Venting thread

[Ares Land]

Does switching doctors really require a lot of red tape where you all live?

Here it's mostly a matter of filling a short form. I don't even know the specifics, because I've neglected to do so for years with zero consequences.

(I was going to vent a bit about health insurance... but then I thought, not in front of the Americans.)

[Raphael]

Does switching doctors really require a lot of red tape where you all live?

Here it's mostly a matter of filling a short form.

Oh, here, in my experience, it doesn't even involve filling out forms yourself - you just introduce yourself to your new doctor or your new doctor's assistants, and they take care of any possible paperwork for you.

(Not-so-fun fact: years ago, I switched dentists because my old dentist struck me as somewhat unprofessional, and my old dentist's office simply refused to send over my files to my new dentist's office. Very effective way of ensuring I didn't get second thoughts about the switch...)

[Ares Land]

Oh, here, in my experience, it doesn't even involve filling out forms yourself - you just introduce yourself to your new doctor or your new doctor's assistants, and they take care of any possible paperwork for you.

(Not-so-fun fact: years ago, I switched dentists because my old dentist struck me as somewhat unprofessional, and my old dentist's office simply refused to send over my files to my new dentist's office. Very effective way of ensuring I didn't get second thoughts about the switch...)

Come to think of it, I wonder if doctors don't take care of the paperwork themselves now.
People in my family had that sort of trouble with medical files too. They have to give in eventually (it's a legal obligation), but making them aware of this fact is a chore.

[quinterbeck]

(I was going to vent a bit about health insurance... but then I thought, not in front of the Americans.)

The thread is supposed to be all inclusive...

As grateful as I am for the NHS, it's certainly not perfect! I think I'd dare to grumble about it here if I had a complaint. But I share your sentiment!

[Linguoboy]

Does switching doctors really require a lot of red tape where you all live?

It depends on your insurance plan. I have something called a “PPO” which doesn’t require my primary doctor to pre-authorise visits to specialists, so there’s no special paperwork that I’m aware of, just the hassle of getting one office to transfer records to another.

PPOs are more expensive and, therefore, less common then HMOs, which do require your designated PCP (primary care physician) to authorise visits to specialists. It’s been a while since I had one, but as I recall it’s a matter of filing out maybe one form which your insurance provider keeps on file.

The real pain of either plan is finding providers that are “in network”. The insurers negotiate with physicians groups to set prices. With an HMO, they simply won’t reimburse care from providers which are not part of their network. PPOs will, but at a lesser rate than for ones that are. It’s a pretty regular occurrence here to see posts from friends on social networks that say “My doctor has moved out of network. Can anyone recommend a GP accepting new patients who takes X insurance?”

[Rounin Ryuuji]

And this is why I hate private insurers and want to just get on with the single payer thing already.

[Ares Land]

Visits to specialists may require GP referrals here too. That depends on the speciality, AFAIK.

A fixed price is set for various medical acts and visit; doctor can choose to charge higher than that -- the reasoning being often that they can't live on the 'official' prices (I guess those golf club fees don't pay for themselves!), in which case you have to hope your private insurance plan covers it.

(It's way less of a problem than in the US, because medical costs aren't over-inflanted like you guys')

[doctor shark]

Visits to specialists may require GP referrals here too. That depends on the speciality, AFAIK.

A fixed price is set for various medical acts and visit; doctor can choose to charge higher than that -- the reasoning being often that they can't live on the 'official' prices (I guess those golf club fees don't pay for themselves!), in which case you have to hope your private insurance plan covers it.

(It's way less of a problem than in the US, because medical costs aren't over-inflanted like you guys')

That was also the case in Luxembourg, if you wanted the coverage by CNS (insurance): if you went to a specialist without a referral, it wasn't guaranteed to be covered/reimbursable, except in the case of emergency. But also the prices weren't horrendous: a standard GP visit was €45, but 88% would get reimbursed later under the standard CNS scheme, and your out-of-pocket maximum was limited to a certain percentage of your income in a given year.

Here in the Netherlands, at least, GP visits are fully covered by insurance, but there's a compulsory €385/year deductible for most everything else before insurance kicks in. On the other hand, though, the standard insurance is privatized, so a bit like the US, but the difference is that insurance is compulsory (and the benefits provided by the basic insurance are standardized!) and somewhat controlled, with a typical monthly premium sitting at around €125/month.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

The Netherlands are a bit behind the times, it seems.

[doctor shark]

The Netherlands are a bit behind the times, it seems.

The system reminds me a lot of what the US wants to implement in their system: compulsory, standardized private insurance with a series of tax credits to help people pay their insurance bill. And it works reasonably well, fortunately. On the other hand, the Dutch tendency to not prescribe medicines for anything (their standard answer appears to be paracetamol/acetaminophen/Tylenol) is perhaps not ideal, though, again, at least the GP visit doesn't cost anything out of pocket...


Mini-vent: Applied for a fairly prestigious European grant (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant) to extend my stay here in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, got notice this week of the rejection... not a huge surprise considering what felt like a last-minute blindside in what the grant application required, but does suck a bit, and I'm also disqualified from applying a second time to stay in the Netherlands.* On the flipside, there is a Dutch only grant, called Talent Programme Veni, that I want to give a try, which is to be handed in in May. And coming off of the MSCA rejection, I actually feel better about my chances here (since I can implement the MSCA feedback), but this one is going to also be a pain, in part because of them asking for a "narrative CV" rather than a standard academic CV. And considering how difficult I find writing cover letters about myself to be, making the entire CV into a very extended cover letter... help.

*This is because MSCA is a mobility grant, so you can't apply to use it at an institution in a country in which you've been resident for more than 12 months in the preceding 5-year period... so I could apply for an MSCA grant to go elsewhere, other than Luxembourg.

[Nortaneous]

The air here is so bad that I've had the same headache for a week.

(How much cactus biomass or whatever would I need in order to effect a noticeable improvement in air quality?)

[doctor shark]

More minor venting: My father has taken to calling me on a somewhat irregular basis ever since he figured out how to use Facebook Messenger to call me. Not bad in and of itself, but some of the conversations have taken slightly awkward turns, and today was with regards to my brother and him complaining about said brother not calling or communicating. (Maybe there's a reason for that...?)

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Reminds me a little of one sister I have (I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before or not). She wants me to be more sociable, but doesn't consider that the people with whom she wants me to interact could make efforts to be more pleasant. I tend, when physically removed, to disconnect from a lot of family. They don't really like this, but they don't exactly make efforts to connect to me on much more than a superficial level, either.

[malloc]

Among the numerous irretractable problems facing me is my car insurance which costs over $250 per month. It will take several more years for the accidents on my record to drop off and until then, I am paying vastly more than anyone else I know. My research thus far has turned up nothing on how to lower my costs, apart from looking for another insurance company. Not sure whether that will make any difference. The extreme cold over the past few weeks has already driven my electric bill to staggering heights. I was at least hoping that my new car insurance policy would get lowered to help compensate.

[Linguoboy]

Several years back, we had a huge problem with our downspout. In the middle of a cold snap like this, a big hole formed in the side of it and sprayed meltwater everywhere, which then froze again. This continued for a week until our back porch looked like the dacha in Doctor Zhivago. When the first big thaw came, I had water coming into my basement and into my kitchen. Afterwards we had to replace the entire length of pipe and install heat ropes on the roof to melt the ice and snow so it wouldn't build up again.

Well, that all failed and we've got the same problem all over again. We had some tuckpointing done on the wall that leaked last time so hopefully I won't get water in my kitchen again. (I'm sure to get it down below though because the thresholds aren't flush, but that's a whole nother issue.) The decks are covered in ice. My condomate has been spreading salt on them and I've been begging him not to because we just had them redone this past summer and I don't want to think what chemical salt will do to the new finish.

The reason he's so insistent, though, is that the neighbours upstairs from me have both taken nasty spills. One of them wiped out right in front of my backdoor yesterday and her wife--who watched her wipe out--took an even worse fall down the bottom flight of steps onto concrete today. I'm sorry this happened but I really don't get why they were even out there. You don't need to go out onto the decks for anything. You can exit through the front and use the gangway to get to the backyard. The decks are dangerous so just stay off the damn decks until the ice melts. Problem solved!

ETA: While I was typing this, I heard my condomate on the back steps so I yelled, "Watch out, they're slippery!" He said, "I've got my cleats on." He made it to the bottom with no problem. So all it takes is a little preparedness and common sense not to end up flat on your back seeing stars.

[MacAnDàil]

The air here is so bad that I've had the same headache for a week.

(How much cactus biomass or whatever would I need in order to effect a noticeable improvement in air quality?)

I tried to check this out for you, and it would appear that the appropriate amount would be unfeasible:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... indoor-air

It would appear that simply reducing pollution at the source would be a more efficient way of improving air quality and getting rid of your headache.

[Travis B.]

Of course, the matter is that it is obviously infeasible for any individual to control most indoor air pollution, aside from that caused by things such as fireplaces and wood-burning stoves and using products containing VOC's indoors, at the source, leaving moving as the only option for many. Consider that major sources of indoor air pollution include things such as formaldehyde-phenol resins used in particle board. This is why attempting to improve indoor air quality via houseplants is attractive to some, as it provides a hope, albeit a false one, of being able to do something about indoor air quality.

[Nortaneous]

Consider that major sources of indoor air pollution include things such as formaldehyde-phenol resins used in particle board.

Great!

The practical solution is to open windows, but that isn't so practical when it's 30 degrees out. I assume at this point that the only long-term solution is to get rich, buy land, and hire a good architect.

[Travis B.]

Consider that major sources of indoor air pollution include things such as formaldehyde-phenol resins used in particle board.

Great!

The practical solution is to open windows, but that isn't so practical when it's 30 degrees out. I assume at this point that the only long-term solution is to get rich, buy land, and hire a good architect.

Btw, why do you think that it is air quality? Is it visibly smoggy outside (where then opening your windows wouldn't help)?

[Nortaneous]

Btw, why do you think that it is air quality? Is it visibly smoggy outside (where then opening your windows wouldn't help)?

I can't imagine that opening windows would do much else.

(I know a guy who works in some industry or other that uses oxygen tanks, and he has a story about his employer investigating losses of their oxygen tank reserves - they found that workers would take drags of highly oxygenated air as a hangover cure, and ended up writing it off as a cost of doing business.)