expensive life lessons about insurance

[Mac_Bug]

Yes, this is an opportunity for me to fume, just a little pissed off about the whole dental insurance coverage thing here.

As you all know, I'm in Canada, and we supposedly have free, or at least, universal healthcare. Well, that's true, except if I can eat and I can walk, I'm not entitled to get an operation so I can run, so to speak. I have come to the conclusion that Canucks generally aspire to play in the NHL for their excellent dental coverage, because Canadians suffer from private insurance companies all the same like their southern neighbors in that department.

So, beginning after christmas since my mom decided to leave for another job and the threat of losing dental coverage looms, I decided to see a dentist and get the insurance money's worth (that, and my front tooth filling is cracking) - only to find the not surprising news that I needed 3 fillings, a root canal and a crown. (did I mention... 3 wisdom teeth?) Sure I said, not realizing what that would cost me (bye bye new video card), thinking I'm covered 80%. After racking up 500 dollars worth of work, I get a statement mailed back saying they are't paying a penny cause I'm over coverage age. Almost gave me a heart attack.

Fortunately that's easily fixed by proving that I'm a full time student going to university, except they somehow 'lost' my crown preauthorization request and it resulted me in having to suffer another xray. Today somehow the rejection statement from a month ago finally wandered into my mom's hands after being bounced from my res to sun to my mom's employer and then to her because somewhere someone fucked up the address matching with the names, and I was in for a very unhappy time trying to explain how I don't have to pay for 700 dollars of work.

Then I decided to make use of their 'online' features and check my claim history in real time, turns out my crown was pre-auth was completed - great, except they don't cover a penny. Under the plan I'm supposed to be covered for 50%, that's what I thought, that's what my dentist and his health insurance specialists thought. Nopers.

Then I notice something else perculiar - 3 fillings, each costing roughly 90 bucks, not covered at all because 'they've been worked on in the past 24 months already'. Yet my previous dentist only has on record of 1 of them, not the other 2. Judgement pending, find out on Friday.

Wisdom teeth removal? Forget it. I don't want to do it this month due to exams and generally I'm a big pussy who's afraid of drinking soup for the rest of the week, plan runs out at the end of the month and I can't get back on the student plan either short of killing my parents. Whoopy.

So now I will have to shell out at least 100 bucks for like 2 grams of fillings (is that like heroin or something?) and they only charge that much because normal people are covered by insurance.

Just think, if I had perfect teeth, I could've bought a new video card and stopped eating instant noodles.

Moral of the story: brush your teeth. Find out exactly what your freaking dental insurance plan is before you use it, besides cleaning, always get it preauthorized and not the other way around.

So. What are some expensive lessons you ppl learned recently? parking in red zones do not count.

[Dyntheos]

reading this post.

I want 5 minutes of my life back.

[mrmin123]

oonst oonst
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tsnoo tsnoo

[Mac_Bug]

you're THE moderator, one would think you'd want a lot more of your life back

[Dyntheos]

only when i read your posts mac

[molo]

MODARATION IS KEY. including brushing teeth and eating candy. and masturbating.

[Mac_Bug]

amen

[Capella]

Your dental work will last a bit longer than a vid card, enjoy the fact you have access to it.

carrier

[ceejayoz]

Originally posted by molo
MODARATION IS KEY. including ... masturbating. Heresy! Heresy, I say! :p

[ShivaArchon]

My family never had dental insurance, and they sent me to that horrific place every 6 months. *Shrugs*

[SquidDNA]

On topic, YES. Always be sure to find out in advance what specifically will and won't be covered. After a $310 lesson early last year, I find out now (after thinking that I have everying down) that while services at the University Family Health Center are covered, the goddamn labs aren't.

I know this is whole business is complicated, but there should be a better UI, as it were.

[Soupy]

Here at Relic we have excellent dental coverage, and I still got nailed

My wife had her wisdom teeth out, which was covered... with a catch.

The surgery was covered 100%, but not the anasthetic, which was something like $540.

Who the #$%* gets surgery with no anasthetic?

[Capella]

Well just having insurance is a nice thing don't you think?

I have a major madical plan only, so most of my medical bills are out of pocket.

However I am still a little better off becuase my insurer, even though they do not pay the bills (until they excede a very high deductabele), they do re-rate what the doctors charge as allowabble, so the final bill I pay is a little less. Usually 10 to 20 percent.

Compare that to someone with no insurance coverage at all, they would pay even more out of pocket. Go figure.

I don't have dental, I do what is called "self-insuring" also known as "hope for the best".

c

PS, you can always buy stock in the company that is not paying on your health plan as you expected, and get it back in the form of capital gains or dividends.

[Bri_Dog]

Originally posted by Soupy
Here at Relic we have excellent dental coverage, and I still got nailed



You guys got any openings?

I can test games :D

[Reignfire]

Originally posted by ceejayoz
Heresy! Heresy, I say! :p

You just want to slay more kittens :naughty:

[Vaarok]

Huh. Your wife needed five hundred canada dollars of anaesthetic for wisdom teeth?

I had three yanked all at once, one of which was sideways and one impacted, with just two shots of local novacaine. No problems, no extra charge.

Also got to scare the hell out of the doc, since he'd never done such a large-scale yanking on a conscious patient who acknowledged that it hurt during the gum-cutting and wrenching, and yet had no lasting complaints.

Then again, the standing up, thickly saying "thanks doc!" shaking his hand and walking out into the waiting room after watching him use pliers needles and knives and things on the inside of my mouth with no negative reactions might've creeped him out.

[Illuminati_guy]

Alot of Companies wont pay for anesthesia mine does but only if they think its a must have

There is nothing better then talking to a Bill Lumbergh type about a broken leg and getting a bunch of double talk about how its better for me that I dont use mild pain killers Then I looked at his diplomas and he is not even a Doc but a lawyer

[Starfisher]

My wisdom teeth were fun. All four, all impacted. They had to shatter them to get them out. I was knocked out, thankfully, as the whole thing ended up taking an hour and a half, two hours. I couldn't breathe without wincing for a week. (and being an idiot I never got my vicadin prescription filled. Nothing like no painkillers and massive pain to kill a week.)

Anesthetic was something like $700. I think the cost isn't in the gas or the drug so much as it is the specialist that keeps you from getting a lethal overdose.

[Liberator]

Originally posted by Soupy
Here at Relic we have excellent dental coverage, and I still got nailed

My wife had her wisdom teeth out, which was covered... with a catch.

The surgery was covered 100%, but not the anasthetic, which was something like $540.

Who the #$%* gets surgery with no anasthetic?

A masochist.

It begs the question though, if they cover the surgery, why not the anesthetic? I mean you can't get one without the other usually.

[Green_Flame]

what can i say stupid move hahahahahahhahahahahah

[Paladin]

I can't imagine what doc would be insane enough to let a patient have their wisdom teeth extracted without a general. A conscious patient during that sort of surgery is just asking for a mishap followed by a malpractice suit.

-Paladin

[Green_Flame]

here in sweden all under 15 or was 16 have free dental and operations on.......its hospitals........but sadly i think they stoped that this year

[littlegreencube]

What the HELL are you trying to say?

[Moe]

Soupy, you probably could have gotten her drunk enough not to notice any pain for a lot less money...
On a more serious note: Green_flame, what in the world does that mean?

[Green_Flame]

its fun to confuse you

[jetfx]

Because I'm a young adolescent male, that means I'm completely and utterly reckless, or at least to my car insurance company. I probably am totally reckless, but not in my parents car. My parents pay $1200(can) a year for me to drive. It would be closer to $2000 if I didn't take young drivers. Both my parents have perfect driving records. My first cousin, who's a girl pays $300 a year, $500 without YD. Why is insurance so sexist? Around here girls crash their cars far more than guys, probably because the guys are deathly afraid of what would happen to their insurance if they so much as scratched the car...

[Green_Flame]

YOU SEE males get more paid so we can aford the insane hight insurenses (but still we dont earn 900dollars more)

[Vaarok]

I can't imagine what doc would be insane enough to let a patient have their wisdom teeth extracted without a general. A conscious patient during that sort of surgery is just asking for a mishap followed by a malpractice suit.

C'mon. It's commonplace dentistry. They hit you with novacaine, cut your gum open, yank the tooth out with pliers, stitch the gum shut, you sit there for twenty minutes biting on gauze until they're sure you're not going to die, and you walk out and pay the receptionist.

I mean, shit, when I was losing my baby teeth as a cub I'd sometimes take a pair of needle-nosed pliers and yank a particularly loose tooth myself.

[ionfish]

Wisdom teeth are a bit different to baby teeth, Vaar.

[SquidDNA]

Yes, but Vaar isn't a normal human being.

[ceejayoz]

Originally posted by Paladin
I can't imagine what doc would be insane enough to let a patient have their wisdom teeth extracted without a general. A conscious patient during that sort of surgery is just asking for a mishap followed by a malpractice suit.

-Paladin Actually, that's standard procedure in most dentists' offices. I had to specifically request general anesthesia. Most of my friends who've had it done were conscious but somewhat sedated during the procedure - just local anesthetic.

[Vaarok]

Yeah. Wisdom teeth required a professional to cut them out of my jaw tissue and stitch up my gums, and took a week to heal. But the amount of tissue damage and pain during and after the surgery were barely worthy of consideration despite the amount of work I had done. Thus I do not understand Paladins' statement.

[Moe]

General anesthesia is avoided when possible. I had extensive surgery done on my teeth, all with local. My cornea transplantation was also done with local.

[ionfish]

What did it look like?

[Paladin]

Well, some people may avoid general because they're afraid of the risks, but if I were a doctor I'd avoid local because of the risks to my bank account and malpractice insurance premiums.

-Paladin

[Coldblade]

im probably just insane, but i have never went to the doctor to have my tooth pulled, i just always sat there and wait untill it was loose enough to rip out with a pillar, so *shungs* hurt for a tad but aint bad afterall.

and oh yes i had 4 wisdon tooth yaked out at the same time, they had to knock me out completely cuz couple of them was next to a nerve and if they cut it i would lose control of some of my tongue or some wierd shit like that.

anyway i woke up walked out, drank some shake and never needed to take any painkiller, i took one pill the first day right after sugury but for rest of my days never needed any, and guess what, that was just 4 days after i got better from being downed by double lung pneuma, and i'll tell ya, that one SUCKS bad.

all i remember is i was fine one day, then next day i couldn't even walk and had like 104 or so degree feever and that pesented for what about a week, and they had several x-ray and it got so bad that if i held my breath for like a second just to swallow food i would feel faint.

advice to ya all, don't get pneuma. it suck

[ASnogard]

Dental insurance is not the only insurance you must be carefull with - basically all types of insurance are suspect, study all of them carefully.

A friend had household insurance, the premiums were steep but the risk was great enough to validate the expense, till the house was broken into. The insurance refused to pay on the account that the grarage window lacked burglar bars....

Fact: Nothing was taken from the garage, only the household items were stolen.

Fact: The burglar did not use the garage window to gain entrence - he cut the bars on the toilet window.

Fact: The garage is not attached to the house...there is no way to gain entry to the house via the garage window.

Despite this the insurance was able to forfeit on payment due to a technical - happy to take your money till they have to fork out, pah.

[Paladin]

I was under general when they extracted my wisdom teeth. I have really long roots, and they had to actually remove a couple small bits of my jawbone to get the teeth out. Was on vicodin for two weeks.

ASnogard: Your friend should have taken them to court on it. Adjusters will always try to screw you.

-Paladin

[Green_Flame]

so the fucking insurens didnt pay becuse the garage wasen´t protected ???? and it wasent even attached to the house....

so the isursens company most have thought he had a teleporter in garage and used it to teleport into the house ???

[NovaBurn]

Originally posted by carrier
Your dental work will last a bit longer than a vid card, enjoy the fact you have access to it.

carrier

BUT DO TEETH HAVE 8 RENDERING PIPELINES AND CAN RENDER VOLUMETRIC FOG? I THINK NOT

Video Card > teeth
:heyhey:
:heyhey:

[littlegreencube]

anesthesia can

[Moe]

Ion: I didn't see too much, because a) that transplant was being done for a reason, that reason being that I was as good as blind on that eye and b) the anesthetic did something to my vision.
I was also given a sedative. The whole thing wasn't too bad, although the first shot you get is right under your eyeball, and that friggin hurts.