patrick.net

BART has steadily marched outward. It is great if you live near it (like I do).

That's a big IF. BART is so sparse in its coverage that it's useless for probably more than 80% of Bay Area residents. I find Muni (especially with the light rail) much more useful, but obviously, that only covers the city proper.

BART has steadily marched outward. It is great if you live near it (like I do).

Not as quickly as the Google shuttle.

CB,

make sure you pay the COBRA and transition into a Blueshield / Bluecross non-HMO plan. I have heard numerous cases of medical insurance rejection based on nitpicking, the rejection rate is high as 30% for all applicants. Stay in the system and don't ever fall off!

The US is good if you have a good medical insurance. If you don't want to work, you can still buy personal PPO insurance at around $200 pp for 40ish, and the insurance company by law cannot kick you out of the system as long as you keep paying your premium. It is not that bad. But once you fall off the train, it is just terrible. The US is the ultimate country for the haves and have-nots, you cannot get stuck in between.

Tsusiat,

China doesn't have a commie medical system any more. It is practicing the most fundamental form of capitalist medical system - no coverage for anyone except those retired commie officials. And get this, if you need to check into a hospital, you need to put in a deposit (usually USD5K or so) or rest assured you will NOT get treated. Many poor patients die waiting at the emergency room. I actually witnessed such an episode myself. The last thing I want happen to me is to get into an accident in China and knocked unconscious by myself alone, I don't think I will get treatment unless I tatoo'd my US passport on my forehead.

I have a question for the wise crowd here. I'd appreciate it if someone can shed some light.

Why would a doctor stay off the preferred network of some big PPO plans? The reason why I asked was because my wife wants to change her obgyn so we asked our GP for referrals. He gave several names, but all of them are OFF the preferred network of our PPO plan, and when we checked them out, these doctors state on their websites clearly that they are NOT a part of any insurance network, but their credentials look very solid though.

Is it because they are so solid that they don't care about peons who prefer to stay within the network any more? What is the financial motivation? Do they get more upscale patients who don't really care about staying within the network so that they can fend off the rif-rafs?

OO, have you read Robin Cook?

http://www.iblist.com/book50684.htm

The US is good if you have a good medical insurance.

I play ice hockey every week, our team is usually a bunch of older (40's and 50's) and a few young players in their 30's. Our goalie is young and he kept him in our games most of the times.

One time he showed up and said he couldn't play, we thought he was hurt, turned out his health insurance ran out, he turned 24 or something like that and his father's insurance couldn't cover him. It took him a few weeks but there was no chance in hell that he would play hockey without health insurance.

Jeff @ SDCIA...

I have been ill...

I can't sleep, I can't eat, when I do eat it comes up. This morning I started the day with a shower and threw up in the shower...(/i>

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!?

David Lereah, the false god of Realtwhores, the master bottom-caller, the most damaging pretend real estate economist himself RESIGNS from the NAR, and NOBODY has started a thread about it?!? Are you freaking kidding me?!?

I am drinking Italian wine because I don't have champagne. The rest of you housing bears better be out on the town sipping bubbly and cheering wildly. Ever since I read the article this morning, I've been waiting all day to see the patrick.net fireworks. Am I missing something, guys? I must be! Ya'll should be partying like 1999 right about now! :o

Ding dong, the witch is dead. Ding dong, the witch is dead!

Why would a doctor stay off the preferred network of some big PPO plans?

Let me guess, Aetna PPO? :) We have the same problem at work. The best doctors here don't want to deal with the paperwork avalanche. They choose not to waste hours on the phone with Aetna reps, losing physician time to haggling over procedure details with a ham-and-egger who probably doesn't even have a college degree. So the good doctors push the "out of network" paperwork on the patient. You pay the doc in cash or check, and get to file the paperwork yourself and then grapple with the Aetna trolls. Yay for ever-so-slightly cheaper healthcare vendors!

The last thing I want happen to me is to get into an accident in China and knocked unconscious by myself alone, I don’t think I will get treatment unless I tatoo’d my US passport on my forehead.

Sounds like you'd be better off with a MasterCard necklace.

Interestingly enough though, there's a growing movement of Americans who want this type of policy so that we can ensure "illegals" don't waste our tax dollars.

It's an interesting problem with no easy solutions.

Why would a doctor stay off the preferred network of some big PPO plans? The reason why I asked was because my wife wants to change her obgyn so we asked our GP for referrals.

OO,

I'm not so sure the paperwork issues are a big enough deal for doctors to shun any particular PPO. Most likely, it all comes down to...you guessed it...money. PPOs require member physicians and hospitals to provide their services at pre-negotiated and (of course) discounted rates. The return benefit for the doctor or hospital is increased business, as all members have to use doctors within the network (or face steep copays). However, certain PPOs have such crappy reimbursement that for doctors or practices that have plenty of business, they're better off excluding those plans.

Another possible issue with some of the practices you mention is that they may be one of the growing number of concierge medicine practices. These cater to the wealthy, accept no insurance, are fee-for-service, and charge an entry/enrollment fee which is very steep. This benefits both sides, as the patient gets very personalized care - MDs have their cell phones or pagers available directly to the patient, visits are not time-limited, care is very "customer-oriented." The MDs get benefits too - the financial equation works out better than for a "traditional" practice, the patient panel is much smaller so the MD feels less overwhelmed, and, the best part, the MD gets to take all the time he/she wants with each patient and get to know them, part of what drew a lot of people into medicine in the first place. The major downside is the lack of patient diversity. If you enjoyed helping poor and indigent, this obviously won't work for you.

LIVE & WORK IN CANADA
FREE VISA ELIGIBILITY ASSESSMENT

http://www.immigrationexpert.com/register.asp?type=1

Officials, however, are puzzled over the reason for illegal stay of nearly 10,000 nationals of developed countries. Even those who were deported during 2005 did not give a valid reason.

I can think of two reasons:

1) Avoiding the law back home
2) Can live like a king there on very little $USD

I posted earlier bagging on canada, but i was only joking! I have only been to canada for 2 hours while connecting a flight to china. truth is I woke up got off the phoenix vancouver flight and thought, wtf? am i in china already? All I saw was chinese people. But when nobody pushed me or cut in line I realized I was in Canada!
I met a bunch of canadian girls living in an apartment near me in a small non touristy town in southern Mexico. Props to the canndadians, they will adventure right on off the map. None of them spoke a word of Spanish, so more credit to their adventure loving ways... I speak nearly fluent Spanish, so naturally I became their tour guide. I told all the mexican captain Ahab guys circling around these big white belugas that nobody was getting anywhere with my "sisters" without my approval. I was given so many margaritas by the friendly locals that I nearly died! Later on the girls gave a performance of the canadian anthem, then the locals sang the mexican anthem. It came to me, and for the life of me I couldn't remember the words to the american anthem, after oh jose can you see?... so I sang Guantamara instead. I am sure canada is fine... but woman wise, I am still voting for sweden, norway, finland or argentina...

but does anyone mind if i stitch a maple life on everything i own before I ride my bicycle across europe?

skibum, Brand, Peter P,

thanks for the enlightenment. I know I can always get an answer from here :-)

I think three doctors I checked out belonged to the concierge category because they made an effort to announce on their medical group's website that they are NOT on any insurance network.

going to asia for 3 months next week, thailand maybe vietnam and indonesia... maybe china again i haven't decided yet

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!? Brand

The power of Blogs... I guess the prick couldnt take the heat
from DL Watch. LOL!

Southern California is Prime!

http://tinyurl.com/28kar9

Peter said...

The 1900 sq. ft. townhouses runs upwards of 850K.

Not completely unreasonable. That works out to less than $450 per sqft.

Well considering 2000 sq ft TH sold for underr 200K 10 years ago..
I guess there is a reasonable explaination to go from 200K to 850K in 10 years.
Heck I even recal TH in Sausolito for around 300K now 1.2M...

More people, booming economy, high salary, inbound jobs, goverment restrictions
and "they aint building more homes in the Bay Area.

What a nice FAT BUBBLE we have in the Bay Area.

Well considering 2000 sq ft TH sold for underr 200K 10 years ago..
I guess there is a reasonable explaination to go from 200K to 850K in 10 years.

I pulled the following from Zillow about the townhouses in Sunnyvale, closed to where I used to live (La Mesa Terrace). It's around 2100 sq.ft.
It's about 8% increase every year, of course it's high but I doubt you can get anything that's worth 850K now for 200K back then.

Sale History
02/13/2007: $692,000
06/25/1996: $303,000

I pulled the following from Zillow about the townhouses in Sunnyvale, closed to where I used to live (La Mesa Terrace). It’s around 2100 sq.ft.
It’s about 8% increase every year, of course it’s high but I doubt you can get anything that’s worth 850K now for 200K back then.

Sunnyvale is very special now.

*unlurks*

I go away for a weekend in Italy and this thread appears before I can read it!

Don't buy in Vancouver. Expensive + global warming = under water...in more ways than one.

*relurks*

azrob Says:

I bike commute 13 miles each way every day here in phoenix. I go from tempe to scottsdale...
_____

I salute you!

The only thing is, the temperature is ramping up like crazy. Did you feel the heat and humidity on Saturday, before the dust storm? It was like 100 degrees F. and felt like the summer Monsoon had started early.

I live in the NW valley & can tell you that commuting 13 miles in the hot sun can cause heat exhaustion pretty quickly.

Good luck, you two-wheeled intellectual critter & soldier of the sun!

Brand,

Given the news hit on a Monday (not a Friday) I was limited to South Sea Tropical Blend Iced Tea! I don't recall it ever tasting so good though! Smiling and nodding as if hanging on the client's every word yet looking out of the corner of my eye for the waitress to work her way toward our table with that pitcher of "amber liquid". Sick, isn't it?

All global warming is local!

(and belongs to MUGGY!)

David Liareah left the NAR and is currently working on his new book to be released this spring. Be sure to reserve your copy today. :)

More bad RE numbers (it's almost mind-numbing how bad the numbers continue to look):

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/01/news/economy/homesales/index.htm?postversion=2007050110

The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index fell 4.9 percent in March, following a 1.1 percent increase in February. The index is down 10.5 percent from the March 2006 reading.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had been looking for a 0.4 percent rise in the index...

Brand said:
[re: Liearreah's departure from NAR]
Ever since I read the article this morning, I’ve been waiting all day to see the patrick.net fireworks.

Yeah, I know what you mean. But somehow, my own immediate reaction was that the bastard jumped ship just as it went down. I would have liked to see him go down with it, getting exposed for the shameless shill that he was.

Instead, he seems to have landed himself a cushy little gig, where (like the dot-com CEOs in 2000) he will most likely lie to his employees about exactly how fukked the company is. I hope DavidLereahWatch.com keeps going after him. :-)

SP

SP,

Also good to see the MSM turn on DL as well! Several articles today featured a timeline of his intentional misdirection's. Each passing day and the introduction of fresh evidence make his bad calls that much more obvious.