Monthly Archives: February 2018

Insurance

Daily Life

I had my annual physical a couple of weeks ago.

Generally good health, except for weight.  All my labs were normal.

And today I received the bill.

Zero dollars for me to pay, thanks to a Cadillac insurance policy through my employer.

The total for the whole whiz-bang (office visit plus all lab work and a flu vaccine) came to a whopping $985.  Insurance pre-negotiated much of that down.  My office visit charge (Established Patient, Physical) was $285, of which insurance paid the clinic $111.16 for the brief time I spent with the nurse, and the 20 minutes with the doctor, plus all overhead.

One lab charge was $275, negotiated down to $27 to run by CBC.

Thoughts:

  • this is a racket.
  • how does anyone without insurance afford this kind of preventative care at all?

Billy Graham

Daily Life

Many words will be published this week about Billy Graham, who died Wednesday morning.

I shall simply say that he was riveting as an evangelist.

Sometime in the 1970s, Billy Graham brought a week-long crusade to Kansas City. I sang for a night or two in the choir at the meetings at Kemper Arena, and attended his final Sunday evening crusade meeting at Royals Stadium.

He was a model of integrity and probity in a field often filled with conniving con-men.

And his message of love and forgiveness is the true message of the Gospel.