By: Revanche

Just a little (link) love: post-Halloween edition

November 5, 2015

LinkLive

CAREER + MONEY THINGS

Please send good vibes to Stacking Pennies!

I speak my mind in meetings, I simply don’t do meeting speak, but the only reason I haven’t been more heavily penalized in my leadership positions (but I have in lower level roles) is because I have had a couple of rare bosses who respect me and my knowledge. I hope that our next generation doesn’t have to face as many cultural barriers to being heard.

Interesting view (and math) on California’s Paid Family Leave.

In your face, Martin Shkreli. I was really hoping that someone would do this and cut his legs out from under him. I also hope that the alternate formulation is as effective, or more effective than Daraprim.

Just in time for Open Enrollment: errors in choosing health plans. Calling it illiteracy is harsh though, when you consider how we’re presented with the choices. I’m not illiterate in the ways of money but every time I compare plans, at least half the variables I need to calculate it properly aren’t given. Ex: a PPO will pay for 90% of the cost of 30 services. I don’t know what the original OR the negotiated cost of those services are! Explain to me how I’m meant to compare my 10% share of the unknown cost against the $10 or $20 per visit copay of an HMO plan and come up a better or worse scenario?

FUN THINGS

OK I admit to some phone addiction. But I make it a point not to pull it out when we’re in a social setting.

INTERESTING THINGS

Stop sexualizing kids, people. It’s disgusting.

Self-confidence vs self-esteem

How do you friendship?

My Favorite Costume

We failed to really do anything for Halloween (by which I mean, we deliberately decided we weren’t going to do anything) so I admired the costumes posted on Twitter instead.

10 Responses to “Just a little (link) love: post-Halloween edition”

  1. Leigh says:

    I’ve always used past year’s data to compare costs or the tools provided by my health plan. There are fewer plans to choose from at my current employer, which definitely makes it an easier decision. At my previous employer, there were a couple of plans where it was a toss up, which I found really frustrating.
    Leigh recently posted…Saving 60+% of my income is discretionaryMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      Do you ever compare PPO vs HMO? My lack of information lays in not having data for the PPO side as I’ve always used an HMO. I can easily draw on previous years’ data for actual probable needs, but I can’t assign a value to say, 90% of {an office visit/vaccines/surgery}. I guess that’s the nice thing with the HMO – so far all we’ve had to pay is the copay for all our needs. Whether we’re getting the best possible care is debatable but I expect finding the best doctors to treat my pain may be a bigger slog than I’m ready for.

      • Leigh says:

        I have compared PPO vs HMO! I used a HMO the first year out of college and then have used a PPO ever since. The HMO just never made sense no matter what math I threw at it.

        Do you get “Explanation of Benefits” statements from your health insurance provider? Even when I had an HMO, I still could get those statements and see how much the actual cost of the provider visit was. What I found in my case was that the deductible on the PPO equaled the premium difference between the PPO and the HMO and then after the deductible, the coinsurance was almost always cheaper. For example, the copay to see my primary care doctor was $30, but a normal doctor’s visit was almost always < $150 at the time (now it's more like $225), but 10% of that is still cheaper than $30. Or a specialist co-pay was $45 and most specialists I see don't cost $450 per visit! Also, with the PPO I was looking at, prescriptions counted towards the deductible and the HMO had no deductible, which made the PPO really good value when I had expensive prescriptions.

        I would look for the "Explanation of Benefits" statements. They should help you out.
        Leigh recently posted…Saving 60+% of my income is discretionaryMy Profile

        • Revanche says:

          I will have to hunt that down to see if it says, I always assumed that the costs within the HMO network would be different from that of the PPO network which is a completely different company.

          It makes a big difference that our HMO copays are really cheap: $10 for exams (and I have hardly ever paid that fee), $20 for specialists (and it’s not hard at all to get a referral to one), $10 (or less if it’s cheaper) for generic medication. Though I think the medication cost may be going up. Analysis coming up this weekend! šŸ™‚

  2. OMG y’all.. they’re 2 years old. TWO.

    I am .. really not feeling this weirdness. I find this seems to happen a lot in Middle America.. correct me if I’m wrong.

    I never would have imagined / said that with TWO YEAR OLDS.
    sherry @ save. spend. splurge. recently posted…6 Favourite Makeup ProductsMy Profile

    • Revanche says:

      You know, I assumed it was an American thing too. I don’t know that I’ve heard anyone else saying things like that.

  3. SP says:

    Thanks for the link!

    Although we just found out today that we basically failed, it was essentially predetermined many months ago. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted, and the slow death gave me time to come up with a backup plan…
    SP recently posted…A few Tuesday links and thoughtsMy Profile

  4. SherryH says:

    Thanks for the link! I’ve been pondering this even more in light of “Removed”. I’ve never been really good about staying connected with family and friends, and digital connections are giving me ever more tools to do so. Is it at the expense of the family and friends who are physically present? Hard to say!

    Definitely not looking forward to trying to figure out insurance this year…

    We didn’t do anything for Halloween. Didn’t even hit the post-Halloween sales for good deals on candy. Does this mean we’re getting old? At least I didn’t chase any kids off our lawn, grumbling, “When I was your age…” ;>
    SherryH recently posted…Disconnected?My Profile

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