healthcare

I go to showdown way too much. Those little river bets in small pots kill me.

I don't have health insurance right now, although that may change b/c UTD has a student policy available. The reason is simple, I'm young and don't want to pay $200+ a month.

A lot of liberals think health care is a basic human right along with housing and a job. Besides the basic conservative line of thinking that the freedom of choice and responsibility is more important there is also the issue that dead beats would just take advantage and never feel any consequences. I do think it would be great if health care was available and affordable to everyone.

The only problem is that our government, much like the 18% of Americans under 65 including the young and healthy, cannot afford it which begs a question that is never asked. Why is health care so expensive? I have a few hypotheses that have no facts to back them up but are based on the little information I acquired while working in medical billing.

Most insurers have agreements with what hospitals or doctors they use. If you go out of the network for the insurer you use your bill is not covered. So the hospital thinks this is great and even gives the insurer a discount. I looked at so many eob's, explanation of benefits, which is basically a receipt showing what the insurer paid and they are writing off anywhere from 25-75% of a bill, especially medicare.

So the hospital is getting screwed because if they don't like it the insurer will go to another network. In order to recoup the reduced income they have to raise prices. Keep in mind uninsured individuals don't get to write off any part of their bill. So now fewer people can afford to pay out of pocket and are forced to not pay or file bankruptcy. The insurers who don't like the increases prices look for ways to deny a claim for any bogus unrelated reason they can find. Well now the hospital is losing more money and must increase the prices again.

One side note involving medicare... All hospitals must serve everyone whether or not they have any intention of paying. Although this has to be done what ends up happening is illegal aliens go to the emergency room for every little need and never paying. I'm not saying they all do it blah blah but so many claims with a Hispanic name and no social security number ended up going through our system 3 or 4 times before somebody higher up than me just had to claim it as a loss.

I have no idea what the laws and regulations regarding insurers are but that is where the problem lies. Medicare/medicaid is already 1/3 of our national budget. National programs are wasteful and inefficient and only serve to give those in power more power to garner votes. Find out why health care prices are so exorbitant and fix it. Everything else will fall in line.

random stuff

Before my 3rd session yesterday I decided I'm not going to look at hem while playing. I was refreshing it pretty much after every medium sized pot. Too many of my decisions have been based on how I was doing which was bad either way. I'd be thinking about protecting wins, not risking more, winning back losses, or running up wins. I'd also be thinking about how loose or tight I was playing and adjust when the tables should be the only thing dictating that. So far it has at least kept my mind more at ease just thinking about each play based on it's validity and game flow.

My friend made a game for iphones and ipods called firehive. There are a bunch of bees buzzing around the levels and you try and set off a chain reaction with one bee that lights all of them on fire. It's entertaining and a little frustrating.

diet

For what seems like forever I hit a wall several times a day and just feel tired. When I was working full time there was really nothing I could do about it besides just to continue working or get some sugar in my system. I had a couple of spots where I could hide and take a nap where no one would find me but those were taken away.

Now playing poker 20-25 hours I could just be lethargic and take several naps throughout the day. It is partially my sleep schedule, but I have been getting 8 hours a night pretty regularly. The only other explanation is my diet. I do get some vegetables, tomatoes and cucumbers on a sandwich, but practically no fruits as I eat out for pretty much every meal.

I have no intention to start shopping for groceries or doing any cooking so the other night I went and got a big multivitamin. 100 tablets for $4. I now have energy throughout the day. Last night I put it to the test. In June I was running several times a night and was jogging about 5 laps with some 100/200 yard sprints at the end. After almost a month of doing no exercise I went jogging last night and did 6 laps with ease.