OT: Spark Plug Replacement- Mileage vs. Time

Shop I went to regulary was full so the owner gave me a scraper and sticker for the windshield and I had to do that while he stayed inside and filled out the paper work. Now they do have to plug in the computer on the newer cars.

PA changed once emissions started and went from twice to once a year.

CT had emissions every year but safety was only when the car was sold to a new owner.

FL has nothing, Pay two years for your tag and drive!

Is the author of the statement "...I'm trapped by patient first and Tricare prime." trapped because they elected to purchase a Medicare Plus plan sponsored by patient first rather than electing to use conventional Medicare, or because they are on an employee sponsored health care plan run by patient first as a benefit of their employment? If the former, they are free next year to discontinue the plan and use regular Medicare where they will have a much larger pool of potential providers (those that take Medicare and even better, that subset of medicare participating providers that accept assignment).

Tricare Prime (as I remember before I retired from the military and before I was eligible for Medicare, more than 20 years ago), was elective. Unless things have changed, I don't understand how anyone can be "trapped" by Tricare Prime. I'll assume the author didn't conflate Tricare Prime with Tricare for Life (TFL) which in my experience when I've needed to use it is a free and therefore very valuable Medicare second payer that has no premium, no co-pay and in my experience no deductible. If you use a provider that accepts Medicare assignment, regardless of what they bill Medicare, you end up paying absolutely nothing and the provider is prohibited by law from billing you for a penny of the the balance between what they received from Medicare + TFL and what was billed. I know TFL claims to have some sort of annual deductible but in my personal experience when they paid a portion of the provider's bill not covered by Medicare, I have never been required to satisfy a penny of deductible before they paid in full the balance of the Medicare maximal allowable charge that Medicare didn't pay.

I suspect you're being facetious (don't understand why you would make the comment) but in any case, that's how those "total body scan" outfits sell their services and stay in business. Make the patient afraid, very afraid. Of course, none of their total body scans are covered by any conventional medical insurance plan. The scammer/scanners disparage conventional medicine and the scientific studies that repeatedly show highly negative cost/benefit and risk/benefit ratios for doing "shotgun" fishing expeditions for "hidden disease". Of course, from a probabilistic perspective, there's always a chance that they will find some serious disease. But there's a much greater likelihood that they will get a false positive test result where further diagnostic and/or treatment interventions are likely to produce adverse health outcomes. The risk of producing those adverse outcomes resulting from chasing a false positive test is much greater than the risk of not finding a hidden, potentially lethal disease process.

\ Ding Ding Ding - we have another winner!!!!!

That's just for emissions

I tolds my doctor that if it was advertised on TV I did not want anything to do with it. My thinking is that if it was anything worth while the doctor would already know about it.

I liked the TV show House where the doctor told how the paten had ran out on one drug so they added something to the old drug so they could renew the paten and raise the price.

I think the insurance companies control the care one can get now.

I've been looking for your opinion on this one. I red somewhere that plugs freezing is part of the time limit. Why do they freeze? How much a factor is using high-temp anti-seize?

Why does that kill the coils?

I don't agree with your first sentence. Just because it is advertised, it still may be appropriate for you; especially if older, less expensive meds have been tried and either are insufficiently effective, you've had sufficient adverse effects from them to warrant stopping, or another med you've started but really need for another medical condition would cause a dangerous interaction with the previous med you had been taking. I strongly agree with your second sentence.

Yup. Our patent laws need to be amended to prevent this strategy which at present is legal and is widely used by drug companies to continue to sell their older meds under patent protection, keeping generic versions from being legally marketed. Of course, big Pharma spends a fortune on lobbyists who corrupt our lawmakers with big re-election campaign contributions (thank the Supreme Court majority for claiming that financial contributions are a form of "free speech" and are Constitutionally protected) to discourage any legislation that would benefit the patient at the expense of obscene profits for the drug companies.

They and the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) whose job it really is to benefit the insurance companies and drug companies even though the average citizen believes that the PBMs are supposed to benefit the patients.

There's talk in Virginia to shift the fees onto the plate renewal and remove the annual inspections. They might go to a 5year inspection.

Sorry but no banana for you today. Tricare prime (or stanard) is for active duty military dependents and for us folks who are military retirees (26 years USN, Husband 22years USN/Army). The military on retirement assins you to a civilian primary care site. For most in Hampton roads, that is 'Patient Care', as the military care facilities are overloaded. Patient first them makes referrals for any specialty care needed.

My husband is 73 and Medicare part B plus 'Tricare for life'. I am not

Fairly straight here. Just know Tricare Prime locks to a PCM and here, Patient First is a big multi-sited one. There's probably 50 of them through the area.

Thanks for the additional info re: Tricare Prime. We've lived for the past 35+ years only a few miles from what is now the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. When we moved to the area, it was the National Naval Medical Center and I was on active duty (USN). I worked in several tenant commands on the base and received all my care there. Upon retirement we've stayed in the area. Wife and I were both non-medicare eligible and signed up for Tricare Prime. I was assigned a PCM at NNMC and my wife was assigned a PCM at the old Water Reed Campus because she really didn't like the NNMC (I never understood why). Ever since the Base Closure Act consolidated NNMC with Walter Reed on the NNMC campus, we both continue to receive almost all our care there (and now she agrees with me that the care there is excellent). We only used Tricare Prime twice when a test or procedure was required and there was no availability on base and we were given a list of providers who would accept Tricare Prime coverage. When we've reached the age of medicare eligibility, we've transitioned to TFL just as you and your husband have. However, we both continue to have our PCMs at the base hospital and continue to get almost all our care there including all our prescription meds at the base pharmacy entirely for free. I forgot how atypical our situation has been. Space available for retirees, much less their dependents is very limited or non-existent at most military treatment facilities (MTF). I had no idea that the military assigns civilian PCMs to those who retire with Tricare Prime and where care at a MTF is either out of the catchment area or where there is no space available. I incorrectly assumed that since we 4 are required to participate in Medicare Part B to be eligible for TFL, we were free, as Medicare Part B beneficiaries, to choose whichever provider we wanted and still have TFL as secondary payer to regular Medicare. My bad. Yuck! You ARE locked in unless you choose to give up entirely on the military medical system and purchase your own medicare supplement plan.

antiseize can reduce the tendancy to seize but not eliminate it and too much anto-seize causes other issues. Also it is NOT installed at the factoty so you need to get the plugs out the FIRST time before they seize

When the gap gets too wide the firing voltage goes up and when it excedes the dielectric strength of the coil insulation the coil dies a horrible death

Doug Ford - Ontario's premier, got rid of renewal fees as well as emission testing. He's the "buck a beer" brother of Toronto's former Coke-head mayor Rob Ford.

Closer but up above you missed me sayining I am not 65 yet. I will go TFL and medicare part B when I hit 65. You can't before then. Hence, Tricare alone. I have about 9 months before I can file for it, then it kicks in with Social security at age 65. (most of the supplments make you wait too but TFL wants Medicare B). I am 64, not long now.

The only other 'option' is VA. They are a 95mile round trip for me and massively overloaded. Waits can be *4months* for an appointment at our VA.

If you wanted to wait on soc sec until 67 or whatever, could you still get your change in health benfits at 65. My impression was I could get Medicare at 65 regardless of when I started taking Soc Sec.

Medicare starts at 65. IIRC, there can be problems or penalties if you fail to sign up then.

Immigrants Enjoy Better Social Security Returns than U.S. Natives

For their first two decades of work in the United States, immigrants earning $10,000 or more per year receive 70 to 80 percent of the Social Security benefits paid for a full work life by native born Americans.

"

An article from a quarter century ago (September 98). The benefit formulas have changed since then.

"Taking those aged 51 to 61 years in 1992, foreign born men at retirement will have paid on average 76 percent of the taxes paid by U.S. born. But they and their family will receive 83 percent of the benefits."

Whoopty doo.