Monday, March 30, 2015

Review: Madonna's #RebelHeart

Madonna's 13th studio album Rebel Heart released March 10th on Interscope Records.   Thanks to OnetoOne Network (#O2O), I have enjoyed listening to this album for the past couple weeks.  Though I used to really enjoy Madonna's music, I haven't really kept up with her career, and I haven't seriously listened to her music in years.  It has been fun to catch up.

Madonna recently told Billboard that this new album explores two very distinct sides of her personality, the rebellious renegade side and the romantic side.  Of course, I didn't read that before I listened to the album, so had to go back and listen again to see if I could figure out which songs and lyrics reflect which sides of her personality.  (Yes, I know, tough, but someone's gotta do it!)

I find myself liking Madonna's softer side best, though it's hard to resist that Unapologetic Bitch side.  Madonna is who she is, and she's not afraid to tell the world. 

The songs I like best are Body Shop,Wash All Over Me, and Best Night, but overall I am enjoying the whole album.  I really like Madonna's voice, and the music on a lot of these tracks make it really hard to sit still.  So why try?  All the lyrics may not be entirely appropriate, and I may not really understand what Madonna is trying to say, but I'm still liking the listening.
"I'm in Heartbreak City, and it's not that pretty"

You can download Rebel Heart on iTunes, and be sure to check out Madonna on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

I participated in the Madonna Rebel Heart album review program as a member of One2One Network. I was provided an album to review but all opinions are my own.

Friday, March 06, 2015

True Healthcare Reform

Medical BillingThis whole Obamacare idea of requiring everyone to have health insurance or be fined for not having it, doesn't seem to have anything to do with healthcare reform or making health care affordable.  In fact, I have a friend who was quoted over $900/month for insurance - not remotely affordable.

True healthcare reform would mean that doctors, hospitals, and clinics would be required to charge reasonable fees - to everyone.  The biggest step in moving toward in true healthcare reform seems to be a requirement for reasonable charges and fees - not a requirement for those in need of healthcare, but a requirement for those providing it.  It's crazy how much a basic doctor visit or lab test can cost!  But that's not the craziest part.  The craziest part is that they charge those ridiculous amounts, then, if you have insurance, the insurance company looks at the charges and says, "No, that procedure or visit should only cost this small fraction of the original charge.  That's all we will pay."  And that's that - the doctor, hospital or lab gets paid what the insurance company says they get paid.

 Example: We got a recent bill for some kind of lab tests.  For some reason, the lab hadn't gotten the insurance information, so they billed $70.  We didn't pay that.  We gave them the insurance information, and the end result was that the insurance company disallowed basically $60 of the original $70 and paid the lab $9 and something.  And that was that.

 But why do we even need insurance companies for this?  If the lab would simply charge about $10 in the first place, most people could afford that.  (especially if they're not forced to pay money they don't have to get insurance in the first place)  And for those who can't afford even that, those subsidies the government is supposed to provide would go a lot further if they would go toward providing actual care instead of paying some insurance company.

Doctors and hospitals should have to make their costs and fees for everything public, so people could look at them ahead of time and be able to choose a provider based on cost, if that's what they want to do. Where else do we 'buy' something without knowing beforehand what it is going to cost us?  Groceries, clothes, cars, houses, etc.  We get to decide ahead of time what we are going to buy and what we can and cannot afford (never mind the over-use of credit cards) because we are given the prices and costs up front.  But go to the doctor, and that cost is always a surprise after the fact, and even if we did know ahead of time, who knows what a normal and reasonable cost is.  Is this doctor charging me more than the one down the street?  Is this charge reasonable or maybe an extremely good deal?  There's no way to know.

It seems to me they went at this whole idea of healthcare reform the wrong way.  But, they didn't ask me...

Medical Billing and Coding companies