New Year and New Decisions

Oh joy, it's another new year and it's time to do all the lovely things we all need to do all over again, only this time there aren't as many companies to do them with. Before the Christmas break at work we all had to sit down and go over our health insurance coverage to make sure we know what we're paying for and what we will be paying for now that we didn't before. Good times! We were told that our rates would not be changing this year! Great! Wait! Remember the old adage that you follow the honey with the vinegar? The vinegar here is that we now have to pay for more at the providers than we ever used to pay and that the insurance would be paying less. An example that effects me personally. A Colonoscopy, a visual inspection of the colon with a scope to check for potential cancer done with a mild general anesthetic. A diagnostic exam right? Wrong, it is now considered a procedure, not a diagnostic exam, because an anesthetic, that is not a local anesthetic, would be used. My out of pocket cost just jumped into the thousands, but my premiums didn't go up! The stock market. How's that for a segue? The market is over 10,000 and it's probably a good time to think about releasing some of the protected retirement money back into some good investments since the protected accounts make almost no interest. I need to get some insurance quotes for the car because my auto insurance company is making sounds like they may pulling out in the near future. Joy. What's next? The bathroom paper companies will start using recycled sand paper for us to use in the bathroom? May as well! If you don't laugh you'll go crazy and you can't do that because it's no longer covered!