Tracking my Vitals
I recently was sent wearable device that is now recording a wide range of metrics about me – all at a fraction of the cost of some of the devices on the market. Expect more news on this in the future. In fact I am now able to track on a regular basis
💕Heart Rate (aka Pulse)
🫁Respiration Rate
🌡Temperature
🌬Pulse Oxygenation (aka PulseOx)
📊Blood Pressure
🛏Sleep
🏃♀️Movement
The Annual Healthcare Gamble?
We are coming up to ‘open enrollment’ period when everyone gets to roll the dice on their health. Will you get sick and need care? Should you take a PPO, HMO, EPO? What deductible should you look for and what do each of them mean? The time when you get to wade through pages of documents that obfuscate information into parameters that are, at best, difficult to understand. Can you make sense of the terms that are listed in the insurance documents under the heading ‘Cost Sharing’
- Under family cov, does individual ded apply, i.e., embedded?
- Annual deductible for an individual with family coverage
- Coinsurance percentage
- Annual deductible
- Under family cov, does individual OOP max apply?
- Annual OOP maximum for an individual with family coverage
- Lifetime coverage limit
Me neither
If you take a high deductible and need care, or have the misfortune of needing (major)care in the form of surgery or other procedure. Maybe you are like a few of my friends who developed cancer? Some of the interventions I have witnessed for cancer are not only incredibly expensive but are so debilitating to render the individual incapacitated for months at a time. Can you survive the high-deductible you selected in the past cycle when you felt healthy, had been exercising and feeling great until the healthcare open enrollment period comes around again next year.
And here’s something else to consider on the major treatment front – if you are completely incapacitated as I have seen with at least two friends this past year will you be able to keep your job and continue to pay your insurance premiums?). All this is weighed up against other costs that need to be paid.
Add to that the procession of bills that show up from any visit to the health system, all of which end up as cash payments if you are in anything but a ‘Cadillac’ or ‘Rolls Royce’ plan and you have a receipt for stress and anxiety.
Accessing the System
With a recent injury that has created significant pain I finally relented under pressure from family and friends and went to see the specialist. The result was nothing short of miraculous – an examination, 2 plain film x-ray images, a discussion on possible causes and options followed by a treatment, administered under ultrasound guidance into the joint in question. Excellent. I could not have been happier.
The following day I realized how much pain I had been living with and just adjusted to – it was like a new day, a new beginning. A small victory and insignificant when compared to some of my friends who continue to endure rounds of debilitating treatments, tests and investigations as they battle some serious health problems – some from disease, others induced by the treatments that don’t come side-effect free.
Unfortunately the pain returns, just as the insurance system kicks in producing eye watering bills, none of which are covered under the collection of rules and carve outs in my high deductible insurance. The one I carefully selected based on my circumstances over a year ago.
As I am reading and trying to work out the impact of this, what my options are not to my health but to my bottom line and future selections my watch buzzes
My pulse has risen and is too high
A few minutes later get another alert – this time my blood pressure has risen and is too high.
The System Choices are Slowly Killing Us
Our system of choices and complexity is slowly killing people. High blood pressure and stress we know is bad for your health and wellness. That’s one small part of an experience and its fractional and insignificant stacked up to what others go through each and every day. I have heard horror stories of people who did end up needing major treatments and care who dread the arrival of (e)mail each day, sometimes filled with multiple bills from different providers and places all creating stress. Even if you are smart enough to follow the guidance from Elisabeth Rosenthal’s book – An American Sickness and carry around a check list (here in handy Avery Business Card Template form 5371) to ask each and every time you interact with any healthcare professional you may still find yourself at risk thanks to all sorts of dodges and get-out clauses and edge conditions that trip even the best intentioned.
And to be clear – this is not the individuals delivering care. In all my personal follow up discussion, every one of them has been unaware of what happens behind them with billing at this level. They know the system is complex and creates a host of barriers, many of which they navigate just to get paid, but the raw details don’t rise to consciousness, that is unless they end up on the receiving end of treatment. Then you can almost see the light bulb go off above their head.
The system is slowly and inexorably nibbling away at your personal health – something the system is supposed to be looking out for.
Incremental Steps to Fix Your Healthcare
As someone pointed out in one of my channels recently – the problem with healthcare is no one is concerned about it until they need it, by which time it is too late
- So start by educating yourself on what’s going on
- Think about health from the perspective of if you needed it yourself
- If that’s too hard, think about your parents, brothers, sisters, children’s or even friends – someone somewhere is struggling to cope in this the healthcare system
- Then ask yourself – what’s wrong with this picture and what can I do to fix it
The answer to the last question depends on who you are, where you come from and your own set of personal skills that you can apply, but we each have to bring something to the table. If you wait till later, it may be your experience that’s the example someone else is using to suggest we all need to do something.
I remember as a child hearing a fable that everyone wanted to see what would happen if the whole world all jumped up and down at the same time. Everything was agreed, the time set around the world and people all came outside to join in. When the clock ticked to the allowed time there was a deafening silence. Nothing. No sound, no jumping, not even a tremble.
Everyone had decided that everyone else was jumping so they would stand and watch and listen to enjoy the effects.
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