loss absorption

I will begin by recapping something which happened to me back in September. It began with waking up feeling a bit nauseous, and ended with a trip to the ER several hours later; well, at least one would think that’s where it ended.

Don’t worry, I’m fine, but the aftermath of my experience has truly woken me up to the realities of our health care system in this country. I should also add a disclaimer saying I do not know much of the propositions of any of the candidate on this issue, and I’m not sure at this point how to get out of this frightful mess, so I will not profess I have the final answer to this health care nightmare. That all being said, here’s a breakdown of my experience.

June 16^th, 2007 – I officially graduate from UCLA, thereby beginning my tender first steps to the “adult world,” and also thereby losing all my health coverage which until you graduate, is covered by your parents health coverage (assuming they have it).

June 18^th, 2007 – At the urging of my parents (despite thinking it a terrific waste of money at the time), I purchase ‘interim’ health insurance from UCLA amid advertisements from the Alumni Association about what great coverage I was getting and for such a good cost. ($90 per month, major medical only)

September 25^th, 2007 – I wake up feeling a bit sick, but brush it off. On my drive to work I get violently ill. Once at work I tell my boss I have to go to the doctor because I think I have food poisoning. After debating with them for a while I finally go to the doctor, where I can only see a nurse because all the doctors at the office are booked with appointments and do not have scheduled times for emergencies. I was told I had food poisoning, to get some rest and it will clear up in a few days.

September 26^th, 2007 (1AM) – Far too sick to be any food poisoning I have ever known, I am unable to even drive myself to the ER, so I call my dad to take me to the hospital. I am seen by a triage nurse who also believes it is food poisoning, and told there will be a substantial wait since my case is not urgent.

September 26^th, 2007 (3AM) – After getting so sick I can’t even raise my head, I am finally taken back to see the doctor, who diagnoses me in about 2 minutes with not food poisoning, but a severe case of vertigo. (No, not the movie, which seems to be the almost universal first response when I get to this part of the story) I am given 3 bags of IV fluids and medication, 3 different oral medications, and told if it didn’t get any better in a few days I would have to follow up with my own doctor.

September 30^th, 2007 – Still no change in vertigo (pills given to me by the ER doctor very ineffectual, especially since they turned out to be OVER THE COUNTER DRAMAMINE, but in a prescription bottle, which apparently made them cost 3 times more). I call my own doctor and over the phone she prescribes a heavy dose of decongestants which kicked in finally and I begin to feel better.

October 1^st, 2007 – My health insurance from my new job kicks in (just in time, right?)

November 26^th, 2007 – I get my first hospital bill; $5,000. $5,000!!!!!!!!! Then I get a doctor’s bill ($800), bills for the IVs ($50/each), for the lab to process my blood test ($300), and an extra fee for $200 because I was seen at the ER “after hours” which began at 10PM. Oh, and my insurance from UCLA’s deductible was $8,000. I guess when they said ‘major medical only’ they REALLY meant ‘major medical only’.

Here’s the real kicker and the point I’ve been building towards. Despite saying on their bills that financial assistance was offered and payment plans could be discussed, upon calling the hospital, I was told that there was nothing they could do to help me and I owed all the money that was listed or else they would turn me over to a collection agency. I was told, point blank, by the hospital, that the reason my bill was so high was because I had insurance.

What? Apparently, there are so many patients that come for emergency care without insurance (and they have to, by law, treat them anyway), the hospital purposely inflates the bills of patients with insurance, to try and get more money out of the insurance company, to fill the gap with how many uninsured patients they have to treat. It was just too bad that my insurance sucked so much.

Now, I was able to talk my way down to about $4,000 total for all the bills, but that still doesn’t mean I have $4000. I am barely out of college, did not make much money at work, had school and car payments (not to mention car insurance), and have now been hit with this debt which I will be paying off for a long time to come, because most other people don’t pay for insurance.

Now I of course believe that everyone should get medical treatment when it is an emergency, no matter if they have insurance or not, no matter if they have money or not, but the drain on the health care system (ERs mostly) comes primarily from non-emergent cases such as people not paying for health insurance, then going in when they have a cold. My father, who worked in an ER for 10 years and saw these abuses every day, confirmed this. He even spoke with a woman once who was very proud that she had found a way to cheat the system which meant she didn’t have to pay for insurance for her 5 children; when one of them way sick she would simply take them to County Medical Center and tell them she had no insurance, no money, and then give a fake address. The hospital had thus far just written her off as a charity case and they never paid a cent to the hospital. Incidentally, she drove a brand-new Mercedes when my dad spoke to her.

Most of the problem lies in the lack of affordable insurance and the bureaucracy of the entire system coupled with a lack of doctors and nurses, facilities and equipment (oh and don’t get me started on drug companies). But even if these problems are addressed, there will still be people who feed off the system because they are allowed to. The more we are willing to just ‘absorb the loss’ of some, and then translate it to overcharging others, the more screwed-up we are going to make the situation. This isn’t a problem exclusive to ethnicities or immigration status, either, although all these topics collide in one mushy mess. I really think universal health care would be the best way to ultimately solve the problem, circumstances what they are, but even it is not a total fix. But until we get even there, there has to be a fundamental change in people’s attitudes about taking more than what they are entitled to and feeling justified in doing so. Although, maybe we’ll see coverage for everyone before people start taking responsibility for themselves. All I know is when the hospital billing department asked me why I didn’t lie and say I had no insurance, I told her I didn’t because it was wrong. I really hope more people will do that when they’re in my shoes.

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That's Why They Play the Games

Speaking of things that matter, tonight is actually the official beginning of the 2008 Major League Baseball season as the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox face off against the Oakland A’s in Japan (game time: 3:05 AM, thanks MLB). I’m a huge baseball fan and I am ready for this season. Got my fantasy team ready to play, got my games ready to watch, and got my $20 ready to park in (and subsequently wait two hours to get out of) the hell that is the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

However, with baseball season kind of officially here, one must prepare for the onslaught of preseason media coverage devoted to every aspect of almost every team (sorry Nationals, there’s just nothing to cover) from “expert analysts” all over the country. This includes “expert” preseason picks. Now, I used to be a big fan of expert analysts; I would dedicate my limited attention to shows like Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and the talking segments on Sportscenter. Then one day it hit me: these expert analysts are always wrong. Not just sometimes, but always. I mean, occasionally one or two will be right, but really it’s no more likely than the average baseball fan making his prediction or an average person off the street randomly guessing. On this note, I figured we might as well take a trip down memory lane and analyze the preseason predictions of ESPN’s expert team of expert analysts to see how they did (after all, ESPN is the worldwide leader in sports). The data analyzed will be ESPN’s panel of predictions from 2002-2007, with the exception of 2004 for which the data doesn’t appear to exist (although, I think it's fair to say that not too many analysts had the Boston Red Sox winning their first World Series title in 86 years). The main focus will be on experts picking the correct World Series teams, MVP’s, and Cy Young’s (best teams, best players, best pitchers) Don’t worry, kudos will be given for the few correct, often very simple, picks.

We’ll start with 2002 when my beloved Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (then referred to by the simpler and far more accurate Anaheim Angels) won the World Series over the San Francisco Giants. Naturally, 0 of the 18 ESPN expert panelists had the Angels making the playoffs that year; only 2 had them finishing out of last place in the West. While 13 of the 18 had the Giants making the playoffs (although only 1 of those accurately picked them to win the Wild Card), 0 had them reaching the World Series. Even worse were their MVP picks: eventual American League MVP Miguel Tejada received all of 0 preseason votes (even Christian Guzman got a vote!), while reigning and eventual National League MVP Barry Bonds (coming off one of the best seasons of ALL TIME) received just 2. While a solid 6 correctly picked Randy Johnson to win the NL Cy Young, 0 experts picked Barry Zito to win the AL Cy Young.

I guess ESPN had a look over their 2002 predictions and decided the best way to improve their odds was to up the number of panelists. Hence, in 2003 we were blessed with 27 ESPN expert preseason predictions; all were terrible as expected. Not surprisingly, for the second year in a row the eventual 2003 World Series Champions, this time the Florida Marlins, received 0 out of 27 votes to even make the playoffs. Surprisingly, albeit every expert had the 2003 World Series loser New York Yankees making the playoffs (that was a gimme), only 5 of the 27 put them into the World Series (the overwhelming favorite was the Oakland A’s as this was before people realized that “moneyball” was bullshit). In what should have been a relatively easy year to pick the MVP’s in the preseason, a mediocre 10 out of 27 correctly picked Alex Rodriguez to win the AL MVP, while a comparably mediocre 9 picked Barry Bonds to win the NL MVP. Of course, 0 out of 27 correctly picked Eric Gagne to win the NL Cy Young, but 1 expert correctly picked Roy Halladay to win the AL Cy Young. Mind you, these people get paid a lot of money to make these picks.

We move on to 2005 where ESPN realized that more picks was not necessarily more accurate and slimmed their panel back down to 19. This year (holy shit!) 1 of the 19 ESPN experts actually predicted the eventual World Series Champion Chicago White Sox to make the playoffs (unfortunately this lucky expert did not have them making the World Series). Naturally, the usual 0 out of 19 experts picked the 2005 World Series loser Houston Astros to make the playoffs. In what should have again been an easy year to pick the MVP’s, a poor 6 out of 19 correctly picked Alex Rodriguez to be the AL MVP, while a slightly impressive 9 easily picked Albert Pujols to be the NL MVP. But to be fair, only 1 correctly picked Bartolo Colon to be the AL Cy Young Winner, while 0 correctly picked Chris Carpenter to win the NL Cy Young. That’s as many preseason Cy Young predictions combined (1) as Zack Greinke got; in 2005 he went 5-17 with a 5.80 ERA, but he did hit his first home run!

In 2006 ESPN decided to go with 20 expert panelists and amazingly this nice, even number gave them their best preseason picks yet! All 20 of the experts had the eventual 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals making the playoffs, 10 of those had them in the World Series, and 2 of those actually had them winning! This really shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise, as the Cardinals that year won just 83 games and are arguably the worst team to ever win the World Series. But kudos nonetheless experts! Unfortunately, the more common 0 out of 20 experts picked the World Series loser (aka World Series choker) Detroit Tigers to make the playoffs. Fortunately, to make up for their semi-accurate World Series pick, none of the experts correctly picked the NL MVP Ryan Howard or the AL MVP Justin Morneau. In addition, only 5 of the 20 experts correctly picked Johan Santana to win the AL Cy Young (how 15 picked against him I don’t know) and 0 correctly picked the NL Cy Young winner Brandon Webb.

Finally, we arrive at last season, 2007. ESPN decided to return to 18 expert panelists (the same number they had in 2002, awfully good for closure’s sake) and stuck with their generally poor preseason picks. Kudos goes to the 15 who picked the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox to make the playoffs (whatever the 3 who didn’t pick them were smoking, I want some), extra kudos to the impressive 3 who actually correctly predicted they would win the World Series (fine, mild kudos to the 1 who predicted they would make the World Series and lose). Back on track, 0 of the 18 predicted that the World Series loser Colorado Rockies would make the playoffs. On a side note, 3 experts (who hadn’t yet figured out that “moneyball” was bullshit) picked the A’s to win the AL West, they finished 18 games out of first place. Always good at making the easy pick, 10 of the 18 experts correctly picked Alex Rodriguez to win the AL MVP; always terrible at everything else, 0 correctly picked Jimmy Rollins to win the NL MVP. Not surprisingly, the 2007 Cy Young picks definitely came as a surprise to these knowledgeable experts; just 1 correctly picked NL Cy Young winner Jake Peavy and ESPN’s favorite number, 0, correctly picked the AL Cy Young Winner C.C. Sabathia.

So, if you’re one of those people that listens to baseball experts (specifically ESPN’s) preseason predictions, DON’T. How these people get paid so much money to make such poor guesses, I will never know, but I will always be jealous. Hopefully I have shown that these experts know about as much as what’s going to happen during the baseball season as any other schmuck. On that note, I will make my 2008 World Series prediction, one that pits my two lifelong favorite teams against each other: the Los Angeles Angels against the New York Mets. I have picked this World Series match up for as long as I have been a baseball fan and I’ve been wrong almost every single year. I guess that puts me in pretty good company.