Thursday, September 9, 2010

Day 268

I don't understand health insurance. Did you know that the same treatment can end up having wildly different costs, just depending on whether your medicine is administered to you in a doctor's office or if you take it yourself at home. Which is more expensive? Not what you might think. My insurance usually pays 90% of in-plan medical expenses after I meet my deductible. It only pays 50% of my prescription drug cost, however. Why does this even matter?  Well, if I get the Peginterferon I need at my neighborhood pharmacy, I pay a small fortune for it. If I go to the doctor and get them to give me the shot instead, I just pay a regular co-pay. This seems totally crazy to me. Why should the exactly same medicine have one price if it is coded for health insurance as "necessary medical procedure" and a much higher price if it is coded as "prescription drugs?" I'm still trying to get my doctor to just order the medicine and give me the shots in his office. It's an uphill battle though. Everyone seems to want me to take the more expensive route. Even if the drug wasn't so expensive, I wouldn't want to give myself these shots at home anyway. I hate the sight of needles.

Peginterferon prices weren't the only thing that didn't make sense today. I bought some new Anton Bauer batteries last week for my Beta-SP camera. They look just like my old batteries and work just fine in my camera. There is only one tiny little problem. I can't recharge them! The manufacturer has changed the design of the battery so that it can only be recharged using their newest digital battery chargers. Why? I already have a perfectly good Anton Bauer quad charger.  Why should I have to pay $500 to get another one?

I guess it doesn't make sense either that if I was classified as an "existing customer," I could get in to see my dentist in three days, but now that I'm classified as a "new customer," I need to wait three weeks. This doesn't bother me nearly as much as the impossible to charge batteries though, because I need the batteries now and I'd just as soon wait to see the dentist.

I can't even figure out why Dash's coat is turning brown again. I thought we'd solved his skin problems, since his coat was looking so good earlier this Summer. We haven't changed his food. He's still using the same medicated shampoo. Nothing has changed at all, but the bronzing has reappeared again.

Oh, and one more thing that doesn't make any sense. Apple has made a big deal recently out of telling everyone that all the apps available for the iPhone will automatically work on the iPad. Why is this just a one way street?  iPad apps definitely don't automatically work on the iPhone. Life is just too complicated sometimes.

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