Health Insurance Plans

Let me first say that I am not an advocate of universal health care. I understand the many benefits that it could have on our nation, but very little of that would be seen by me. When it comes to things like that, I choose to be selfish.
To me health care has always been something that my parents handled, not because I needed it, but because they are nurses and know the system. Both parents, at one time or another, have been able to recommend the best physician, get me a relatively quick appointment, or both. It wasn't until my shoulder surgery that I really learned about my own health insurance and how to deal with doctors, hospitals, and insurance. I know many people have probably done this already, but I wish i would have known how to deal with it at the time. It would have saved me a bunch of time on the back end.
Most PPOs (I refuse to use an HMO, because when I have an ailment I want to go straight to a specialist, not waste an appointment on a general practitioner) have three main parts: a deductible, a max out of pocket, and a percentage payment. the first and last I was quite aware of, but the second took me by surprise. Max out of pocket is the maximum amount you will have to pay in any given year. My insurance pays 80% with a $300 in network deductible and $1500 max out of pocket. First thing first, your deductible does not count towards your max out of pocket, which sucks.
Now when you go to a doctor (for the sake of brevity, doctor is meant to mean any charging health care facility), they are going to send you a bill straight away. DO NOT PAY THIS. The way this works is that the doctor gives a bill to you and your insurance for the percentage pay that each of you have agreed to pay by your plan. If your doctor charges $3,000 (once your deductible is paid), they will ask you to pay $600. Fair enough you think, but you would be wrong. Your doctor will send the remaining bill to your insurance ($2,400), and your insurance will tell the doctor that they will pay $1,000, and they will send their portion, $800, to the doctor. Your insurance will then credit your max out of pocket $200. If you paid the $600 bill you got from your doctor, you will have not only overpaid, but not gotten credit for that amount by your insurance company. This last part is especially bad when your insurance company is currently assessing a surgery billed to them at $38,000.
My advice is to wait until you get the magical statement in the mail from your insurance company or the doctor with the heading, "Your insurance company has already paid their portion of this bill". Then check your insurance statement to make sure their figures add up.
Now, the big hassle, of course, is why does your insurance not just pay the whole thing, and then send you a monthly bill like a credit card? If the max you can charge in one year is $1,800, would the insurance company not be better off to send you a monthly itemized bill, then charge a reasonable APR on and charges that are not closed by the end of the year? My intuition is that many people default on high medical bills, so your insurance company would rather have you default with the hospital than pay out money on your behalf and have you default with them.
In closing, I will let you know how easy it is to try and get a $400 refund from an orthopaedic surgeon.

Always Learning

A short list of the things I have learned in the past year:
I learned that I am not that original (I stole this post idea from the most brilliant person I know)
I learned that the higher paying career path may not pay off in the end

I learned that being loved is nowhere near being in love

I learned that true love is both mental and emotional, not simply the latter
I learned that will and desire are not enough, especially when they are selfish
I learned that true satisfaction has no physical component
I learned it's infinitely harder to pursue than to be pursued

Like I said, short list. I am sure I have learned more, let's hope it makes me a better person next year.

Bill and Ted VS. Marty McFly

While watching The Big Bang Theory last week (eat a dick, it's funny), Sheldon and Leonard end up discussing time travel, due mostly to the fat that there is a replica time machine in the apartment. They are discussing the prospect of using the time machine to visit a relatively (no pun intended) significant time in the history of physics. Sheldon points out that while it would be entirely possible to transport himself in time, the machine did not move in space. So rather than move to historical Austria (if i recall correctly, but probably not), he would go to the same time period but in Pasadena. This infuriated me as this is supposedly a show about genius physics doctors who, while nerdy, would understand the shortcomings of their own science fiction obsessions.
The key to this argument, as it primarily lies in film (as time travel is not yet possible), is Bill and Ted versus Marty McFly. There are many other cinematic examples of time travel, but none capture my point so well. In Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted come to possess a time machine which will transport them to any time and place they wish by simply dialing the phone. Time travel critics will tell you that a time machine would not be able to move you through space (as previously stated) and so the movie represents a false interpretation of time travel.
Example two is Back to the Future, in which Marty is hindered not only by the space-time continuum, but by the historic significance of personal events. Let us go beyond the fact that Marty's entire family, from his great great grandfather, Shamus, to his children (Marty Jr.) all live in the same crappy California valley town, and talk about his travel. Marty travels in what is considered, at least by Sheldon and other enthusiasts, as pure time travel. He moves from point X,Y,Z,t1 to point X,Y,Z,t2. Doc Brown would call this "fourth dimensional travel", and purest would call this correct.
Here is your problem, you microscopic, ignorant, retards: the earth does not sit still. While Hill Valley may seem like the same location by earthly coordinates (lat/long, UTM, even State Plane), it is not even close to the same place on a universal scale. You have a rotating earth, an orbiting earth, a moving solar system, and a moving galaxy. The truth is that an exact movement through time would put you out in the vacuum of space in the smallest of time scales, not to mention 30 years.
I argue, then, that all time machines portrayed can move in both space and time, so if they can put you in the same place (locally speaking), then they could put you anywhere in space at any time. This is what Bill and Ted's phone booth did, and is the most accurate portrayal of a time machine, unless they make a movie about time travellers who end up frozen in the depths of space.
This being said, a true physicist would tell you that there is not space and time, there is only space-time, because as one approaches the speed of light, relativity causes time and space to both be melded forms of one another. This is the world i want to one day live in.