Day 1047

Janet and I went over to the neighborhood health food store to get our blood tested this morning. The store has these cholesterol screening events four times a year and they are dirt cheap, especially compared to what your doctor would normally charge. The huge price differential for lab work sums up the whole health care delima for me. When my doctor does my blood work, Labcorp bills my insurance a minimum of $400. Hey, why not. They know that my insurance will pay. When essentially the same labs do these public events for seniors, the test costs $20. That's what they know people will be willing to pay using their own money. I'm sure the lab makes a profit in both cases. It's just insane. So why is medicine so expensive? Because the money is there. If everybody was paying for healthcare with their own money like they do when they take their dog to the vet, costs would be much, much lower. Yeah, I know. Some people don't take their dog to the vet, because they don't want to spend the money. Some people wouldn't go to the doctor for the same reason. In general, medical costs would be much lower without insurance though. The only fly in the ointment would be that more people would die.

I wonder why I hate health insurance so much? I'm perfectly fine with car insurance. Homeowners insurance isn't so bad either. Maybe car insurance just seems more fairly priced and health insurance seems like a rip off. All I know is that a simple blood test should never cost $400.

I opened the filter drawer of the new furnace today to measure the filter and discovered that the filter was already filthy. It needed to be changed. How did that happen so quickly?  When I went to look for a new filter, I discovered that my filter was a very odd size. It couldn't be 10x20 or 20x20 like most furnaces. That would be too easy. No, it had to be a special size. I finally found a filter that would fit, and as you might expect, it was more expensive than the other filters. Hopefully, this fancy new energy efficient furnace will save me enough in gas to pay for all the filters I'll need.

After our blood test, Janet and I went out for breakfast at the restaurant with good bacon. She couldn't believe that I'd already tried everything on the menu. Hey, aren't there 52 Friday's in a year?  That's a lot of breakfast choices. 

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day