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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 20th, 2023

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  • I called the insurance company about the bullshit “out of network ambulance” and they said they would “negotiate on our behalf”, apparently. In the end we paid about $2200 for the ambulance if I remember right.

    Everything else we paid sticker price. Fortunately I had some money in an HSA from a previous job so that helped.

    (For people reading this who live in more civilized countries: an HSA is a special type of account where you can put money and not pay taxes on it, with the caveat that it can only be used for health expenses. It’s similar to the much more common FSA, but with an FSA the account balance is reset to zero at the end of the year (not sure if the money goes to the government or the brokerage or what). This has led to a new absurd “FSA store” industry, where places sell only FSA-eligible items at a very high markup, with the idea being come December you’d rather buy their overpriced shit than just lose all the money outright. An HSA does not suffer from this nonsense (you keep the money indefinitely, because it’s your money), but it seems like it’s becoming more rare for an HSA to be offered on employer plans.)


  • I have (what I believe) is considered “very good” insurance. I pay $100 a month for premiums.

    When my child was born, there were some complications and we needed to move to another hospital for emergency surgery.

    The birth: ~$2500 deductible/copay/whatever you want to call it. I think this is all I would’ve had to pay if there weren’t more complications.

    Surgery and aftercare for baby: ~$5600

    Care for momma: ~$2000

    But here’s a crazy twist. When moving hospitals, we rode in an ambulance. But this was an “out of network ambulance”. What the hell is even that? Under what circumstances do you have a say in which ambulance you ride?

    Out of network ambulance ride: $4500

    Basically it’s all just bullshit.



  • I haven’t watched the Olympics in a long time but I thought the experience was kinda shit, especially compared to ye olden days of it being on every channel. My experience was basically:

    My wife: What’s the difference between “Women’s all around final” and “women’s all around final (TV)”?

    Me: googling I think we want the “TV” one?

    30 second ad

    20 seconds of a commentator talking over a view of Paris

    2 minutes of ads

    15 minutes of the camera just looking at an empty apparatus while there’s clearly other stuff going on in the background

    2 minutes ads

    30 seconds commentators discussing the event

    2 minutes ads

    Ok they actually fucking start, finally

    Someone does something, 2 second MICRO AD??? This is a thing now apparently? Randomly throughout there’s these insanely short ads that are super jarring

    Zoom in on Simone Biles face

    Watch someone do a warmup on vault

    Simone itches her nose

    We can clearly hear other competitors doing things in the background, but Simone is looking to the right, so let’s focus on that

    2 minutes ads

    Watch a competitor do uneven bars, neat

    Back to Simone, she’s talking to Suni now, we can’t hear it, but it must be important

    Literally can see people doing flips and shit in the background, but let’s watch Simone as she sits in this chair

    2 minutes ads

    BREAKING NEWS: Simone blinks

    “What did that other girl get for a score? Did they show it?”

    Attempt to rewind 30 seconds. Big mistake, 2 minutes ads

    Simone does a vault

    2 minutes ads

    Like I love Simone Biles, I do. Obviously I want to see all of her events. But holy shit, I’m here to watch the Olympics, not the “Simone is waiting for her turn” show. Also it was like 90% ads, they didn’t even show some of the highest scoring performances (since they only showed like 3 other people besides Simone), and half the time didn’t even show the scores they received. It was just…pretty bleh.