A few years ago, my dad had a valve replaced, which is open heart surgery. Even though he lives in New Mexico, he wnt to Minnesota to have it done because in NM, their "copay" would have been 20K or something like that. Luckily for him, it was surgery that could wait for a trip to MN.

eta: and I should add that my parents have comparably good health insurance.

I'm so glad I work for socialists. My pay is crap, but my health insurance is gold-plated.

t high fives Jessica

Course I don't work for socialists, so much as tree-hugging hippies, but hey - po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.

I am very very very lucky. I look at my BCBS card and pet it every time I get frustrated with my job.

I've been feeling very lucky with my health insurance lately as well (though it's early enough in treatment that it could change). The only thing I'm on the hook for so far is the standard co-pay for the doctors' appointments, and the one pre-authorization I've had to get came in within a couple of hours, when the doctors thought it would take a couple of days.

flat rate co-pays no longer available in a lot of areas or from a lot of health plans. Glad that option is still available to you.

Seriously? I've never had it not be an option. And my current company is pretty small, relatively speaking.

I'm glad of it, because if I had to pay a %age of my regular ER bills, I'd be screwed. First thing I do when choosing a plan is check the flat rates.

I've been feeling very lucky with my health insurance lately as well

I understand this. When I was sick a few years ago (8 years ago now!! Cancer-free for 7 years, babee!), I ended up paying something like $200 out of pocket and that was it. Considering all the tests, scans, radiation, and 2 surgeries? That rocked. I was truly very very lucky.

7 years! Wooot!

When I was sick a few years ago (8 years ago now!! Cancer-free for 7 years, babee!), I ended up paying something like $200 out of pocket and that was it. Considering all the tests, scans, radiation, and 2 surgeries? That rocked. I was truly very very lucky.

This is AWESOME on so many levels.

The penultimate day of my Aussie friend's stay here, she had to go to the ER with a kidney stone. (Yay for getting it BEFORE the 21 hour flight rather than during).

$6000.

And that was after she negotiated it down. Which I didn't know you could do, but she pointed out that she was a tourist. I just sent her the bills from the ER; hopefully her Oz insurance will cover a lot of it.

Yay cancer free!

I don't have many choices with my health care. We have one HMO plan through work, and it's 20/80 for surgical procedures (the most expensive, of course). The copays in network for normal doctor's visits and such are very reasonable, but nsm big stuff. Now I know.

As for the certification, it's completely voluntary. Teachers need state certification to teach in public schools (none needed for private schools), but the national certification is basically a big, expensive feather in your cap. Kat is certified as well, but we are rarities. I don't know what the numbers are now, but when I got certified in 2001, there were only 50,000 of us in the country.