Rant #3,909: Pay the Piper

Tests, tests and more tests ...

I hated them as a student in school--from kindergarten through graduate school--and I hate them now--as an adult through medical exams.

I have had them this week, I will have them next week, and every new week brings new health tests.

Not only is it taxing on my psyche, it is taxing on my pocketbook.

When you are forced to use Medicare as your only source of health insurance, you are getting near the bottom of the barrel for coverage.

It is a step above Medicaid, but when you really look at it, it is not a giant step above it, just a small step.

Unless you are wealthy and can invest a lot of money in your plan to keep costs down, you are stuck with a plan that doesn't cover that much and where the co-pays are astronomical.

And if you are sick and/or you need constant testing, well, you are outta luck.

Your pocketbook is going to be taking a hit--

Mine has, for sure.

My deductibles are high because that is all I can afford with my measly Social Security and wages.

So for certain things, I have to pay a high price for coverage.

I found that out the other day related to my latest catscan, which I will be taking today.

I received a text to pre-register for my visit to the radiology office, and after I completed everything, I found that they were charging me four times as much for this particular catscan as for any other I have ever taken.

I quickly questioned this over the phone, but every operator I spoke to had no explanation, other than it was related to my deductible, and even though the price was high, it could actually be even higher if they went strictly by the deductible.

I called both the radiology center and my insurance company, and I all I got from them were non-explanations about why this time, the catscan price was four times as high as normal.

After about two hours of this, I was instructed to contact my doctor's office, and find out what code they put in for this particular catscan--was it a "chronic" code--which would lead to a lower, and normal for me, price, or the "catscan" code, which would lead to the higher price.

Just imagine what I went through when I contacted my doctor. They must have though I sounded like a real idiot about this--

And they, too, passed the buck, telling me that they were going to contact the radiology center where I was to get the catscan, and they would contact me about an explanation--

Which they did.

I spoke to the office administrator at the center, who offered me the real reason why I was being charged four times as much for this catscan as compared to any other I have recently had.

According to her, most radiology places charge patients an initial lower price for the catscan in person, but then a followup bill is sent to the person later on to account for the other money owed for the catscan.

So, according to her, those getting catscans generally pay twice for the procedure--once while at the office, and another time with a bill sent through the mail.

The difference this time is that this radiology center--which I have never been to--doesn't do that, preferring to collect all monies owed by the patient up front and right then and there.

No second bills, the bill is paid in full at the time of your visit.

Yes, they will accept partial payment at the time of visit, but you will have to eventually pay the remainder of what you owe at another time.

Thinking of my other recent catscans, I honestly don't remember getting a second bill for any of them, but maybe I have and didn't realize that it was for this reason.

I will have to check my check register ...

But funny, I don't remember a single catscan resulting in another bill.

Maybe it would come months later, months after the catscan, so perhaps I will be getting bills in the mail in the coming days or months, but let me tell you, I have yet to receive any of them--

And I don't ever remember getting a second bill for a catscan.

But so be it.

This is the way this place does it, so I am just going to have to live with it--

And pay for the bill down the line.

Health insurance has changed drastically over the years, with costs rising as more of us live to ripe old ages.

A high percentage of our money goes for health costs, and it is getting worse each and every year.

I guess that now, at age 68 with age 69 right around the corner, I am in that category, where personal health costs are spiraling out of control.

My advice to anyone is to get the best health plan that you can afford once you have to use Medicare, or keep your old plan once you retire if it is part of your benefits/retirement package.

You aren't going to get a very good plan out of Medicare, take it from me.

And as they take my money from me, I know that to be a fact.

Rant #3,908: Elected

Anarchy in New York City ...

Even though the Hamas groupie's mayoralty is just beginning, it is time to think about who should run against him, and his anti-Semitic ideology, when his term expires.
And I have the perfect candidate, one that would satisfy both Democrats and Republicans ... even though this person is a Democrat!

The candidate's name is Jessica Tisch, the current police commissioner.

She has a well-rounded background in city government, and she served under both Mayor Adams and the current mayor, the latter of whom was advised to rehire her as part of his administration because of her cross-party popularity.

If she ran, she would have the support of most of the major unions in New York City--less the teachers' union, which has become so left wing as to defy belief--and she is popular among the citizens of the city.

She would not have to run under the Democratic banner; leave that to her current boss, and she could run as an Independent.

I do believe that at this point in time, she might be the only person who could actually beat the current mayor.

And I believe that Democrats and Republicans alike would vote for her.

Tisch for Mayor!

Let me be the first one to suggest it ...

Although I realize that I am probably not the first person to think that she would be perfect for this job.

I know some of you are going to laugh and shake their heads at all of this, but let me remind you, sometimes I know what I am talking about.

Whether you are a fan of his or not, I was one of the first people to bring up the possibility that Donald Trump--then real estate baron and TV star, nothing more--might run for president of our country.

I said that way back in 2013 or 2014 or so ...

But I also said later on that after he lost to Joe Biden, he would never be elected President again.

Shows what I know.

However, I will stand by my choice of Tisch until the opposition to the current mayor comes up with a better candidate--

Which they won't.

They certainly didn't with Cuomo and Sliwa this time around, so do you expect anyone better?

Not me.

Rant #3,907: Waiting For An Alibi

As much as I don't want to talk about what is happening in the Middle East, I feel that I must say something.

What I am going to say is pretty short and to the point, but it is the way I feel about this.

Let me begin by saying that I back our country, and our President--the one that I did not vote for but someone I accept as our nation's commander in chief--1,000 percent in this war.

Iran was getting to powerful, too brazen in what it had in its stockpile, and was a threat to not only the Middle East, but to everyone worldwide.

Iranians the world over applauded what our country did--and what Israel did too--to try to make things right there, and sure, there were other Iranians who backed the-then current regime, but funny, most of them that I saw and heard spout their phony rhetoric actually lived outside of Iran.

Anyway, we and Israel went in there, obliterated much of the country, yet they still come at us.

These people are crazy. They don't care about dying, because they feel that they will be looked at as martyrs if they perish.

Their ways are not Western, their ideology is not anything that we can comprehend in the modern world.

So this war isn't going to take a week or two or three to finalize.

It might take not days, weeks, or months, but years.

We are dealing with a different enemy here, and they fight--and die--differently than we do.

Here is where I am going to make a statement that will rile some people, but I do believe others will support it--

And believe me, I hate to say what I have to say, but I have to do so.

Here goes--

The war against Iran ... It will only come to an end when other Arab countries, as well as our so-called allies worldwide--join Israel and the U.S. in this war, and when we at least attempt to negotiate a settlement off of the battlefield. 

The other Arab countries' reluctance to fully join us in this battle simply demonstrates that they would rather be attacked by Iran than side with those looking to make the Middle East a safe place. 

It also demonstrates that once an Arab, always an Arab, when it comes to Israel, and they cannot be trusted. 

Look at Qatar. They are supposed to be a moderate country, but they have Hamas officials living and working there. 

And people tend to forget, but Saudi Arabians perpetrated 9/11. 

Our allies ... they need to do something to assist us. They know that this initiative is a right one, but as the President said, there have been no response.

Sounds of silence often speak louder than words do.

That is the reality, and until everyone understands that, this isn't going to end so soon. 

I am sorry to say this, but it is true.

And if that doesn't sink in yet, it will ...

Believe me, it will, if it hasn't already done so.

Expect prices to go sky high on everything--

I foresee gas will go past $4 a gallon, maybe even higher than that.

Certain stations in California are selling gas at more than $8 a gallon ... already.

Expect to pay more for everything, groceries, and I mean, everything.

Thinking this way, is it worth fighting this war?

Yes, I think it is, but the President stating it will only last a few days or weeks ...

God, I hope he is right--

But I simply can't see it, at least at this point in time.

So get on your seat belts, I believe we are going to need them.

And I hope, really hope, that I am wrong in all of this.

But I don't see a united front in the Middle East, I don't see our allies joining the fight, and until and unless those supposedly moderate countries put their collective tails between their legs and admit that we--and primarily Israel--are on the right side here, this might be the most difficult war this country will ever fight.

And again, I really hope that I am wrong in everything I just said.

Until then, I support this war ... but I simply believe that in general, people are tiring of it, and it will become an unpopular exercise not because it isn't the right thing to do, but because it is hitting average Americans where it hurts the most--

And when your pocketbook hurts, very little else matters.

Rant #3,906: All By Myself

A lot of information has come out recently about New York City Mayor Mamdani's lovely wife, who has put up dozens of likes regarding the Oct. 7 massacre of Jews and now, has supplied artwork for an essay authored by someone who also glowed about this massacre, calling it "spectacular."

Funny, nary a word from anyone standing up to this hate, and the mayor, himself, backed his wife, who he said is a "private person."

Where is the news media covering this?

The same place that they are when it was discovered that the mayor was hosting a dinner where one of the invitees was the leader of the Columbia University anti-Jew, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protests last year.

Nowhere to be found.

Back to the Misses ...

Could you imagine, God forbid, if her direction was against people of color? People would be in such an uproar that her husband would be forced to resign his post as mayor.

And the media would be on top of this like a bee with honey.

But since it is against Jews, it is pretty much brushed aside as if it really doesn't matter.

Hate is wrong, period, and this woman shows no bounds.

And since she is New York City's "First Lady," her behavior is reprehensible ... but anyone with a brain--not too many people in New York City, obviously, including the imbecile Jews who voted for her husband--knew that this was going to happen when her husband was elected.

You get who you vote for, and city voters are among the most ignorant and quite frankly, most stupid voters on the planet. They would have voted for Hitler if he was on the Democratic ticket.

And Governor Hochul is no better, supporting this trash during his mayoral run and thus, his anti-Semitic behavior.

But again, you get who you vote for, but why are Jews treated on a different level than other minorities when it comes to hate?

Mamdani's lovely wife follows a pattern of New York City First Ladies who are kind of strange, to say the least.

Let's look at some of them.

Mayor Adams wasn't married when he held his office, but he had been married in the past. You might remember that when he was elected, there was some controversy that didn't last too long that he wasn't even in New York City most of the time prior to winning the mayor's race, and that he had been shacking up with some lady in New Jersey for quite a long time.

Mayor deBlasio was supposedly married to a self-proclaimed lesbian who he fathered two kids with. His wife got into government through him, and supposedly squandered millions of dollars in funds. Once he was out of Gracie Mansion, his wife dumped him.

Mayor Bloomberg had been married but wasn't during his time in office, and you might remember that when reporters asked him about his personal life, he told them that his life was his own, and not to bother him on the weekends, when he was supposedly out of the city and was breaking bread with some woman who was never identified.

Mayor Giuliani was married to Donna Hanover, a former TV reporter, but she accused him of infidelity and divorced him, and quite frankly, he has had several relationships with other women, and they have never spoken kindly about him.

Mayor Dinkins had the most stable of the marriages of any recent mayor, and he and his wife were together for more than 60 years.

Mayor Koch was never married, although he was linked to Bess Myerson, but many people said that this was simply a cover for his actual sexuality, which was not homosexual, but non-sexual ... that is what was said about him, if you want to believe it.

Mayors Beame, Lindsay and Wagner all had stable marriages--although Lindsay was linked to numerous other women during his mayoralty, including Florence Henderson of "The Brady Bunch"--and that is as far back as I can go.

So Mamdani's wife is simply following a recent line of New York City First Ladies who are kind of odd.

Maybe it is a prerequisite for the job ... I don't know ...

But the difference with Mamdani's wife is that her strangeness is fueled by blatant anti-Semitism--

And this is with her husband governing, and responsible for, the second largest Jewish population in the world, behind only Israel.

All of this nonsense has come out in only her husband's first three months of being mayor, so you just know that we will find out plenty more about the two Hamas groupies who live in Gracie Mansion in the months, and years, ahead.

Read this:

https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/columnist/387502/an-open-letter-to-first-lady-of-new-york-city/?fbclid=IwY2xjawQjp0xleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF2enJ2WHd2QXJmclU2RHdEc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHoowdz_BLJup3CaVFgcpVZU4SMrbYIMqu2nlZss4KNTjCl8mtK7wMzckGBXS_aem_L3hmeYS6_r4ZEXgMOd7vQQ

Rant #3,905: Hunters and Collectors

I don't mind serious talk here at the Blog, but I think it is time to lighten up as we end the work week.

Yes, I await the outcome of my medical tests, and yes, I have plenty more to come next week, but I don't want to harp on that any more than I already have.

I need to relax, too.

So today, as the work week ends, I just want to talk about something pretty innocuous, something that is a bit lighter than what I have been talking about lately.

I was born to collect things.

When I was a very little kid, I started to collect comic books, as I was an early reader--probably at three years old--and I needed something to read.

Comic books gave me exactly what I wanted, and for years, that was my main collecting source,

I loved mainly the DC universe of super heroes, such as Superman, Batman, and all the others, but I also liked the Marvel group too, in particular Daredevil, a blind super hero that I found quite intriguing, even at a young age.

I continued to collect comic books as I got older, but another collecting passion I had was sports cards, and primarily baseball cards.

I started to get into sports when we moved to Rochdale Village in Queens, New York, and while I was never a good athlete, I just loved to collect, trade, and yes, flip baseball cards.

I collected all different types of sports cards--basketball, football, you name it--and I also collected non-sports cards--TV shows, Beatles, all of them--but my main focus was baseball cards.

In high school, needing money for one thing or another, I very stupidly sold my sports card collection. I regret to this day doing it, because some of those cards would be worth plenty of money today, including a Babe Ruth card that I had.

So going into college, I was still collecting comic books.

From my very young years through high school, my mother, my sister and I had a pretty sizable record collection.

We all listened to the records on our old HiFi, but I really didn't think it was MY collection and MY collection alone.

It really was the family's collection, with my mother buying my sister and my first records, going back to the Chipmunks and moving through the Beatles, the Monkees and Broadway cast albums, the latter of which my mother loved.

My sister kind of took over the collection in the late 1960s and early 1970s, what with David Cassidy and the Partridge Family being her focus, and while I still listened to our records, I kind of moved off record collecting for several years.

When I got to college, I was still collecting comic books, but the people I knew there were diehard music fans, and I kind of eased my way back into collecting records on my own.

I remember that sometime during freshmen year, I decided between the two collections, because I was spending so much money and time on both that it was stretching my time and my finances.

I went with record collecting, and I have never turned back.

When my sister got married, she pretty much left all her records to me, and couple that with my mother's collection, and what I already had, it was a pretty sizable stash, and I have built upon it for the past 50 years or so.

My comic books, although still near and dear to me, kind of collected dust in a closet, a reminder of my childhood, until I sold them off in three batches, the last batch when we moved out of our house to an apartment just three or so years ago.

The first two batches I sold to investors, to be honest with you, but I sold the last portion to a real collector, someone who I felt would enjoy the comic books for what they are, and not investments as the others had.

So that left me with my records as my main hobby.

I still have a few comic books and some non-sports cards here with me, but generally, record collecting is my one and only collecting direction now.

My mother used to say I was a hoarder, but an organized hoarder, and I had to disagree--the first time I ever talked back to my mother, I must have been about four or five years old.

I found my comics in the garbage pail, and I told my mother to never, ever, throw out my comic books again.

And I had those comics that were slated for the garbage to the day I sold the entire collection.

Collecting is not hoarding.

It is putting together things that you enjoy into a sustainable, growing collection of things, whether it is bubble gum cards or matchbooks or thimbles.

My interest is in 45s and LPs, and to a lesser extent, cassettes and CDs.

Streaming is not collecting, because it is nothing tangible; an electronic file is just that, not something that you can hold in your hand and have as a work of art, both audio and visually.

I love vinyl records, and especially those 45 RPM singles, which is a work of art in its own right apart from 33 1/3 RPM LPs.

I haven't dismissed the entire sound file generation we are in now; I digitize my records so I can listen to my collection in my car.

But the satisfaction I get from my collection is beyond belief, and even in times of turmoil, they are my go-to relaxation generator.

So as the weekdays for this week end today--on Friday the 13th--I just wanted to end it on a very light note.

If you are a collector of anything, I am sure you will fully get what I am saying, even if you aren't a collector of anything that I mentioned here.

It is a fun hobby, something that makes me happy even during my darkest periods, of which I have had many lately related to my health.

So whatever you collect, whatever is your hobby, keep going!

It doesn't hurt anyone, and it makes you happy even in times of gloom.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday--

Happy, doom, or gloom.

Rant #3,904: You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

I had my dermatologist appointment yesterday morning, and yes, I did have one growth removed--right near the cancer I had previously removed--so it wasn't a pain-free visit, if you know what I mean.

It really scared me because it is right near the other area on my scalp, but the doctor said it is not necessarily linked with the cancer I had taken off the top of my head, so that made me feel a bit better.

He took this new growth off of me, and I have to put ointment on the spot for the next week or so, so it can heal.

Hopefully, that is the end of it, but I thought the same thing when they took the other growth off of me, and look what happened with that!

So where I stand health-wise is that I am awaiting the results of my catscan and this latest lesion removal, and waiting with baited breath.

I just want the peace of mind to know that I am healthy--

And the detached retina problem I have is at least manageable, at least for now.

Other health concerns have nothing to do with my health, per se, but about how my health is being handled by an outside provider.

The dental aspect of my health is being taken care of by an outside provider from my Medicare insurance, as is my son's dental care.

We chose an outside provider because I wanted to have the best dental care possible--my family has a bad history with our teeth, and it continues with my son--and the Medicare plan we had simply did not cut it, so to speak.

Anyway, we have been with this outside plan for several years, and it does provide exactly what I signed up for.

The problem is the monthly bill.

I know that most plans like this--and most entities that require a monthly bill--have moved over to paying electronically through the Internet, but I guess I am old fashioned, and I prefer to pay as many of my bills as I possibly can through the mail--

Yes, writing an old fashioned check and sending it through the old fashioned U.S. Mail.

Companies do not like this, as doing it electronically, they get their payments immediately.

Well, the dental company we use clearly doesn't like it either, and I told them when we signed up with them that we want to pay by check and through the U.S. Mail.

What has happened is that, pretty consistently, we get two or three bills through the mail, I pay them immediately, and that is that--

But then the next bill never comes, and I get contacted through my email to pay online.

I call up the company, try to be nice about it, they say they will look into it, they look into it, fix it, and the same cycle begins again ...

We get two or three bills through the mail, I pay them immediately, and that is that--

But then the next bill never comes, and I get contacted through my email to pay online.

This has been going on for years, and yes, it just happened again.

I called twice on Tuesday about this continuing situation--

The first time, the operator pretty much refused to do anything about it, the second time, the operator sent me over to the grievance department, and the same thing happened again, meaning they would look into it, eventually fix it, and then--

The next bill never comes, and I get contacted through my email to pay online.

What this does is make my bill paying late on this site, which does impact your credit score.

I have told them this, and they say there is nothing they can do about it.

I tell them that the solution is an easy one; cancel our plans, and then set up new plans with new ID numbers and basically start from scratch, but they refuse to do this.

On Tuesday, the woman I spoke to told me--and remember, this is an employee of the company that I am having the problem with--that I should call the New York State Insurance Department and tell them that I am being "forced" to pay my bill electronically, and see what they have to say about it.

Her telling me this simply tells me that I am not the only one having this problem, and I am currently weighing my options about whether to do this or not.

Look, we all have the right to pay bills the way we want to pay them, and not have that dictated by the companies that serve us.

If you want to pay electronically ... if you want to pay by snail mail ... if you literally want to go to the office and pay in person right then and there each month ... that is your right to choose how you will do it, and the company you are paying doesn't have a say in that decision.

I pay my largest bill of the month--my car bill--by writing a check and sending it to the lender via U.S. Mail.

That is how I choose to pay them, and I have never had a problem paying for my car(s) this way.

Why should this dental company give me all of this grief?

Obviously, there is a quirk in this system which they refuse to address, since most people probably pay their bill to them electronically.

I don't, and I don't think others do, and you cannot force people to pay their bills electronically.

Period.

Let's see what happens this time, but I know exactly what is gong to happen--

We get two or three bills through the mail, I pay them immediately, and that is that--

But then the next bill never comes, and I get contacted through my email to pay online.

Sounds like a broken record, doesn't it?

Rant #3,903: The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

I had my latest catscan on Tuesday.

This one was a little different than what I had had previously.

Usually, you go in, they put you into the machine--

And 1, 2, 3, it is done and over with.

This time, I had to fast for a few hours, and later when I was there, I had to be injected with yellow dye to provide better contrast for what they are trying to see.

This procedure took a bit longer, maybe 10 or 15 minutes while I was in the machine for four separate readings.

Once the dye was injected into me, they said I might feel a slight sensation of heat, and even feel like I had to go to the bathroom, but I got through it, and got dressed and drove home.

About a minute or two from home, I felt that I needed a bathroom, not in an emergency, but I just needed one, and I parked the car, went upstairs, and yes, just let's say that I needed to go.

I just hope they were able to see what they were looking for--I needed this done for the urologist--and that I can move on from this--

Where today, as you are reading this, I am in the dermatologist's office, ready to be seen about that cancer that I had removed from my scalp.

The doctor will look at that--it appears to have healed, but is still quite sensitive, as I found out when I got a haircut the other day--and he will look at other areas that need to be removed too.

Not necessarily cancer, but other skin abnormalities that I might have.

Just about every one of them simply needs to be removed, and are not cancerous, but I really don't mind him tending to this, because the last time, he found something pretty bad--

And it was taken care of.

I have learned over time that even if you do everything healthy, you have absolutely no idea what is happening in your body to upset your system.

You need to get everything checked out to make sure you are running at full capacity.

I know that I am not at that level just yet, but I can get closer by being checked out and given a clean bill of health, and hopefully these things that I have had to do the past two days will show that loud and clear.

If not, then I have to make sure they are taken care of.

If you do not have your health, you have nothing.

It cuts across all of us.

What is the sense of having so much money that you can't enjoy it as a healthy person?

I want to be healthy, so let's see what these tests bring to the fore.

So let me cut this Rant a little short, because as you are reading this, in real time, I am sitting in the dermatologist's office, waiting to be looked at.

I am also waiting for the report about my catscan.

I am nervous about the two of them.

Wish me luck.