Two more tales illustrating why those who think the current system is just fine and we have no need for health care reform are idiots. I don’t like the current proposals either, but “just say no” is not a helpful course.
Biking Diabetic says:
First off, I had a doctor’s appointment at 10:40 a.m. This called a [...]
Blue Cross was successful in shoving me out. Premiums up 100% over the last three years will do that. Then I see they’re whining in the paper today about losing so much money and blaming it on “falling membership” (and only mention in a side note that 2/3 of the loss is because of accounting [...]
Last week I subscribed to Boston Organics and today was the first delivery. If this is the sort of stuff they always deliver, I’ll kick myself for not signing up earlier. Just really, really nice looking produce.
They deliver to my neighborhood on Tuesdays, which, up until a couple of months ago, was my day to [...]
Something has to change, so I joined livestrong.com, (one of) Lance Armstrong’s commercial enterprise. It’s a thing where you can track your calorie intake and exercise output, set goals, that sort of thing. (Not to be confused with livestrong.org, his non-profit charity foundation.)
At first, I was tempted to open an account at nutritiondata.com. I’ve had [...]
Got my health insurance renewal rates today.
Current plan: $581.20 per mo. or $6,974.40 per year.
Same plan starting 01-April: $662.22 per mo. or $7,946.64 per year.
For those math challenged, that’s an increase of $81.02 per mo. or 14%.
No, we don’t need health insurance reform at all. No. Nope. And it’s really nice to see the Massachusetts [...]
A night of freaky nightmares.
In this one, I was out of state in a Zipcar and suddenly realized I was two hours late on the rental return. Plus, I’d lost my cell phone.
Worked at the Diabetes Expo on Saturday at the Trade Center in the Tour de Cure booth. It was hard to tell from where our station was, but it looked to me like the thing was really well attended. We were kind of off to the side, right at the entrance, so we saw the [...]
The Associated Press: Health care costs to top $8,000 per person
I’ve been waiting since forever for some news article to print an actual number. Most articles say “cost is high” or “costs out of control” or something like that without actually putting a hard number down on paper. But this number seems to be within [...]
Had my (supposedly) annual eye exam yesterday. I’m still feeling it. It’s a pretty thorough three part exam. First they do the optometry stuff and give me a new prescription. I’ve been given a prescription for tri-focals this time so I can see the computer screen.
Then they squirt in an anesthetic so they can poke [...]
Does this hurt?
Does this hurt?
Does this hurt?
Yes.
I had my first physical therapy yesterday. Poke, twist, yank. Ouch. It wasn’t too bad, really. It was the first one, so it was mostly evaluation. She said it doesn’t look too bad, but might take some time. She gave me some stretching and exercizey things to do. Actually, [...]
So last week was another round of doctor appointments. First an echocardiogram, then an osteopath.
The ecg shows an “mild left atrium enlargement” which, the intertubes tell me, is not of immediate serious concern. Plus, no one has called me say I’m going to die tomorrow, so I guess that’s okay. That Doppler ecg screen is [...]
The black hand of depression is closing in on me again. Made much worse by spending the day yesterday doing nothing waiting for a storm that never appeared (except to generate enough wind to knock out the satellite dish at the bar next door so I couldn’t even watch the Sox get routed by Texas [...]
e-patients: What’s in *your* MIB?
Wow. I never even knew this existed.
all those who do not have cancer.
/me raises hand.
Although the doctor is “still out of town”, it’s been 10 days since the biopsy, and his assistant has the report.
“No malignancies identified.”
I have to wait for him to come back to find out what the report says in detail (like whether this is “pre-cancer” or whatever [...]
I got my Blue Cross renewal form today.
The increase is 47%. Forty seven percent. In one year.
2007 rate: $428.87 / mo
2008 rate: $630.99 / mo
Jumpin jebus on a pogo stick.
I guess they need to pay for van Fassen’s “retirement” somehow.
Study Finds a Lack of Health Insurance May Roadblock Some Diabetes Patients From Seeking Critical Treatment
A message seen today on one of the mailing lists I subscribe to:
I was surprised to see the rate on HMO Blue Value Plus plan go up $142 per month per person for 2008 under my so called “small group plan”. Evidently the new universal health law has caused BC to combine small groups and [...]
Bogus Diabetes Test Strips Traced to Chinese Distributor – New York Times
New Diabetes Genetic Risk Factors Found
Interesting. They could use a better proofreader, though.
… “insulin, a hormone key for turning blood sugar into insulin”
erm, not exactly.
Researchers identify genes linked to diabetes – The Boston Globe
Some good news
NEC