Yup that is a known issue w some people. I’m on rosuvastatin and do a grapefruit a day and don’t seem to have trouble.
I had to switch doctors because of a big change in premium on the HealthCare Marketplace, just as an aside since I’ve been on the marketplace this is the fourth time I’ve had to switch health insurance companies and third time I’ve had to switch doctors, so as I knew at the very time it was promoted the you can keep your plan you can keep your doctor was a complete lie / total sales job. That said it has been a net positive for me so not really complaining just complaining a little
So am in my switch over meeting oand end up very happy with the new DOC, he asked if I wanted to try the new glp one weight loss drugs since I have some risk factors that qualify me for some insurance plans now and I need to drop 35 to be where I need to be long term. I said absolutely not because I want to wait a little longer to see the side effect history a little deeper Plus my buddy was on that stuff for diabetes and it gave him gastroparesis which really is the main functionality of how it works, so no thanks
Long story short the other side effect on the glp ones is increased risk of thyroid cancer to close the loop here about discussion on that
Yea gotta be super careful with that. A lot of these weight loss drugs nuke muscle mass. Sure you lose weight but it’s eating your muscle. Not good long term.
No quick fixes IMO. Consistency is key. Healthy eating and exercise. Repeat over and over. It’s hard and boring. But it works IMO. I still struggle with it. So many temptations out there.
OK, so dinner and drugs. We are flying out of Des Moines at 5am Sat. so I’m doing NY Strips on the grill tonight in 4 degree weather, our Valentine’s Day meal. Fresh green beans fried with bacon and almond slivers, Mac and cheese side, (using preprepared store bought just heat it up stuff, this is a first for me but kind of busy so…), small lettuce and cherry tomato salad with gorgonzola and blue cheese dressing. I’ve lost 30 in the last 16 months, diet and exercise, who knew that would work? Still, 5’10" and 210 and going to add some back next week. Getting 8-10[000 steps pretty regularly these days, outdoors I can dress for but the hidden ice is my biggest fear.
I’m suppose to be seeing an Endochronologist 4x a year, I said no. My GP wants to see me 2x a year, I said no. I get a physical and have blood work once a year, Last year I cut my Simvastatin in half for 3 months before my appt, and my numbers came back fine. Going to work on eliminating the Lisinopril altogether but am going to ask to go from a 5 to a 2.5 first, there was a time when I did have a problem with my blood pressure and that shit worked so I’m now willing to get off completely yet. A year ago last month I had a cold, 2 1/2 years ago I had COVID, that’s it for like the last 3 or 4 years. You are your own best advocate, I have fired a doctor to his face before. The, “You can keep your doctor”, experience you had is bothersome, I want to keep the guy I see now but will be signing up for Medicare in the not so distant future and am not sure yet how to navigate those hurdles, mostly because I simply haven’t looked into it. Anyway, I have cigar get together’s and after most of the guys are there I let them know, no politics or talking about any of your ailments and no one wants to see your scars from your surgery. This shit won’t end until we do.
Just so I understand, the plan forced you to change doctors? Or your doctors stopped accepting the plan? Doctors cannot be forced to accept the plan. That is completely up to them. Also, you are not forced to use the ACA. There are other plans out there if you think they are better.
Semantics. Doctors drop ACA due to reimbursements puking out. Ive been through this a lot, talked to the docs about it, and used to be both a health insurance agent and a territory manager for a HI company. Sat with business owners, underwriters, CEOs, CFOs and the ilk in the HI business…semantics. You are forced off a plan because the HI or hospital system pulls out. You switch docs because the doc peace outs or the premium goes parabolic.
The other plans, of which I had before the ACA, were just fine. Liked em. They dont compare to ACA plans in a variety of ways, and at my age and health, are a much worse.risk/reward calculation than my early mid 40s.
So I’m reading a book called, Lies I Told in Medical School, by Doctor Robert Lufkin wherein he refers to several studies indicating the ineffectiveness of statins on treating coronary disease by controlling LDL. He put the efficacy at less than 1%. Now I’m not an expert in statins. I don’t take them. I’m also sure there are conflicting studies to this one. But he did make some pretty compelling points. It’s a pretty good read overall.
Not trying to be argumentative here, but just trying to understand your point. You said you had other plans before the ACA and you liked them. Why did you switch? And if they are better than the ACA in your 40s then why are they worse now?
Many of those insurance companies went out of business because they werent able to offer competitive products with the marketplace due to subsidies being given to a large percentage of the marketplace participants and the greatly increased coverage that was mandated by the ACA. Being a small business owner I can even conservatively make my adjusted gross income look very different than my cash flow, so that has in the past allowed me to participate in some of the subsidies.
I have more than a few friends that are also smaller business owners than I am that have had to drop medical coverage completely because either the premium increase from the participants in the plan in their area have jumped so high they can’t afford it even with subsidies or that the plan structure that they can afford is basically insurance if you get hit by a bus but really nothing else. If you pay $5,000 a year out of pocket for premium and then pay another $8,000 deductible before you get any Services besides an annual wellness exam and a couple other small things and then have a 30% copay to where you are exposed for another three to $6,000 once services start getting covered, and mind you all of this is based on reimbursement rates matching what the doctor’s office is charging otherwise you get to pay the difference on top of all that? Ultra BS.
Now that kind of insurance is not exclusive to the ACA. My brother works for a mortgage brokerage that has you know a few hundred people working for them and his insurance was costing him out of pocket for premiums for his family around $1,200 a month with individual $6,000 deductibles and then copay percentages. So he literally was burning 20 to 25,000 of cash of which he’d have to make almost $40,000 to cover with taxes before he saw one penny back from his f****** insurance plan. It’s ridiculously stupid and I understand why people talk about nationalized health care when you see things like this. That’s a whole different topic
Those plans fit my life better in my 40s because I was relatively healthier in some ways and more risk tolerant, so having a at that point $5,000 deductible plan with a very low premium around $75 a month was just fine. The scripts that I take are generics that are fairly cheap and I do my annual wellness exam which was part of the plan before ACA and I was good to go. If I get hit by a bus you know broke my leg playing softball you know whatever there would be some Financial consequences, but I was pretty willing to roll the dice. My mom’s father literally never had health insurance until he went on to Medicare, as a small business owner of a barbershop and a musician. Different times for sure as when he passed I was cleaning out his stuff and found the receipt from the hospital for the birth of my mom which covered a full week of care in the hospital. It was written on a 3x5 carbon scratch pad like you would see in a diner and was if I remember correctly about $67 total, and this was in 1941.
Nowadays My health is generally good but I amdefinitely I’m doing a lot more tracking of it with blood tests And Stuff like sleep studies and Home monitored EKGs Some minor complications that arose Based on Our shared Pandemic experience of the last Four years. I’m just simply less willing to entertain the thought of a five figure medical bill now that I am more likely to get it and closer to retirement and need to Sock away as much money as I can
2013 Sterling Meritage, NY Strips and steak sauce from St Elmo’s. My buddies and I ate at Izzy’s but they’re owned by the same people and use the same shrimp and steak sauce and who knows what else. Anyway, they smothered our steaks w/o asking at Izzy’s and I think it would have been OK /better on the side. Thanks to ManeLion for the steak sauce, he sent one for my buddy Marty the chef who was also with us for the INDY game.
I hear you man. Medical bills are crazy. My wife needed an ambulance ride when she dislocated her elbow White water rafting two years ago. The ambulance crew gave us the choice of three different hospitals and we picked Charleston because that’s where our hotel was. The paramedic said she could write it up so that it looked like they chose the hospital because of possible nerve damage and the Charleston Hospital had a neurologist on staff there and that way we would not be charged for the Mileage. Well, the bill showed up and 60 miles worth of an extravagant Uber ride cost us more than $4000 out-of-pocket. Mind you that was just the ambulance ride. Something has to give with the cost of medical care. This cannot go on this way.
So I used to go to a liquor store in East Dubuque, Illinois, called “Van’s”. Great prices and way lower taxes than IOWA. I see this Sterling on a bottom shelf for $6.99 a bottle. Whaaaat? I buy 3, take 'em home and they’re great. I go back and buy like 3 cases a couple weeks later and all my buddies are in. Then I go back and say, “I’ll take all you have.”, and the owner say’s, “No you won’t.” I figured he’s just passing on a good deal so much at a time to his regulars and then he says, “I got 44 cases, you in?”. Well, no, but I’ll take 5 more. I think I have 5 or 6 bottles left.
