Listening to Randi right now

[laruemtt]

talking about our new health insurance savings accounts, just wanted to share with you guys my experience here in st. lucia. you know in the u.s. if you even walk in an emergency room, you're looking at at least a $1,000 bill. well, i cut my finger pretty badly washing a glass and had to go to the emergency room here. the doctor's visit, tetanus shot, six stitches, and followup visit in a week to remove the stitches cost $15!!!!!! that's right - no insurance, 15 u.s. dollars. granted, it wasn't a fancy bells and whistles hospital but it was clean and the personnel were knowledgeable. things are SO screwed in the u.s..........................

[gratuitous]

1. Listening now

Just giggle when this oil-soaked administration talks about alternative energy sources. Bush talking about cutting oil dependence is like Paris Hilton talking about abstinence!

[FreedomAngel82]

3. LOL

And abstience from shopping too. LOL.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. It's really sad

When my grandfather was going through cancer I was visiting him once at this hospice like place he was staying at and he got his bill that my grandmother brought to him and with health insurance that particular bill was $1,000 for a doctor visit for everything. Imagine what it would be without health insurance.

[MuseRider]

4. You live on St. Lucia?

What a beautiful place to live. Just wanted to tell you. Ahh, the Pitons.

[laruemtt]

5. MuseRider, you know st. lucia?

did you live here? we live in wv but are here for 16 months to two years for dh's school. here are some pix for ya of the pitons:

the magnificent pitons!


the chronically worried about school dh:


me at ladera - do you know it?


about a 10-minute walk from home!

[MuseRider]

6. Ohhh my, so beautiful!

I was there only once for about a week. We had been in St. Vincent and diving through the Grenadines. Then over to St. Vincent. We stayed at a place on the southern end, Vieux Fort, I think and went diving from the Anse Chastenet (hope I spelled it right) right between the Pitons. Some of the clearest water I have ever been diving in.

We started off with a rented car to travel from the south into the center and were warned about the roads. We had 4 flat tires before we got anywhere near the center so we limped back. We made it to Castries for our flight out by renting a taxi that would stop at places so we could get to know something about the island.

I really don't know it well but I loved it. Just a beautiful place. It was one island where I really had little chance to get to know the people unfortunately because that is the best part about traveling there. I love the life style of most of the island people.

It is one place I would absolutely love to go back to but it takes so long to get there anymore that we probably won't. I am glad we got to go there once, we were trying to get to Grenada but no one would take us there, it was only a few months before Reagan bombed them.

Love the pictures, I am bookmarking so I can look at them again. Thank you so much. Enjoy it.

Edit no I don't know ladera tell me more

[laruemtt]

10. we are staying in vieux fort! small world, huh!

on clear days we can see st. vincent easily on the horizon. haven't been there yet though.

oh my gosh, FOUR flat tires? i'm not surprised - the roads are horrible.

ladera is a resort at the pitons - no, we haven't stayed there (yet!) but they have three-walled rooms with the fourth "wall" left open to the pitons! i think when he graduates i'll give us a stay there. you're right about the water, but i haven't gone diving. i bet it was heaven! am planning on getting on one of those glass-bottomed boats sometime soon though.

the people here are great. they will be the hardest thing to leave. so now you know a du'er here so if you can make it down sometime, pm me! we'll be here at least through the end of the year.

[MuseRider]

13. I loved St. Vincent

my oldest son was conceived there!

Ladera sounds wonderful. The Anse was lovely and I have always wanted to go back and stay there but it is very pricey.

Watch those boat tours! We took a small boat from Vieux Fort to the Anse for diving and the others who were not driving sat on the beach and ate and drank for about 4 hours. Small boat, fair sized waves, drunk and full tourists....I was glad I had my diving gear on. It got really funky in that little boat.

If we get the chance I will let you know. How lovely. You have no idea how jealous I am living here in Kansas!

[laruemtt]

14. ah, you have no idea how often

i get homesick. there IS no place like home, after all. that's why we've got to protect "home" - the usa, and not let them destroy it..

[MuseRider]

15. Maybe we could switch?

I understand. My husband has been ready to move out of the country since 2001 (it took a while for him to figure out that Bush** was as bad as I thought he was) and I won't go. We have to protect it.

Still, leave St. Lucia? Man, that would be very hard IMO.

It is independent isn't it or is it still a French protectorate? Never mind, I just looked it up. I had forgotten it was British for a while too. Now independent since 1979, I was there in 1983.

[laruemtt]

17. yeah, it's independent.

heavy french overlay. i still can't understand the french patois, which makes communication interesting to say the least! it will be hard to leave. i keep thinking if things keep going downhill in the u.s. and there's nothing to go back to, well, we're here so - well, we'll see. i still miss my wv mountains (and i'm a transplant!) and the seasons. best bet is we'll all have lots of good places to choose from and won't be run out of anyplace because of intolerable living conditions!

[MuseRider]

18. You went from

almost Heaven to Heaven. Choices choices choices! Smart lady.

[laruemtt]

19. hey, that's pretty good!

never thought of it that way before! interesting............

[Huckebein the Raven]

7. John Perkins ( Confessions of an Economic Hitman ) on now

[helderheid]

8. Does look a bit like Gere

http://www.economichitman.com/pix/Perkins,John.jpg

[MissB]

9. Compare that to me cutting my thumb

I nicked a tendon but not enough to require repair of the tendon. The emergency room visit was $600. For three stitches - by a nurse practitioner. She did an excellent job - but $600? No x-rays or anything - just rinsed out the wound, snipped some jagged edges off and put three stitches in.

I have insurance, so I only had to pay $50. :woohoo: :sarcasm:

[laruemtt]

11. but i bet it was a really pretty

emergency room, huh :sarcasm:

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

12. I had to turn Randi off when she started on this

For the first time ever, she ticked me off. She was totally misrepresenting how HSA's work - saying you have to save up $100,000 in your HSA to have your back surgery and physical therapy.

You do have insurance when you have an HSA. Its a high deductible policy, but it does cover preventive care in full. The $ you put in the HSA is supposed to cover the deductible and and the 20% you pay (in an 80/20 plan) when you get sick. I haven't looked at the rules for a few months, but IIRC the deductible has to be at least $1000. The insurance portion of it is like the old indemnity plans many of you may remember from the pre-HMO days. You pay the first $1000, then the insurer pays 80%

If you are lucky enough to have good health, the money you put in the HSA stays there and can be used for retirement, COBRA premiums and a few other items

Now, I'm not saying this sort of coverage is the solution to our health care problem in this country. But how will people be able to evaluate any proposals and decide if they are a good idea, when they are being given misinformation ?

I am by no means a fan of the * administration but this is one thing they did that can make sense for some people. If you are self employed and are paying $15,000 a year for medical insurance, it may make sense to instead buy a qualifying policy for $10,000 a year and put your $5000 in an HSA. At the end of the year, you may still have some of that $5000. If you pay $15,000 for insurance premiums, all you have at year end is the cancelled checks ( and a tax deduction - which you would still have with the HSA plan)

[FlaGranny]

16. Or - you could get a catastrophic illness . . . . .

and owe hundreds of thousands and STILL have that 10 thousand a year policy to pay. This is "insurance" for people who won't get sick - ever.

Policies have limits, too. 20 percent of 1 million is 200,000 out of pocket, not counting other limits.

The health savings accounts are not bad, but they were never, ever meant to cover real illness - the kind that can cost you 5 or 10 thousand a month and up. That's what Randi was talking about. My son has an HSA and it works well, but his family uses up every cent of it he is able to put away, just with normal checkups and normal illnesses. Thus, there is never anything left over. He has company paid insurance, but if he had to pay $1000 a month for a policy, out of pocket, there would be no money available to go into the HSA.

This is NOT good.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

20. Are you sure he has an HSA ?

And not an FSA???

With an HSA, he should not be paying for normal checkups.

Its easy to get these acronyms mixed up. FSA - HSA - HRA - IRA - they're all different creatures

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. Off Topic, But God Bless Ya For Bein In St. Lucia. I Want To Go There So

badly. It seems amazingly beautiful.