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An insightful day on a variety of issues

June 4th, 2008 at 03:48 am

I took my daughter to Girl Scouts to walk into the parents having a discussion about money. Normally, I'd participate... but this time I just sat back and listened. These people are all older than me... because I had my daughter when I JUST turned 19. The woman who did the most of the talking was 38 and this was a few of the things I heard:

"I assumed the lady auctioned off a week at her timeshare, I didn't realize they had a condo. I mean, her husband is a doctor but he does Sports Medicine its not like he's a cardiologist or neurosurgeon"

"Gotta love credit cards, you work for the credit."

"I installed a generator for a family and the personal assistant opened the gate. Opened the four car garage and the first door had a Bentley, 2nd had an Aston Martin, 3rd a Lexus SUV so I thought... ok not too bad... and the 4th was a Jag. They were ROLLING in dough."

And I stayed silent the whole time. Ironically as I was driving home the country song "Back when I knew it all" came on the radio and there is a part there that says something along the lines of "when I thought credit cards meant you were rich".

Thats when it dawned on me... as I stayed silent listening to this whole conversation.

1) Just cause someone has a vacation home doesn't mean they are rich. They could be leveraged to the hilt. And just cause someone isn't a neurosurgeon doesn't mean they are any better/worse than the doctor in Sports Medicine.

2) Credit cards and CC debt DON'T mean you are rich and although the average person may have that.... that doesn't mean its great news. After all, when was it good news to be mediocre?

3) Owning a million dollar home and having a million dollars worth of depreciating assets sitting in your garage either means you have millions upon millions in your bank account and can afford to be frivolous OR you have your priorities messed up.

Prior to coming to this forum I would have thought "Wow, must be nice. I want that one day." But now I realize, I don't.

And the way to end the night?

Blockbuster sent us Sicko. And while I'm not really a Michael Moore fan. I really don't consider myself right or left or political in any way (although I do exercise my right to vote)... it just added to the whole thought process.

I am sooo thankful we have free healthcare. Sure I can CHOOSE to pay for better coverage and options but I can walk into ANY hospital with no prior authorization or referral and know I'm covered. I can't imagine having to pay for it and I don't even think the healthcare is great but its not substandard either. They just kinda piss me off cause there is no continuity of care and in order to be a doctor in the Navy, as far as I know, you don't need to pass your boards. You just have to have graduated medical school. There also seems to be a focus on treating symptoms and maintenance than finding the actual cause. Of course I know not ALL doctors in the military are like this, but this is the majority of the sentiment I've received in the 10 years I've been in the system.

DH is a healthcare provider himself and can prescribe meds. He's the enlisted equivalent of a Physician's Assistant but he doesn't even have his Associate's degree so we have to stay in the Navy cause nothing in the civilian world will pay him what the Navy does because he doesn't have any certifications. But he gets jaded, and has gotten used to people abusing the system and he doesn't get any benefit or incentive whether he treats 5 people or 500. But that's another story.... nonetheless, when someone gets sick or hurt, I don't need to worry about how I'm going to pay for that ER visit. It's free and even if I see a non-participating provider and Tricare covers it & I'm on Standard because its a gov't healthcare policy - I can only be billed a maximum of 15% over the Tricare allowed amount.

I found this out when I was billed $1240 for an U/S and Tricare only paid $547. But then only had to pay $87.

It makes me scared for my kids in a certain way. I can't imagine paying for healthcare (beyond the $1000 catastrophic cap I have to pay for CHOOSING to switch to standard) and yet I live in the U.S. Healthcare has NEVER been a thought in my mind. My Dad worked 2-3 jobs and took out dual healthcare policies to make sure we were always covered. If I was sick, I went to the doctor... not a second thought. As an adult, I married a U.S. Navy sailor... when I was sick, I went to the doctor.

I wonder how my Dad does it. I should ask him one day... or ask my Mom. They never talk about money with me, or healthcare... but I'd be interested to know. How do people do it? Cause having to choose between my health and debt is... well, unfathomable to me. I've just never had to deal with it - and I live in the U.S. where my civilian friends pay $1000/mo in deductibles/copays/premiums.

Not sure I could go to another country either, but the whole day... just made me think.

Oh and our yard got torn up today cause they are installing fiber optic cables for a local utility company. So I went outside to let the workers know we have a sprinkler system, so not to dig it up.

Umm, yeah. I don't speak Spanish well, although if someone speaks it I can understand the gist of it. But, I don't live in California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, or Florida... so to walk outside my front door and have the workers digging up my yard not speaking English was something I did not expect. Had I been back in San Diego I wouldn't have thought much about it, but I'm not far from the nation's capital. A little surprising.

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