ChaosCoati

I don’t know the actual answer. My theory is it’s this confusing so it’s hard for the general population to catch the mistakes. This allows insurance companies get out of paying as much as they’re supposed to. And hospitals don’t really care who does the paying, as long as they get paid

Mine are all in the ground

I’ll have to try the cinnamon next year. I ended up sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the bottom of it and that seemed to help. But I’m not sure how often a monarch caterpillar might move to another plant so I was worried the DE may harm them too.

Some of the plants do have aphids, but not all my plants with ants on them had aphids (at least that I could find). I know ants will sometimes carry aphids, so maybe they were scouting out new plants?

All very valid points and part of why American health insurance is such a joke

I had an incident recently where my spouse had to go to the ER because of a life threatening incident. One of those fix it right now or they might die things. (They’re fine now, thank goodness.)

We went to an in-network hospital and all doctors were also in-network. However the one who actually did the life-saving procedure was a specialist. Under our insurance plan seeing a specialist requires a referral, which of course we didn’t have time to get. So insurance tried to nope out of that doctor’s entire bill.

You need to know both your deductible and out of pocket maximum numbers. You’ve said your deductible is $1500. For the sake of this example let’s say your out of pocket max (OOP from now on) is $2500.

For simplicity, we’ll go with your insurance’s negotiated rate for the procedure is $1000*. Meaning at the end of the day you and your insurance combined will pay the hospital $1000.

Basically any bills up to $1500 for the year you pay 100%. Between $1500 and $2500 (or your OOP), insurance pays 50% and you pay 50%. Over $2500 insurance pays 100%.

Some examples to illustrate:

1. You’ve paid $400 this year so far. You pay the full $1000: $400 + $1000 = $1400 which is less than your deductible of $1500
2. You've paid $1000 so far this year. You pay $750 and insurance pays $250: $500 gets you to the $1500 deductible limit so you have to pay all that, plus you pay 50% of the remaining $500 bill = $250.
3. You’ve paid $1700 so far. You pay $500 and insurance pays $500. $1700 + $500 = $2200 which is less than your OOP of $2500
4. You’ve paid $2300 so far. You pay $200 and insurance pays $800. 50% of $1000 = $500 but $500 would put you over your OOP of $2500. $2500 - $2300 = $200. You pay $200 and insurance pays the rest.
5. You’ve paid $2500 so far. Insurance pays $1000

• If your insurance’s negotiated rate for the procedure is $1000, this means that’s what the hospital and insurance have agreed to pay. A lot of times you’ll see the hospital “charge” a larger number and then have an insurance “discount” but ignore this. It doesn’t factor into deductible or out of pocket maximum calculations.

That cat does kind of look like Nermal

I’m from the Midwest and when I travel overseas I just tell people I live “near Chicago” cuz it’s the only place between the Rockies and the Appalachians people reliably know.

East to west along the US border is Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba?, Alberta?, and BC. I think.

Then there’s Nunavut. And maybe Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland? I’m realizing I have no idea how many provinces Canada has

Edit: Looked it up and I definitely missed a few

Yeah it was a weird growing season. I’ve got about 12 tomatoes between 2 plants. One plant I grabbed from the store’s cherry tomato section this spring and didn’t notice until I got home its tag said Big Boy. Since it’s about a 40 minute drive to town I decided to just plant it and hope for the best.

I grow mine in planter boxes and usually get 55 day varieties. And I try to get the plants in about mid-May under plastic tents to get a jump start.

That sounds delicious, do you have a favorite recipe?

Yum, freezing some is a great idea

Pan fried is definitely on the menu