home, with more room, and more potential.

My family is healthy and happy.

Here’s hoping your coming year has as much promise as I feel my new year does. (And here’s hoping the new year doesn’t turn out a surprise and suck hard.)

I apologize for the short post today, but staying up till midnight and then trying to think well enough to write is a struggle.

Bullgrit

I read a discussion yesterday on a general chat forum where a guy was asking for advice on handling payment for medical services without insurance. There were a few issues in his posts that I wanted to respond to, but my comments, first, would not have answered his questions, and second, would have sounded rather callous and insulting. But I still want to comment on what was said, so I’m going to make my comments here.

The initial post was this:

My wife has internal bleeding. We saw our regular doctor. Says we need to see a specialist since it could be cancer. Set up appointment with specialist. Specialist cancelled appointment. Why? WE HAVE NO INSURANCE

We are “middle class” so as of so far I have found no help for us. We earn too much. Insurance at work went up 19% this year. We had to drop it.

After reminding the hospital / staff of legal need of admittance they said okay- pay up 500 dollars and we’ll see you (aka- not treat you). Spent all day trying to extend current loans and get new ones to support this 500. Still unsure if I have gotten anywhere with it.

New phone call. We need 650 to see you. “Huh?” I thought we agreed on 500.

Second doctor. aka (1150 to see not treat her)

so…. except killing myself and taking as many doctors with me as I can…. what can I do? I’m not a lazy person that lives off the state. I’m not rich or work a well paying job. I work 70+ hours a week and the wife works 50+ hours a week. We are two months behind on the morgage. We owe the garage 2000+ for car repairs. I have nothing but my anger at this point.

First, I can imagine the panic and worry at having my wife find internal bleeding. I don’t want to dismiss or belittle the feelings this guy has about the medical situation. But . . .

The situation in issue here is not medical, but rather, financial. This guy and wife decided to drop their insurance because its cost went up 19%. That’s a pretty big increase, and I can definitely see weighing the value of keeping it. I can even understand making the decision to drop it. Insurance is a gamble: on one side of the scale, you have how much the premiums cost you each month; on the other side of the scale, you have the likelihood of having a serious and costly medical situation.

This guy and wife made the decision on the side of betting they wouldn’t have a serious and costly medical situation. That’s a legitimate and maybe sound (depending on their age, health, and lifestyle) choice. If they went 20 years or more with no medical problems, they win the bet.

But they had a potentially serious and costly medical problem come up. That doesn’t necessarily mean they lose their bet, though. Most doctors will take cash payments for their services. (It’s actually a better method of payment for many — cash up front versus check payment from an insurance company in three months.) You just tell the doctor’s office you want to pay cash.

The doctor may want payment up front, but that’s not that unusual. There’re many services that you at least pay a portion of the bill up front (especially services that can’t be “undone” if you don’t pay after completion). Besides, with, “We are two months behind on the morgage. We owe the garage 2000+ for car repairs,” it’s not like the doctors’ concern about getting paid are unfounded.

As for this particular situation, I doubt $500 or $650 or $1,150 is simply for a consultation visit — “aka not treat her.”

“I have nothing but my anger at this point.” Anger at what/whom?

Anger that his insurance premium went up? Prices of everything is going up; shop around for a better price.

Anger that doctors want payment up front for their services? They simply want to make sure that they’ll get paid at all for their services. Ask the mortgage company and the car garage how well they get paid without up front payment.

Anger that a possibly serious medical problem struck his wife? This is understandable, but God, Fate, what-have-you doesn’t respond much to anger. But still, it’s an understandable emotion.

A follow-up post said:

one doctor spent 15 mintes with her on Friday. had to pay him 300 up front and still owe him 960 dollars. The main doctor spent 2 hours off and on with her. had to pay him 500 up front and owe him over 8000. I hate doctors thoiurghly now. The good news, results are not in but it appears to NOT be cancer.

The way he explains this in the first five sentences, it sounds like the doctors are charging crazy money just to hang out in the room with his wife, chatting or visually examining her. But the last sentence shows that’s a false portrayal. If there are results to get in, then obviously some tests were taken. And tests ain’t cheap, and often aren’t a cost directly from the doctor — the cost comes from the laboratory.

The most amazing thing, though, is his hate of doctors, now. He hates the people who are helping his wife? This kind of anger at people who are doing something for you amazes me. Anger at people who are helping you, just because they expect payment for the help.

If you think the payment is too much — you can and should check up front (you wouldn’t order food at a restaurant before checking the price) — then go elsewhere for the service. There are lots of doctors, and you can shop and compare them just like you can any other business. If the office tells you, “pay $500 up front,” you have every right to ask what you’ll get for that money.

But it’s dumb to get angry and start hating someone for having the audacity of expecting payment before giving you a service. (Especially when you already can’t pay for previous services rendered by other providers.)

Bullgrit

I have my new computer, and wow almighty! Computer tech has come a long way since my last computer purchase.

For my previous computer, I specifically looked for something that could play the then latest hot new game: Half-Life 2 (November 2004 — almost exactly 5 years ago). This time, my game benchmark is Modern Warfare 2. So I now have:

Intel Core-2 Duo 3.0 GHz
1333 MHz Front-Side Buss, 6MB Cache
4GB RAM
Video card: NVIDIA GT 220 1G

These numbers amaze me — they’re all around 3-4 times the specs of my previous computer.

I haven’t picked up MW2, yet, (I will this week), so I pulled out my old HL2 game disks and installed them on this slick new hotness. With my old setup, I could run the game with the graphics set to a medium-high level. It looked great, then, but now . . .

I set all the graphics levels to the maximum, even the resolution to 1920×1080. With the 16:9 ratio on my new 21.5″ monitor, the visual quality is magnificent! And framerates are plenty high. I’m amazed at how nice this old game looks with everything cranked up to their max. I can only imagine what something new, like Modern Warfare 2, will look like.

Calfgrit8 was with me on my last computer shopping trip, and he heard me tell the tech that I wanted a system that could run MW2. Afterward, he asked me if he could watch me play the game (like he’s seen World of Warcraft and Portal).

“Um, I don’t know,” I said, “it’s an adult game. I’ll have to look at it first and see. It’s probably pretty violent.” (I know it’s pretty violent.)

“Yeah, I’d like to see it,” he repeated. “It could give me some good ideas.”

“Wh-what?” I stammered. “What kind of ideas?”

“For playing army,” he answered.

Hmm. I don’t think I’m going to even let him find out when I’ve bought the game.

Last night, I did let both boys watch me play through the opening sequence of Half-Life 2. In the opening, there’s no weapons in hand, and there’s no real violence or scary stuff, so they can watch it. All I did was run from the bad guy aliens through an urban landscape while exciting music played. It was thrilling and fun, but once the unarmed opening was done (and I came to the first gun in the game) we stopped.

Afterward, while the boys were in the bathroom (one in the tub, the other on the pot), I overheard them telling how they would deal with the bad guy aliens chasing them.

Calfgrit8: “I’d set up a trap for the aliens chasing me, so when they came after me they’d hit it and fall off the building. Or something would hit them on the head.”

Calfgrit5: “I’d get a gun that shot poop and pee at them.”

Their plans and plots and tricks and traps got weirder — so weird I can’t really think of how to write out the conversations. I’ll just say that if the Half-Life 2 scenario ever plays out for real, (aliens take over world, enslave humanity), my Calfgrits will have a unique place with the Earth resistance. A unique, and probably lonely place.

Bullgrit