I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

IllinoisLady

Good news...always uplifting.

Sunny here this morning.  Came home for work last night and had to wait for about 10 deer to cross the road.  Such beautiful animals.  Have heard the bobcat several times lately.  There is so much food around here for them....I can see why it likes it here. 

Hope you all have a good day whatever your doing.

Jackie

QuinnCat

Thanks Sun - I just asked my MO to investigate a Dana-Farber clinical trial on PARP inhibitors for me.  They are doing some interesting research at their facility.

Jackie - the leaves are not totally off the trees this year, but almost (a late year), but now we are facing a week of rain and possibly snow.  Leaves and snow - yuck!  In normal times past, it would be a week of snow, but the weather has notably gotten warmer over the past few years and we've always been at the more-snow-than-rain-elevation...now it seems, more rain than snow.  Snow gets problemmatic as one gets older, so I'm fine with this transition.

Anonymous

Meant to say - Alexandria - hope you MIL continues to improve and enjoy More Time...she sounds like such a fascinating woman.

Speaking of fascinating women, there's a wonderful article in yesterday's Washington Post about the Secretary of State of the United States, and her possible future plans, also a wonderful recap of all the work she's done to help WOMEN all over the world, especially women's fight for health care.  Guess everyone knows by now that she and her good friend, Marion Wright Edelman, Childrens Defense Fund, have been leading this effort for decades.  Long b4 she moved to Arkansas.

gardengumby

I don't know if I'll be able to make a get together - I'm not retiring until October, probably.  But autumn in Austin sounds good..... 

YramAL

Here's a beautiful picture from the Seattle Times-sunrise over Mt. Rainier.

Mary

GatorGal

Alexandria, so happy your MIL is home. Home is always better than the hospital!!



Also, sun, thanks for the Dana farber link. I see my onc tomorrow to find out what my next treatment course is going to be. Off to Florida on Saturday for time with family and the jets/jaguars game on dec. 9th. Being a Florida gator, Tim Tebow is one of my favorite athletes though doubt if I will see him play since he has two fractured ribs. Hope my onc is okay with me extending my chemo break and starting the new chemo the week of dec. 10th when I get back. I'm usually anxious to get started after a break but have had these tickets for over 6 months and it would be nice to it feel like crap on my trip!!

1Athena1

Blue - priceless picture!

Alexandria - yey! Huge sigh of relief.

Bren, we are having a lovely autumn here too - finally - I didn't think we would get one considering how long ther summer dragged on.

Chickadee

Mary, that's dreamy. Love that picture.

1Athena1

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/man-arrested-telling-kids-santa-isnt-real-181019373--abc-news-topstories.html

A real-life Grinch was arrested after he spoiled the holiday cheer at a parade, telling children that Santa isn't real.

The unidentified 24-year-old man, who had his hair gelled to look as though devil horns were protruding from his head, was arrested by police in the Canadian town of Kingston last week during the annual Santa Claus parade, authorities said in statement.

The St. Nicholas naysayer faces criminal charges of causing a disturbance by being drunk and breach of probation.

"It was pretty despicable that someone, during this time of the year, would tell kids Santa isn't real - which of course we would argue," Const. Steve Koopman told the Toronto Star.

....

Damned cheek!

scuttlers

I know he is real. Saw him at the parade last week!

kayfh

Well yah! Of course Santa is real. Almost every kid knows that!

Chickadee

I saw him too, he was walking into the mall last Sunday.

gardengumby

So THAT's where he gets all those toys - but I'm disappointed.  I thought he made them.

Chickadee

Naw, the elves make 'em. Silly goose, everyone knows that. I bet he was checking out the Victoria's Secret sale...........for Mrs Claus of course.

riley702

Fabulous news, Alexandria!

CherrylH

Great news, Alexandria.

Would suggest Chicago for get together but it's too expensive in summer and too cold in  the winter!!

QuinnCat

Grumps lost his glasses again.

pupmom

I'm confused. Are we or are we not allowed to talk about politics? Seems some are.

riley702

?? Here? Or did you mean over there? (I don't look)

River_Rat

Seems we can talk about the healthcare law, so here goes.  My PCP is part of the Henry Ford Healthcare system, which supports the ACA.  My oncologist/hematologist is at the University of Michigan which also supports the law.  I got my colonoscopy without copays this year.  I know lots of others who are having this experience too.  So far the ACA has been quite beneficial to me.  In fact I just ordered a bumper sticker expressing my love of the law.

pupmom

None of my doctors have expressed one bit of upset over the law. I have asked them how they feel and they are happy that more people will get health care coverage.

Note to Chicken Little: The sky is NOT falling.

IllinoisLady

I have not heard of any major upsets with Dr's either.  I do however, get most everything done through the V.A.  but most of my family and friends use the "regular" systems  and no one has told me of any problems.  I would imagine there could be some bugs somewhere to work out, but only thinking that since no one I actually know has mentioned anything. 

I did many years back work in some medical offices and while I don't know how it works now, back then, insurances, including Medicare were continually overbilled.  Even then, the insurance offices and Medicare has a certain amt. they wanted to pay for certain services......so the Dr. I worked for overbilled.....and his idea was that he would get what he actually wanted or closer to it.  I did not last too long in the billing end of it because I just had a huge difficulty with padding the bills.  I hope they are better at this aspect, but I also think part of the new insurance is to standardize billings so this sort of thing does not happen. 

Jackie

Chickadee

I remember even my dentist many decades ago told me that he had to overbill to break even on fillings etc.



I kind of believe its become the norm.

River_Rat

And my no copay colonoscopy didn't change when it turned out I had polyps...still was free.  

Also my insurance for years has required a separate appointment for separate ailments or purposes.  For instance I haven't been able to combine my physical with some other health problem for as long as I can remember...and if I had strep throat I couldn't use the same appointment to handle my neuropathy issues.  That hasn't changed for me with the ACA, that was previously the case and still is.

Edited to change to wording ACA to be less political

River_Rat

Also regarding the Medicaid expansion in the ACA, here is a Kaiser analysis 'The Cost and Coverage Implications of the ACA Medicaid Espansion: National and State-by-State Analysis':

http://www.kff.org/medicaid/8384.cfm

Interesting: "Overall state costs of implementing the Medicaid expansion would be modest compared to increases in federal funds, and some states are likely to see small net budget savings."

bluedahlia

Yorkie, you sure?  I just saw Merle running across my front lawn.

All I can say is OMG. just OMG!  I think I'm living in a parallel universe!

QuinnCat

My health insurance will cost more next year.  That's $8.58 more per year, or 71 cents a month.    ACA only added benefits.  I assume my plan is similar to what will be offered by the Federal Exchange, as both will be managed via OPM (not the insurance, but the negotiations with the private insurance companies).  Didn't get a rebate per ACA requiring a certain medical loss ratio..in other words, my health insurance company paid atleast 80% or more in benefits compared to premiums taken in.  I guess the OPM (that's government), did a good job negotiating!

lewing

What gets me when people assert that the benefit improvements and other reforms in the ACA have raised their costs (or their employer's costs, or both) is that health insurance premiums have been climbing for YEARS AND YEARS, with more and more of those costs shifted onto individuals.  Did the folks who are claiming that the ACA pushed their costs up never notice the increases before?  Have they forgotten about them?  Or are they just trying to score points, facts be damned?  Beats me.

Kaiser Family Foundation does a great job tracking costs, and their 2012 survey found a 4% average increase in premiums -- down from double digits in the early 2000s.  I'd never claim that the slowdown is because of the ACA -- it's too soon for the various cost-containment efforts in the law to have had that kind of an impact (aside from the medical loss ratio requirements, maybe), and the recession and generally low inflation are certainly part of the story -- but still, there's zero evidence that the ACA has pushed costs up.  And plenty of benefits to point to.  I mean, I had GREAT insurance before, but it wouldn't have covered my daughter once she graduates from college.  (And it wouldn't have covered birth control -- not that I need it anymore, but sitll, I'm glad it's covered.  It always rankled that it wasn't.)

Linda

Enjoyful

I start Medicare on Dec 1 and will blog here about the horrors of government-run insurance. Tune in to "Government Ate My Healthcare," beginning Dec 1 at 9ish.



A gigantic shout-out to my Canadian friends lindasa and 208Sandy for taking me in and making me eat delicious food! Sandy, give OS my undying gratitude for her fantastic roast beef! She and lindasa did the impossible - fed me rare meat and I LIKED it! Sandy, please send me your orange cranberry muffin recipe. I should have grabbed a handful while I had the chance.



I so much enjoyed seeing you all, including you, Blue. Blue has such a bright spirit and laughing soul. You can't help but smile when you're with her.



Huge hugs to lassie...I'm going to return your call this week.



Good morning to all. I'm off to gird my scaredy-cat loins for radiation.

River_Rat

Enjoyful, it's nice to hear about your trip...I'm very jealous.  I don't have any advice on loin girding, but we'll all be with you.