Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles
PPOs don't cost that much more. Why bother with an HMO? With a PPO you go to the best guy. UCLA? Yes. Cedars? Yes. Doctors treat PPO patients differently. Doctors can be doctors.
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I fully agree with you Charles; My household has been covered by PPO for the past 25 years but I didn't want to sound elitist by mentioning that in my reply. When I had need for a specialist's care and opinion I was in UCLA that same week. My doctor of choice referred me there and that's all it took, no gatekeepes and no delays. At Kaiser they would have roadblocked, denied, delayed. After a code-blue or two they might have started softening up.
I can remember an acquaintance moaning about his family's overall treatment at Kaiser
after I'd asked him why he didn't just take the child at topic to a well-known local physician who had a great reputation for working well with kids, as well as treating them, (sometimes half the battle is getting a dialog going with a child-patient). That's when he told me he had Kaiser and proceeded with the usual Kaiser lamentations, bla-blah, blah, ad nauseum. Somewhat apologetically I told him I had PPO and went to whatever doctor I wanted. He told me they'd (his family would)
like to have PPO but couldn't afford it. That might be true in many family's cases but this guy was all about the Mont Blanc pens and new (albeit outdated) Ralph Lauren "Polo" shirts that I would
never have been seen in
way back when they were popular. His wife was a music instructor and occasionally played with orchestras. They were somewhat frequently at the music shop getting custom work done on her... fluglehorn (??), but they couldn't afford PPO for their 5 kids?
Ya' makes yer choices and ya' lives with 'em! I've got my own version of "There's no free lunch" and it goes something like this: with few exceptions, "If they're giving it away... run from it!" I've never been with an HMO and hope never to be. I'm not wealthy, not well off, but we live well as a result of our decisions. If they prefer to address their grocery budget
after they embellish their wardrobe, then let the Polo shirt crowd eat the Hamburger-Helper; meanwhile I'm wearing T-shirts... and eating filet mignon from Costco (I'm surprised that to date I've not had a bad one from there). Garbage in = garbage out; if your family eats crap and your kids siphon down gallons of HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) in their mega-size "free refill" sodas, you'll reap a brood of diabetic tumblebugs and end up taking them to the repair shop too often. I'm not a food-snob and we can't eat steak every night (we'd grow tired of it) but I insist on mainly nutritious foods. We consume a lot of meals that families on a tighter budget might opt to prepare but we read the ingredients and use discretion. Hunt's "Manwich"? It's a popular choice to stretch a pound or two of hamburger. I got us off it because it's full of HFCS. Instead I buy a small Contadina tomato paste and some Hunt's crushed tomatos and a can of whoever's tomato sauce. I just make sure the 3 cans total somewhere near the same ounces as "Manwich" and it still comes in cheaper at the register. Warm up the tomato-ey stuff in a separate pot so you can get a dollop of molasses and a tablespoon of brown sugar worked into it. Feeling frisky? Shake a dash (careful!) of habenero salsa in there too. You haven't lost any time because your burger's been frying with some salt-'n-pepper and maybe a drool of worcetershire; time to toss in those onions you pre-chopped. Then, in the last couple minutes on the heat, stir in a clove or two of minced garlic. You feel like Emeril and your family never wants to see a can of Manwich again. So you got an extra pot dirty; at least you didn't feed them high-fructose corn
sludge!
Yeah, I went off on a tangent, bigtime. The most key point is "garbage in, garbage out"; you settle for substandard healthcare, and that's what you'll get. Combine that with a questionable diet and your kids will be in seeing those Kaiser Kwacks more often than you'd like to think about. If you look around your lifestyle I'd bet there are things you'd trade for decent healthcare for your family. Maybe each of you sacrifices a little, but you all win too! What'll it cost to step up to PPO for a year? I have to confess that I don't know but if you've got a garage you've likely got a thousand dollars you don't know about. The time spent on this forum looking for answers could be spent listing items on eBay. You think you don't have anything anyone wants? If you've got one of those old red rubber hot-water bottles, you've got 10 to 30 bucks right there! Yeah, I'm talking about that cootie-catchin' thing that used to chase you around your grandma's shower while you writhed and undulated to avoid letting even your elbow touch it. Your instincts were correct; that thing was a freakin' enema device! People are buying (collecting?) those things on eBay and you know somewhere in all those dastardly attachments there's got to be a few par-tickles of petrified pookie. Yikes! Johnson & Johnson, B.F. Goodrich; any brand will do. If you've got the original box you get top money and if you have a wacky-colored bag (blue, green) it might hit the 50 dollar mark. That's just a worst-case example of the stuff people will buy on eBay. Leave that bag out in the sun with a stencil of the Virgin Mary over it and it might hit six figures!
Pass on those personalized license plate frames and you won't have to buy the chrome bolt covers to match them. Skip a few car washes. Make mowing the lawn a once-a-week family event that culminates with a back yard barbecue. With everybody snippin' and choppin' it won't take all of an hour to whittle that yard into proper trim. Not everyone can do all those things but look at it like this: zero out an imaginary balance scale then throw the importance of your family's healthcare on one side. Bang! The empty side goes up in the air. Now start stacking savings from all areas of your life (budget) on the high side until it balances out evenly. Would you suffer a crappy mechanic? Not likely, you'd probably dump him and seek a better one. Once you taste good healthcare you'll be more than willing to make all kinds of concessions when it comes to frivolous purchases.
Well ladies (mainly ladies), I now sort of feel I didn't belong in this thread in the first place, but if one family finds a way to jump up to a PPO as a result, then I suppose my presence was helpful. I'm glad some of the posters had some local doctors to recommend too. I'll take my busy fingers somewhere else now, Adios
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03-28-2008, 11:23 AM
Recommendation for a good OB/GYN in Thousand Oaks,Simi Valley area
Had them years ago. It was worse than no medical care at all.
(805) 497-8820 
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