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#Post#: 16965--------------------------------------------------
Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: SHL Date: June 18, 2019, 9:58 am
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My health insurance plan sent this though their website:
HTML https://thrive.kaiserpermanente.org/thrive-together/live-well/5-ways-pets-can-improve-your-health
It’s a good read. Who has pets? Dogs, cats or both?
#Post#: 16966--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: NealC Date: June 18, 2019, 11:01 am
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We have two dogs, and a cat I haven't seen in a while. One dog
is devoted to my wife, the other is more my son's. If they are
not around then I might get some dog lovin'.
#Post#: 16968--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: Alharacas Date: June 18, 2019, 5:42 pm
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My little tomcat is not exactly a pet. He mainly lives in the
basement because it's the warmest place in the house and gives
him the freedom to come and go as he pleases. I'm happy to feed
him when he asks me to do so, I'm also happy to clean away the
bits of mice he very considerately offers to me from time to
time. What I'm less happy about are the fleas he sometimes
shares with me, and I'm also not partial to cat hairs in my
food.
I sometimes wonder about these studies - would anybody really
become healthier or live longer if you gave them a pet? Or is it
that people who aren't prone to depression and who tend to live
healthily like dogs better than others?
Yes, I know, I've read about elderly people in homes living
longer and staying healthier when they have access to pets - but
we don't really need studies to learn that cuddling is good for
you, do we? And these people might have lived even longer and
stayed even healthier if they'd been given the opportunity to
cuddle their grandchildren or a partner, I think.
#Post#: 16969--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: NealC Date: June 18, 2019, 6:22 pm
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I read once about a cat that lived in an "Old Folks Home" and
used to wander around visiting patients. The staff noticed that
the cat would get especially chummy with one senior from time to
time and within a few weeks that senior would invariably be
dead.
The cat must have noticed a change in scent or biorhythms or
something but he continued to accurately predict who was going
to die next for most of his adult life.
Or maybe he killed them.
#Post#: 16970--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: Truman Overby Date: June 18, 2019, 6:52 pm
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Steve, you need a Daschund or a Weimaraner.
#Post#: 16971--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: Alharacas Date: June 18, 2019, 7:11 pm
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[quote author=NealC link=topic=1164.msg16969#msg16969
date=1560900146]
I read once about a cat that lived in an "Old Folks Home" and
used to wander around visiting patients. The staff noticed that
the cat would get especially chummy with one senior from time to
time and within a few weeks that senior would invariably be
dead.
The cat must have noticed a change in scent or biorhythms or
something but he continued to accurately predict who was going
to die next for most of his adult life.
Or maybe he killed them.
[/quote]
Feline necrophilia? :o
#Post#: 16972--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: SHL Date: June 18, 2019, 8:56 pm
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[quote author=NealC link=topic=1164.msg16969#msg16969
date=1560900146]
I read once about a cat that lived in an "Old Folks Home" and
used to wander around visiting patients. The staff noticed that
the cat would get especially chummy with one senior from time to
time and within a few weeks that senior would invariably be
dead.
The cat must have noticed a change in scent or biorhythms or
something but he continued to accurately predict who was going
to die next for most of his adult life.
Or maybe he killed them.
[/quote]
I kind of like cats, because they are independent. And, smart.
If you have one lying on your couch when you come home, they
look up at you like, „Oh, it‘s you.“ Or they get up and meow at
you (they only meow at humans for some reason) to feed them.
Sort of like saying, „ok, get to work.“
Dogs will jump all over you and lick you as if to say, „oh my
god! I was afraid you weren’t coming home!“
Jerry, yes, my favorite dog in the world is the Weimaraner
because they are so beautiful with those gray eyes and gray
coats. And they are great hunting dogs and very smart.
Time to get on the Americans about the healthcare cost crisis:
(this probably blows most Europeans away). My healthcare
insurer, Kaiser Permanente, which published that little piece
about pets keeping you healthy, just sent me a statement for my
hospitalization charges, and what they paid (almost all of the
charges actually).
It only cost me $300 USD for 2 nights hospitalization. And it
did cost me $100 for an ambulance ride for 20 miles. So, the
whole experience was $400. Not bad for the US.
When I was younger (I think about 34 or so), before my sons were
born, my boss was cheap and wouldn’t provide health insurance,
so I went out in 1992 and purchased the best Kaiser plan I could
find as a „self-pay“. It was only about $300 a month then, which
was easily affordable. They later modified the plan to not be as
generous, but I was grandfathered in because I had signed up
when it was offered and always kept it, knowing how important
health insurance is. And, it‘s gone up over the years, but it is
still a reasonable and affordable monthly charge. I got my
little accounting statement from them in the mail the other day
for my hospitalization and it read, „Cost of services:
$29,000.00. Kaiser paid: $28,700.00. Co-pay=$300 (I had already
paid $200 in the hospital so they credited that, and I only owe
them $100). $29,000.00 is a real attention-getter for a 2 night
hospital stay.
Oh, and the ambulance ride for 20 miles? $2,970, and Kaiser paid
$2,870 of it. So, I owe the ambulance people $100.00. So, the
hospital gets $100 and the ambulance gets $100.
When I was in Germany last Summer, I had to go to the doctor for
what I thought was strep throat (I don’t think it was). The
cost? 25€, and that as with no insurance. The antibiotic
prescription was like 10€, at the local Apotheke, without
insurance. It costs me as a co-pay at Kaiser, just to see a
doctor, $25. And, that’s just the co-pay with the monthly
insurance premium as an insured member.
I know I am drifting from the thread a bit, but one of the
problems is that being in the healthcare business in the US is
so lucrative. A doctor, just a GP, makes $350,000/year at Kaiser
and nurses make $150,000/ easily double what a comparable doctor
would make in Germany. So, how are you going to ask these folks
if they would mind doing the same work for half the money, so we
could get some kind of national single payer plan going?
The US system is totally insane. At least I get Medicare in 4
years.
#Post#: 16973--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: Susan Date: June 18, 2019, 10:59 pm
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Steve wrote: So, how are you going to ask these folks if they
would mind doing the same work for half the money, so we could
get some kind of national single payer plan going?
Since my husband retired, we chose to try this program
HTML https://chministries.org/
and not have true health insurance.
After my husband retired I looked into getting ¨Obamacare¨
insurance, the option recommended for the self-employed, but due
to being in our 50´s and not meeting the low-income guidelines
for the government subsidies, it was going to cost $12,000 per
year for us in premiums and we would STILL have a $12,000 per
year deductible. That´s paying out $24,000 per year before the
insurance would ever pay ANYTHING!!!-- even if we stayed
perfectly healthy.
Technically, we are uninsured and private pay everything. When
we tell providers we are private pay and ask for a ¨prompt pay¨
discount, meaning they don´t have to file insurance but get
their money directly from us at the time of service, it is
amazing the level of discounts we receive (without begging or
haggling further), usually much more than half. This April, my
doctor, when I complained of knee pain, did x-rays, did not
charge me for the visit, gave me a cash price for the x-rays and
referred me to a surgeon. The surgeon gave me the cash price,
did more X-rays and an MRI. The cash price for the MRI was
$500. On the statement, showing what they normally bill, was
$2750 with the rest of it written off. We planned the
surgery and he told me the cash, prompt pay price for the
surgery, including the surgery center fees, anestesiologist,
etc, was $2500. When I received my statements, it shows they
wrote off (gave me a discount) of $5,076.68. I have been going
to physical therapy and just got my statement. My price in
their ¨prompt pay¨ private pay program for the first four visits
was $420. They are writing off $910.00
When my surgeon and I were discussing the costs and I told him I
was private pay but part of a ministry that would help with my
expenses if an incident went over $500, but that I had never
needed to use it in in over two years, he told me ¨now THAT is a
leap of faith.¨ Doctors can not fathom what it would be like
NOT to use insurance. They generally hate insurance with all of
it´s paperwork-- but our crazy insurance system just jacks of
the price of everything tremendously.
Instead of paying the $24,000 out of pocket every year whether I
need anything or not under the Obamacare program, we are paying
a little over $300 a month for our membership (a ¨gift of
sharing of expenses with others¨ technically not an insurance
premium) to be assured of never having an incident that ends up
costing more than $500. I am waiting for the ministry to come
through and ¨share with us¨ our bills (reimburse us.). However,
even if I did not receive the promised help that I have been
sharing with others, even having athroscopic knee surgery as a
private pay patient costs me less than the premiums I would be
paying (not to mention the deductibe) if I had ¨comprehensive
health insurance¨ because of the massive discounts health care
providers are willing to give ¨prompt pay¨ (no insurance)
clients.
#Post#: 16975--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: Susan Date: June 18, 2019, 11:32 pm
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Steve,
In case you are wondering how this knee surgery would be treated
in Canada, my husband has a friend who is a Canadian citizen who
now lives here and is currently in the same health sharing
ministry we are. He told us he believes that in Canada we would
not have to pay any of those bills, but that we would have to
expect to wait 6 months to have the surgery. That is why
wealthy Canadians, who generally live within a 100 or so miles
of the U.S. anyway, often come to the U.S. for healthcare and
private pay.
My knee pain was such that I could still get around enough to
work but could not tolerate any exercise, even swimming. I
tried exercising several times, but the knee would swell and
finally I was avoiding exercising. Going six months without
exercise really would not have been good for my health.
Now, less than a month after the surgery, I can ride a recumbent
exercise cycle without pain and swim without pain and am
gradually building back my endurance for walking more distance.
Even if our country went to a single payer system, if this
ministry comes through the way I expect, I would probably keep
being a part of it, because it works for medical expenses
anywhere in the world as long as you can get a bill in English.
#Post#: 16976--------------------------------------------------
Re: Do you have a pet? They can improve your health...
By: Alharacas Date: June 19, 2019, 12:12 am
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Steven and Susan, I'm sorry if I seem very stupid, but I simply
don't get it.
What you paid, Susan, is pretty much what these procedures
actually cost*.
And what you, Steven, paid for the ambulance ride on top of what
your insurance pays, is also more or less the total cost**.
So... where on earth do these fantastic figures - $2970, resp.
$2870 for 20 miles - come from? Or rather: where does the money
go?
And why, on the other hand, is there quite a reasonable figure
for Steven's hospital bill (29.000 for a bypass or a stent,
that's pretty much what you'd have to pay in Germany as well,
just in Euros)?
*I just checked the cost of an MRI (knee) in Germany, and a
reliable source on the internet tells me it's between 600 and
800 Euros.
**An ambulance ride with a doctor on board costs 160 Euros per
hour in Germany, 300 if it's a fully equipped car (whatever that
means).
Side note: There is public and private health insurance in
Germany. One difference is that if you're privately insured, you
need to advance the money yourself (and then send your bills to
the insurance company in order to get the money back), instead
of the insurance settling all of the bills on your behalf. The
other difference is that doctors and hospitals are allowed to
charge "private patients" a little more. In return, some doctors
and hospitals (but by no means all of them!) will give those
patients a somewhat preferential treatment - higher likelihood
of getting your own room at hospital, for example, or having to
wait a little less if you arrive to see a doctor without an
appointment. Nothing drastic. (My mother is privately insured, I
have public health insurance, that's how I know.)
Since the figures quoted on the internet (for procedures and
transport in Germany) are for the amount a privately insured
patient would be charged, it follows they are a bit higher.
That's why $500 seems comparable to 600-800 Euros to me, in case
you were wondering.
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