Posted on 10/25/2025 11:44:43 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
An indecipherable email about my mother-in-law’s checkup has me reaching for the pitchfork.
‘How do you come up with things to write about?” a young George Will once asked William F. Buckley Jr. That’s easy, said the National Review founder, “the world irritates me three times a week.” Most people seek to avoid the feeling of irritation. But for newspaper guys, irritation equals inspiration.
Let me tell you an irritating little story that I think you will find relatable. It’s about my mother-in-law. She’s 86 and has been ill for a while. For the past few years she’s lived in a nursing home in a rural part of the Northeast. The facility provides her with long-term care for memory loss and other chronic issues. The nursing home staff are generally competent and responsive, though there tends to be a lot of turnover. I gather that’s common.
As part of my mother-in-law’s care, a member of the nursing home staff takes her to regular appointments at a clinic on the campus of a large medical center about 30 miles away. The clinic and medical center are affiliated with a prestigious nearby university. You would recognize the name. I’m being vague because I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble. My irritation is with the whole system’s attitude, not any one person’s.
Recently my mother-in-law went for her annual checkup. She wasn’t complaining of any particular problems or in need of any new medications. In the healthcare and insurance lingo we’ve all been forced to learn and use in recent years, this was a “well visit.” Routine. Well visits are typically covered—even encouraged—by insurance providers at no cost to the patient. My mother-in-law has Medicare.
When the bill for the well visit came, my wife, who is her mother’s legal guardian, noticed two...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Insurance plans should include payments for good gyms and nutritionists. But people don’t want to follow self health promotion
Look at an old movie. Or a rerun of an old game show from the 1970s. People dressed well. They were thin. They were not zombies out on antidepressants
They were aware of what to do
Right now people don’t know how to eat
Doctors don’t know what to tell people to eat
If the doctor comes from an Asian culture they don’t have an awareness of the pic
Son we get from supermarkets and fast food. The stuff Renee live on
I know of a woman with congestive heart failure. She is on diuretics. She asked her MD if she should look at her diet. The doctor said eh you can cut back on salt by not adding it to your food
Look at an ingredient label. Look at the sodium
Look at the list of ingredients
If it is more than three ingredients do you know what they are?
Hydrolyzed yeast extract- that’s salt. Autolized yeast extract- salt
Natural flavor- salt
Does anyone know how much salt they should limit to per day?
Do people know what a gram is? We don’t use that word in cooking. Why do they put it on ingredient label
Translate a gram to a teaspoon or tablespoon
Can people visualize it? In regular table salt 15 grams is about 1 tablespoon. Same w granulated sugar
Teaspoon, tablespoons are weight. Grams are volume. Powdered sugar less weight per volume
People aren’t going to do that math
Look at how much sugar is in a can of soda
Googling- A standard 12-ounce can of soda contains about 3.1 to 3.25 tablespoons
Get a tablespoon out and fill it three times pour those into a 12 ounce glass. You do that 3 times a day that’s just the soda people drink. Then look at cereal, pastry, chocolate,
Look at salad dressings and packaged food. Do people go in and shop in produce, meat only? Primarily? Frozen?
This is what people do to their bodies
You can do catastrophic health care all day long, but you go to a physical rehab unit at any hospital and look at the patients
Congestive heart failure, diabetes, cardiac disease, vascular disease, amputations, kidney disease,
Some are there through no fault of self care but a lot are there not taking care of preventable illness
Americans are not interested in cures and maintenance.
Cooking and eating right is difficult to manage with all the conveniences and temptations, time saving options
Complete lack of awareness from home, doctors etc
Would work if most people thought like geezers who take care of themselves.
They’ve been brainwashed in this area as well as in politics
“Teaspoon, tablespoons are weight. Grams are volume.”
Not a scientist here but I believe this is stated backwards.
“Teaspoon, tablespoons are weight. Grams are volume.”
Not a scientist here but I believe this is stated backwards.
Google - Grams measure weight (or mass), not volume.
Phooey. You’re right. I got that backwards
That's backwards. Grams are weight. I assume you know that and it was just a typing accident.
Sorry for being repetitive. I’m slow at typing
When you know about charges, even an estimate of them, this type of thing is not a problem.
But when you go in for a no-charge visit and come out with a $200 bill my response would be a letter back:
Thank you for your timely response. This visit was a wellness visit and carries no charge according to the ACA. As such, I dispute this fraudulent charge and will be bringing it to the attention of both the insurance commissioner and attorney general of our state.
Thanks you for your kind attention.
I didn’t hear how he resolved this issue, or got some negotiation with a live person. Just his indignance.
These nursing facilities are nothing but profit sucking rip offs, and most don't offer the basic care for the dementia patients living there.
I don't know what the solution is, but I don't want the govt. to control them.
Every physician in my family is from the United States.
One ER doctor, one Thoracic surgeon, one intensive care nurse, one Physicians Assistant, and one deceased Oncologist........
The next time you have chest pains, go see your local garage mechanic. You might get a free oil change out of the visit.......
Good
I work in a metro hospital. That’s where my information comes from
Elderly patients on Medicare are grist for the profit mill. I should know, I’m one. Thankfully, I have sufficient faculties left to know BS when I hear it, and refuse to submit to it. Anthem BC/BS is my provider, and they simply won’t leave me alone. Emails and phone calls all the time. I refuse to be one of those old people obsessed with my healthcare. Our system is designed to generate profits for the system, not make or keep people healthy.
They add it on because Medicare will pay it. It’s gouging, pure and simple.
This happens because a good 90-95% never read the fine print nor ask for a complete explanation of any billing statement.
It’s standard corporate theft tactics.
‘Quidquid commeatus feret’
Yes, but you don’t have insurance companies or the federal government dictating how much Walmart is going to be paid for those products or mandating that these providers cannot deny products and services even if the client can’t pay for them.
Your analogy is way off and you know it.
Yes, but you don’t have insurance companies or the federal government dictating how much Walmart is going to be paid for those products or mandating that these providers cannot deny products and services even if the client can’t pay for them.
Your analogy is way off and you know it.
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