Health care making no sense, as usual

Today I woke up pretty early and leaped on my laundry pile and my snail-mail pile.

In the snail-mail pile was an "explanation of benefits" from my health insurance people... apparently the hospital charged $1718.00 for "supplies" for services rendered on July 24. What the hell? Thanks to LJ, I know that's the day I had a scope stuck up my nose. A tongue depressor was also involved. I was in and out of that office in half an hour... the only plausible explanation for this bill is that they threw away the entire scope after seeing me, along with the attached optical stuff and the doctor's glasses. Then there's the $400 "miscellaneous" from the same day.

The numbers on the form, which don't add up at all, somehow have me paying only 14.70 out of pocket. It's so easy to let "the system" pay exorbitant fees. I think I'm coming around to the notion that, maybe with the two exceptions of baseline medical care and unexpected catastrophes, small-scale health expenses should just be paid by individuals, so that we can have some freaking price-based competition here.

Health care and health care insurance aren't the same thing at all.

Note: I admit to being influenced by last month's Atlantic article on this topic.

It followed me home; please help me give it a name.

I can't say I'm too surprised... today I walked to that Dutch bicycle store I just posted about, and I talked a bit with a nice man and some other customers, and then I rode home.

My bike is heavy and long. It lets me ride sitting up, with all my weight where it is accustomed to being.

My bike has three gears and five neutral colors: black and brown and white and tan and gray. It has a giant mudflap on the front tire to protect me from ick, and a fully enclosed chain to protect me from chain-nom, and on the back tire there's a skirt guard so that I can ride wearing long flowing skirts if I so choose. (And since I can, maybe I will so choose! Who's to say?)

It is a Dutch grandma-bike with lots of small touches that scream Quality. The basic model has been in continous production since 1880. It is so intensely Euro-frumpy that it goes out clear out the other side of frump, causes a frump-overflow exception and becomes, in my opinion, awesome.



Here it is with its kickstand up, siting stably and waiting to be loaded with groceries from the neighborhood market:



Here's a good article about this exact bike.

To all the Bike People who had reasons I should not get this kind of thing, I can only say that I never wanted a biker's bike. I wanted a bike that would get me around town, pleasantly, both now and twenty years from now. Your words made me agonize, but in the end soong was right: I obviously didn't want the kind of bike that I didn't want, so it was basically one of these or nothing.

And, silentq, I did get a helmet. :-) A skateboard helmet, because it seemed much more old-school. I couldn't see wearing a bright, newfangled aerodynamic helmet with my frump-overflow bike, and I thought this was rather WWII fighter ace:



So, now it just needs a name. I was thinking of Rainbow or Neon because of its plethora of neutral, forgettable, bike-colored colors, but I'm open to suggestions.

One-word answer meme

from a_kosmos, for no good reason:

Where is your cell phone........... purse
Your hair.............................damp
Your father.......................... Alaska
Your mother.......................... obscure
Your favorite thing.................. walkovers
Your dream last night............... school
Your favorite drink.................. mocha
Your dream/goal................... happiness
The room you are in............... pragmatic
Your fear........................... spiderwebs
Where do you want to be in 6 years.... Boston
Muffins............................... morning glory
One of your wish list items........ kindle
Where you grew up............... trapped
The last thing you did.............. blog
What are you wearing............ cotton
Your TV............................. nonexistent
Your pets............................ feline
Your computer.................... noisy
Your life........................... zounds!
Your mood.......................... fuzzy
Missing someone.................. no
Your car............................ feet
Favorite store..................... bookstore
Your summer...................... freckle-fighting
Your favorite color................ stormy
When is the last time you laughed... marijuana
Last time you were sad................ work
Three people who email me...... bug, Stencil, dad
Three of my favorite foods........ cheese, Triscuits, Naked
Three places I would rather be right now... under blankets. beside kitty. on pillow.