A Minor Victory Over The Forces Of Medical Cost Exploitation!

I suspect I am part of a rather large group that believes the United States medical system is completely screwed up and works primarily to enrich a small number of corporations that control the vast majority of medical care delivery (Hypocrisy check - I bet I have quite a few of these 'evil' companies in my investment portfolios 😬). As an advanced aged person in our country, you are required to be part of the system called Medicare. And as part of that system, the drug coverage providers seem to be the most insidious. Maybe that is mostly perception because you have to deal with it on a regular basis.

You see if you are getting older, you are HIGHLY LIKELY to be having more and more medications. Managing the cost of these is important. Each year, you can change your provider. You have a 90 day window to shop the plans and decide which one you want for that year. Each year the providers change what they are willing to cover and at what cost. You plug in the drugs you need and you get quotes. Except that sometimes the quotes don't always represent the reality of what you are going to get. 

I have some very pricey medications. I've shopped all over to see if I can get them for less but it is difficult. However, I have one, Synthroid, which has never been that expensive. I plugged that in when I got my estimates in the fall. However, there must have been some fine print somewhere that said they were quoting on the drug or its generic equivalent. I'm all for generic equivalents. Except in this case, I have a small problem. I am allergic to the generic. Don't know why. I just am. So for decades I've been taking the name brand.

However with my new provider, they are refusing to cover the name brand, They will only cover the generic. And the uncovered price of the name brand is substantial at the normal pharmacy chain I do business with. I did call the provider to explain the allergy issue. (It could be another post on my experience with the automated assistant nonsense) but finally the authorize an exception which is somewhat better but not really. I check some of the better known discount pharmacies online but they are only selling the generic as well.

I'm pretty much resigned to paying through the nose for this drug when I decide to trot out my AI tool, Perplexity. I ask it where can I purchase name brand Synthroid. Guess what I find? The manufacturer of the name brand has cut a deal with an online pharmacy to sell its product. AND THE PRICE IS 2/3RDS LESS THAN WHAT I CAN GET FROM ANY OTHER PHARMACY!

So I've enrolled and am hoping to get my first shipment in a couple of weeks.

Remodel at D+24

The tile work is moving along at its own pace. We've been told by our GC and the Flooring people that the specific installer assigned to us is a real quality guy. He goes slow but he does things right. We met with both the GC and the Flooring people and finally got our battle plan in order. While we had quite a bit of time to begin with, we now have 2.2 visiting us to look at schools here (an longer story I will write about later). So having a house where we can actually put her up would be desirable. 

Next week they will finish the bathroom tiling. Then on April 7 doing all the floors will start. We decided the only way we could expedite the floor work was for us to move out of the house again. So we'll be gone for 5 days. Then on the 14th they will start the painting, which hopefully can get done in a week. Now sometime in all this, the new bathroom vanity, toilets, shower fixtures, mirrors, & lighting all have to be installed. It's going to be interesting to see if this can get done in time for 2.2's arrival on April 22.

And here is the week of work in pictures

Remodel At D+19

Progress has not been as fast as we would like and it looks like thinks will be slipping quite a bit beyond our hoped for completion dates. We've been doing and will have to continue doing quite a bit of juggling of when certain things get done. The biggest complication is when we have movers come in to prep the house for the flooring and painting. We've already delayed them a week and it looks like we will have to delay them again. There are also all kinds of logistical issues with us wanting to stay in the house when they start the flooring as we may have to take food up to the upper story so we can last for a few days and not go downstairs (I am slightly exaggerating...slightly).

Working on the Bathroom Tiling

The prep work getting the surfaces level and prepared takes more time the putting down the tile

 

 That all took place last week. Today tiling actually began.

On Being AI And Being Last

The wheel of karma goes round and round. You make a start, go to the middle, come to the end, only to begin all over. 

When I was in the fullness of my late career, I was part of a group that built and organization dedicated to teaching professionals the art and science of building a person a network. It was called Trusted Advisor Network. For a short period, it was a dynamic organization. It offered a different, a more fundamentally value laden way of interacting. At the core of all of it was the training program I'd developed called the TAN System. It was the heart and soul of the organization. A great many people benefited from it feeling that it provided themselves a sense of deeper purpose. 

Sadly, its ongoing development was not to be. It was torn apart by selfish forces that often occur in these situations. I was at that point where I was doing my great transition in 2014. I did help a part of the organization to restructure, but mostly I just moved on with my life. From time-to-time, I would hear this comment or that on how it was working or not working. Mostly it seemed that it was gradually coming to an end.

But I still had contact with many people who had been a part of it. Many who rued it having fallen down. Others who were committed to reviving it. So it was in January, as I was yet again looking to revive my own personal network to gain more business, that I was talking to two of these old TAN comrades that were part of this revival team. There message was simple. 

"de-I, we need your AI."

"What? I have nothing to do with artificial intelligence. And how is that going to help with your revival of TAN."

"No de-I, we need your ANCIENT INTELLIGENCE!"

"We need the founder of our system teaching us. Our people have forgotten all about the system that made us special. Will you come and and teach us anew?"

As I thought about this, I realized I had a lot to gain. I needed to rejuvenate my network. And this would be an ideal way to meet some younger professionals. So this last Thursday I found myself flying to Phoenix, Arizona to give a presentation on the TAN System. 

How long had it been since I'd done a 'business' trip? Over a decade for sure. As the vast majority of my travel over this period has been long-distance, long duration, I wasn't quite sure even how to arrange things for a same-day go and return flight. But I figured it out. And I had an interesting realization.

Virtually all of my travel for the longest time (including business travel) involved my having a carry-on bag. This led to a pattern of me wanting to get on the plane first to ensure I had overhead space for said bag. On this trip, I realized that was not the case. There was no need for me to get on the plane any earlier than absolutely necessary. So on both the outbound and return flights, I made sure I was THE LAST person to board. What a delicious and interesting feeling of nonchalance and freedom. 

Oh and by the way, my presentation was very well received and I met a number new, younger people to add to my network.

Getting Serious

Now we start the real work...the building out. The workers for installing the new tiling in the bathrooms started today. Things will get progressively more busy and intrusive. But the reality of the build will be actualized.

 

Return Of The Creativity Tsunami

In my last post on seizing each day, I made mention of getting fully back into the writing mode of my books. I think I may have understated just how much the creativity is flowing. 

There are so many story lines and I find my mind just flowing each time I sit down to write. In fact, it is somewhat like those heady days in 2014-15 when I could barely jot down the ideas fast enough. In just three-weeks, I've already written down 13 pages of general outline. In the past for example, 45 pages of outline led to 425 pages of writing, so just a bit short of 10 pages of writing for each page of detailed outline. The current outline is still general. So I can assume we have at least 130 pages of material...and I'm just getting started. 

Stay tuned. Details at Seven.

 

Savoring Each Day

The days are full. 

The remodel is constantly requiring adjusting one's daily schedule to deal with workers coming and going, discussion with the two key contractors, and various follow-up activities. 

As we need to replenish funds from the remodel project and fund on-going travel, I've been in a more active business mode than I've been for quite some time. So there are meetings as I work the network to drum up new clients. 

Theodora and Rotary continue progress at a steady pace. Both need on-going attention to get them to a next level, but neither are requiring huge amounts of time and effort either. 

I have doing various interesting cooking things (like my recent poached eggs) that pique my creative curiosity. I find myself in a mode of continuous improvement attitude, trying to refine and improve things I've been cooking for a long time. 

The Book (or I should say Books), my fantasy writing, has undergone a complete 180. After the six year ordeal, book #6 in the series completed and I have suddenly reentered a period of intense creativity. I am furiously (well as furious as and hour and a half of work a night can be!) outlining all the aspects of book #7. In fact, I am thinking there is so much material that I may need to structure it into two books.

And I am in HAPPY TRAVEL PLANNING mode. We threw together a minimalist little trip in May to Sweden once we knew Wife was healthy. (It's going to be three weeks. I've told a lot of people that for those who know Wife and I well, this is like a weekend trip LOL!)  I really didn't have time to do much planning and because of the lead short time, we got hammered on the airfare. But, then I shifted my focus to our big Fall Spain trip. You may remember that we've already booked the same apartment in El Campello for the same month as we had last year. Here I have done the kind of travel planning job I expect of myself.

• First, we scored a really good airfare to Europe.
• Second, based on how I've scheduled our arrival departure, I think we are going to get an equally killer deal on a rental car for the whole time.
• I've found a really good Airbnb for a short stay in Bilbao.

So, yes, I'm pleased and excited about all this.

Last night as I was contemplating all this, I remembered where my head was in December in the full throes of Wife's blood clot incident. All the thoughts that maybe our life would be permanently altered as happens as one ages. So to be back in this space as before is not something I take for granted. It is something I am determined to enjoy and savor each and every day.