<p>My daughter asked me to send her all her scarves. i had to remind her that they were haning in her room n the shelf thing. That I saw her hang them up there.</p>
<p>At least I had a moment of usefulness combined with I am not so old, so there moment.</p>
<p>Re: retirement. We moved here 8 years ago and at that time I retired from volunteer work. When I announced that to my family they were thrilled. Up until then, I’d been super involved with PTO, Girls Scouts, class mom, the works. I had no regrets. It was a small town and I felt I was able to make a real contribution. But I was burned out. So a fresh start in a new community felt like time to really make the break. I also wanted to push myself to make friends that weren’t just the parents of my D, as it had been in our old town. Did I still help out? Sure, absolutely. But no chairing committees and the like. I was retired. My daughter also decided to retire from 6 years of cheerleading with my blessings and recognition that it had been a really good experience for her. Nothing wrong with moving on.</p>
<p>^^^
Good point. As another parent who has “retired” from extensive volunteering in order to move on to other things, I hereby absolve myself (and all other “retirees”)from any and all guilt over this decision. During my active volunteering years I worked hard and faithfully but that phase of my life has passed.</p>
<p>Empty nesters here – we’re going away for two nights on Monday. How strange this feels. And (my girls don’t lurk on this board) how nice …</p>
<p>Zetesis, boy it sure does feel strange! Last weekend DH and I had our first State Fair day sans D. How nice to be able to move at our snails’ pace, avoid the midway, linger over the art exhibits, and in general not have to worry about entertaining a teenager!</p>
<p>I keep thinking, “They’ll be home soon,” like they’re at camp or something. I guess we’ll grow into this, but it all feels a little unreal somehow. Guess I need to give myself permission to enjoy it!</p>
<p>By yesterday afternoon, D had a fever of 100, cough and sore throat. Thought I’d better check to make sure it wasnt H1N1…$290 later, no flu, no strep. Isn’t this why we need to reform health care costs? We have a high insurance deductible (the partners have a very high deductible so that the staff and associates can have a decent one), so that is all out of pocket. I don’t want to get political on this thread, but it amazes me how many people are in love with their insurance plans when I detest mine.</p>
<p>The only thing I like about our insurance plan is that I can go to any doctor for any reason… specialists, etc included. The downside of course is that we’re privately insured (husband self-employed) and after spending a fortune on premiums (even though they say we’re getting a reduced rated for a high deductible), we have to spend 4500 as a family before we’ve met the deductible. Finally hit that sucker in July when son fell off a longboard onto his head and landed in the ER for a CT scan. Just yesterday, I got back the benefit thing for son’s precollege physical. What amazes me is that the doctor charged (labs and everything else on there) $450. Insurance allowed and paid 286.28 and thing is paid. Why such a big disconnect between what’s billed and what’s allowed is simply beyond me. Personally, I think the FIRST thing we should try is free competition across state lines. I am very moderate in terms of politics, and while I think there should EVENTUALLY be some public option for those with NO option, I think we first have to step up competition. And if they’d simply require identification to determine citizenship, you’d get a lot more republicans on board. Why people are so hesitant to compromise is beyond me. Aren’t any of these people married??</p>
<p>I am so grateful everyday for my health insurance and think about people who dont have it and have to delay life saving tests or procedures. My d had OR in another state was in the hospitalless than 24 hours and the bill was 25K. Dont know what my chemo is but the shot I take the next day to increase my White blood count is over 5K per shot. Blew my mind. and I need 4 in total. I think in this country we should have better options for everyone just dont know what the best one is.</p>
<p>downtoearth, we don’t have real options, that’s the problem. Most of us are stuck with private insurance of some flavor or other, and there are simply no good choices in that lot. That’s why it’s so crucial that the reform includes a public plan of some sort – if nothing else, it will give private insurance some real competition, and the rest of us some alternative.</p>
<p>5k a shot is obscene. Why in the world is it that much? my H hirt his ankle, when to the urgent care unit, and they charged him, via our self paind, 900 a month insurance, 235 for an advil</p>
<p>the shot I believe is a growth hormone to make your bone marrow produce white blood cells to give chemo more often. I have a good insurance plan, and gives me options etc… but now more than ever I think about people who have to beg borrow and steal to get what they need esp while in a crisis. there is another thread where people are looking into the cost of colonoscopy and thinking about going without anesthesia to save moneyand its just not right.</p>
<p>modadunn the reason for the difference is that doctors are not allowed to have different fee schedules for the same procedural code. however various insurers pay at different rates, which is also dependent upon whether the doctor is a preferred provider. when an office sets its fees, it must look at the reimbursement rates under the various contracts. for example we look at what does medicare/medicaid/bc etc pay for a specific code. as the insurers base their reimbursements on reasonable and customary rates that generally run about 3 years behind the actual rates being charged. we look at the highest payor… and set the fees at approx that rate, knowing that if we are a provider for a company we must write off what is not allowed but it ensures that we receive what we are entitled to by the highest payor. if we set the fees lower, the highest payor does not say ooops you should have billed more, here is the full amount, they only pay what you bill. It is the uninsured and those with poor insurance that are hurt by this system and we have always felt it was unfair however you can not by law bill one person differently than another. if you bill one person $50 for a specific service you must be billing medicare and medicaid or anyone else you have a contract with $50 for the same service. years ago, an office visit was an office visit…then the government stepped in and stated that there are at least 5 levels of office visits for which a doctor should be billing, coding and documenting. Years ago, we could write off fairly easily, if we felt the person was not in a position to pay their copay or amount left after insurance paid, now by law we must make every effort to collect that money… or otherwise it would be the same as charging people different fees for the same service. </p>
<p>las mas. the only problem with a public plan that becomes more competitive is that eventually it will take over the private plans…then again there will be no competition. employer backed plans will go with whatever is cheaper which will mean dropping expensive private plans. </p>
<p>rather than health care reform , we need insurance reform…stop denying people coverage, create state insurance boards that evenly distribute high risk individuals across all all insurance companies operating within the state. stop the differential cost of coverage, ie if a plan can be offered to a large company for x amount per month per employee, they should be able to offer that same price to an individual. We pay 1100.00/month (self employed) for our insurance for my family, yet an almost identical policy can be bought by a group for a fraction of that cost. insurance companies should have the same rules, one price for one product/service. JMHO</p>
<p>Not to be a “pill” on this thread, but we’re not turning it into a debate on healthcare are we? This is one of my favorite threads, and I really don’t want to see it headed into the realm of politics.</p>
<p>So, back to the empty nest thing – next weekend H & I are taking a couple extra days and doing a whole Frank Lloyd Wright tour in/near Chicago. We only have to worry about dog care. What a strange feeling after all these years!</p>
<p>blinker, one of the things I’m looking forward to with our downsized nests is being able to go places without negotiating. 'That’s boring" “Do I have to go?” “How long are we going to be there?”“Why do we have to go?” Museums, here we come!</p>
<p>I’m with you cbbblinker.</p>
<p>Sorry didnt mean to head it in that direction.
Not an empty nester but my kids bathroom looks awesome-the older one is such a slob, no more sudden increases in blood pressure when I walk in there!!! The house is quiet tho.</p>
<p>I didn’t see the side-bar as a hijacking, just a slight detour from regular programming on a rather boring day – although the Vikings kept it positive enough for me.</p>
<p>I am happy for the diversion because of my aforementioned field withdrawal because none of my children are playing fall sports. However, I am making significant headway on the piles in my office at home. And yes, I have an office although I do nothing official in it except for perhaps pay the bills. It had gotten to the point, however, that there remained little room for even my laptop computer. BUt in going through the papers stacked to one side, it seems I had been saving just about every nuanced handout or flyer from the past 12 months. Do I really need to know what I was doing a year ago september? As I filed away score reports and testing confirmations, I realized just how far we’ve come.</p>
<p>So now I am resisting bending to my son’s every call which usually includes a request. My H says to let him figure it out that I am not going to just be his own personal UPS machine. This letting go thing is surely not so easy.</p>
<p>So yesterday in the mail Son got his “AP Schoar with whatever” certificate in the mail. Boy, is that a useless thing…to get a high school “honor” when you’re a month into college. Not talking about any benefit in terms of college credit one may receive, is there any kind of financial prize that comes with very the highest AP honors? Printing and mailing the certificates just seems like a worthless thing for the College Board to spend money on.</p>
<p>Sorry - I was the one who started the health care thing, having just spent about $180 for 5 minutes of a doctor’s time, because I wanted to be a good citizen and not ignore a possible case of flu. We’re just such bad, unimpowered consumers of medical services. The recent NPR story likened it to shopping at a Target with no price tags on anything. I would add with someone else putting stuff in your cart. They spent $32 of my money testing D for strep when I absolutely knew it wasn’t strep…but they didn’t ask and I didn’t refuse.</p>
<p>Don’t apologize - I just remember how really nice threads turned really ugly last year rather spontaneously. Thus the political forum in the cafe. Didn’t want to see it go down that road.
Good lord, does it ever stop?!? S ('11) is working on applications for summer internships. Secretly, I’m glad he’s away doing this at school and just asking H to proof his resume and such. I am so done with it all. The blades on my helicopter are chipped and falling off.</p>