2008 Year in Review

This was a rather unremarkable year for me. Since leaving college, I've lived in London, Tokyo, NYC, and Holland - all some very exciting times. Even when I was last in Virginia I had couple of goals I was working towards (Masters degree and Black Belt). Now I'm back in Virginia again and while life is good and comfortable, it's only ho hum. Perhaps because of that, the hardest part of the year was dealing with my addiction to travel. In an attempt to force myself to settle down a bit, I bought a house earlier this year. It was a rather impulsive move on my part (that's how I roll) but not necessary a bad one. Still, many times since moving into it back in March, I tortured myself with thoughts of galavanting the globe. There were many adventures I wanted to embark on still - all of which requires more than a week or two off here and there. It was only within the last month or so that I've come to accept that a settled life isn't such a bad thing and that I should make the most of it.

As I said before, the year has been good... or acceptable. I had enough out of town visitors and short out of town trips to occupy my time throughout the year. I also spent a lot of time with my family - more than I had been able to in the past at least. (One of the reasons why I like being here.) I tried Kung Fu and Ultimate Frisbee for a while. In the summer I hiked a lot locally. Trip wise, I got two good ones in this year - snowboarding in Whistler back in Feb, and one to see the National Parks in Utah and Arizona. Both trips were awesome. A lot of time was also spent this year playing board games, singing karaoke, and playing guitar hero.

All in all, I had very little to complain about, but something was missing. Since I'm not traveling as much as I used to, I think I needed a hobby. I finally found one few weeks ago and now I look forward to it all the time. It's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (& Mixed Martial Arts). It's a perfect compliment to my karate background. I've actually wanted to train in it a while now but hadn't found a school I liked. Now I found one with a good instructor. I could do this all day everyday. Too bad it's offered only 3 times a week tho. Anyways, yeah, so now I'm not going to want to go anywhere :) Oh, and I may go back to school (part-time) in '09, but more on that if it actually happens.

Well, there is one day left in 2008 now. Fortunately I have been surrounded by family and friends this holiday season. It's been rather busy, and my house is getting destroyed, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I am going into 2009 with high hopes for a better year.

Why Health Care is Expensive (?)

When I moved up to NoVA about a year ago, I started seeing an ENT doc to deal with my allergies and sinus issues. The doctor told me I had excessive wax in my ears and told me he'd clean it out for me. It was a 5-10 minute job scooping the wax out of my ears. Few weeks later, I got an "Explanation of Benefits Payments" from the insurance company and on it was a line item for "EAR SURGERY" w/a claim for 2-300 bucks by the doctor. I was thinking... surgery??? To get a ball of wax out of my ears?? This line item was on top of the charge for my office visit, which was forced upon me as a "follow-up" to the allergy drops I'd started taking some time ago. Again, it probably was a 10-15 minute discussion on whether or not my symptoms were improving. So for roughly a 20-30 minute visit, the service provider walked away with like $300. Since I only had to pay the copay, I didn't think twice about it. However, I then went to another ENT because I wanted a doctor closer to home. He talked to me about 10-15 minutes and then sprayed some numbing thing up my nose so he can look at my sinuses using a wiggly stick with a camera on the end. Guess what? Yep. Few weeks later I got another explanation of benefits from my insurance with a line item for "SURGERY - SINUSES". Between that and the "office visit", they claimed a charge of $570!!!!! They only got about $400 of that but seriously... surgery??? Now my dilemma is this. I'm starting to think insurance companies jack up their premiums because these darn doctors are exaggerating their claims. While I'd like to say something to the insurance company, I worry that if my doctor finds out I snitched on them, they won't give me the proper medical attention. So now what do I do? Anything? If any of you are a doctor and think these are valid charges, I'd like to hear an explanation. I'm also annoyed at the insurance companies for not doing a better job keeping the doctors in check. They're quick to avoid payment for treatments that are really necessary for some people, but they sure don't seem to mind overpaying for minor procedures (I'm not sure I'd even go so far to call it a "procedure"). Something doesn't seem right here.