Dad Writings » Rants

Health Insurance – A Love-Hate Relationship

George — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:10:20 +0000

Health insurance.

Some love it. Some hate it. Most love AND hate it. There are some that even say it is a love-hate relationship. I have one of these relationships; for me, marriage is much easier!

The Need for Insurance

You get sick; you go to your doctor or your local hospital for treatment. You may have some tests done or told to get some medicine.

Now, how are you going to pay for it? You didn’t think it was free, did you? Of course not! This is where insurance comes into play. This is what you pay your insurance premiums for. There are some that can’t get health insurance. There is a big battle on this in Washington now; I will save that for another post.

When you have insurance, you usually pay the small co-pay and the insurance will get billed for the rest. For the rest, you will have to pay out of your own pocket. Usually, everything runs smooth and the bill will get paid but this is not always the case.

What about specialized treatment? Medical expenses can run from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Insurance does not cover all treatments; such as specialized therapies. There is that love-hate relationship again!

My Relationship with Insurance

As I wrote in a previous post, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Review, I went into detail of my experience with this treatment and how it has helped my daughter. In that post, I mentioned the cost of the treatment is high and not usually covered by insurance.

What is the reason it is not covered by insurance? There are many things listed, such as: “there is not enough data to support this works”.

Bull!!

Through my experience talking with other parents, other medical professionals and finding a massive amount of data supporting positive results, I would say there is proof!

Don’t they say, “the proof is in the pudding?” Well, I got plenty of pudding and I will be sending it to my insurance company. We have statements from doctors, before and after videos of her progress and more; the data from the video alone is indisputable. How can you not see how this treatment has helped, not only my child, but also many other children with special needs conditions as well?

Yes, at times, insurance is good. Then there are those times you want to take a Nerf bat to their head and say “Listen to me! Why aren’t you listening to me? Is this what I pay my premium for?” This is MY love-hate relationship.

Photo credit husin.sani

I Don’t Remember Toys Like Those When I Was Growing Up

George — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:58:21 +0000

I grew up playing with toys like G.I. Joe, He-Man and Star Wars; I actually have a few of them in my closet. In those days, you were lucky to get the kung-fu grip on your action figures. Today, we have toys that can make a pre-school aged child into a fully functional bringer of hell itself. I don’t remember toys like those when I was growing up!

Now I have two girls, so I don’t get to go down the toy isles that prepare children for the end of the world; however, from time to time my oldest will want something that is far beyond anything I could imagine at 5 years old. At 5 years and 4 years, I would think toys for their age group would be somewhat conservative. Yes, there are some of those but I have seen toys for girls that, to me anyways, are preparing them to go out for a night out at the club. Baby dolls I can handle; black lipstick and accessories are a bit too much for this Dad!

Just like the days of TV and movies, I remember the days of toys that could help you take over the world. I also remember getting into a toy package was not like trying to get into Fort Knox. As a Dad, I sometimes wonder what the toy makers are doing when they think up ideas for new toys.

Do they really need a college degree or even a high school diploma to get their job?

I don’t know why but I sometimes think of some toy makers are like Pinky and the Brain.

Pinky – “What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?”

Brain – “The same thing we do every night Pinky; try to take over the world!”

What do you think? Have toys nowadays gone too far?

I would love to hear your opinion as well.

When Did Toy Packaging Turn into Fort Knox?

George — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:00:47 +0000

Being a parent to small children requires certain qualities. One quality I never thought I would need as a parent would be that of a safe cracker. When did toy packing begin to resemble Fort Knox?

Now when I was growing up, I had many toys in my toy box. GI Joe, He-Man, Star Wars and more filled my room and around the house on occasion. I would play with my toys and invite friends over to share the toys.

I would usually get one of my parents to open a new toy out of the box for me. There were even times that I remember, I would open the packaging myself. That way I would get to the toy at kid speed. I don’t remember the packaging on any of my toys requiring something sharp or even tools to extract the toys inside.

I do have to say that the toys of today are far more sophisticated then what I grew up with. Some of the toys today can do things I only dreamed of when I was growing up. Now, with the new advanced toys of today, do they also require much bigger and harder packaging to open them?

No matter the time or occasion, whether it is for a birthday, special occasion or Christmas time, there are so many toys that have be opened and put together. I know as a parent, it is one of our duties to open, assemble and configure these toys for our children. Now that you have to be a safe cracker to open toys, the task takes that much longer; not to mention the frustration level of some of these toys and what you have to do to open them. I wonder how much it costs a toy company to put all this packaging to protect one toy.

Now I bet I am not the only one that feels this way. I am sure there are many parents out there that can attest to the same frustrations I have. However, I wonder about the toy factory workers. If it takes the amount of time and effort to remove the protection on the toy packaging, what does it take to actually put it all together at the toy factory? I can’t even imagine what it takes for a toy factory worker to assemble all that packaging for just one toy. I would think it would compare to the assembling of the security at Fort Knox.

I don’t know who the person was that came up with these complicated security measures for protecting Barbie and her friends. I do know one thing; I would love to meet the person who came up with the idea of the packaging for today’s toys.

I even wonder if that person had children of their own.