I took advantage of the break in the weather (it was about 50° or so and dry) and took down the outside lights. Although the Christmas season doesn't end until February, it was time to take down the decorations. We'll take the indoor decorations up until tomorrow, but after that, it's business as usual.
D went to a baby shower for Donna, so it was just the kids and I at home. We spent the afternoon watching the 'Skins lose (as I had expected) and then they were off to bed. N's tooth is loose and we tried to jimmy it out, first with floss and then with my fingers, but it's just not ready yet. I told him about how I would yank the tooth out as a boy by tying floss to it and then the other end around a door knob. I would then slam the door and the tooth would pop out. I don't recall how many times I did that, but I know it was at least once. It worked, but I didn't feel like doing that to him in case it wasn't ready to come out. Compared to M, though, he's not shy about wanting it out (nor is he afraid of the blood).
After the kids got to bed, I focused on sorting through various papers that need to be filed. After putting the safe to use, I discovered a Xerox box full of papers going back to 2004 that needed to be filed (or shredded, as the case may be). I spent most of the night doing just that while watching the Steelers-Jaguars game in the office. I was glad to see the Jaguars win, although I think they'll give the Patriots a tougher time than the Steelers would have.
Looking through the papers, I came across lots of old stuff (as was expected), including the trail of appeals to United Healthcare concerning their payment for the neonatalogist called in when N was born. They said he was out of network and therefore would only pay 25% of the bill (vs. 90%). Our argument was that since this was an emergency situation, they should treat it as such. As it turns out, the neonatalogist's office was at fault for not having a contract with the insurance company and they had to end up eating the amount we owed.
Compare that with the estimated cost worksheet we got from Aetna for how much it would cost us in out of pocket expenses when M was born and the difference couldn't have been greater: She was (literally) the $5 baby. It's amazing how much healthcare coverage changed in just four years.
What's even more ridiculous is that now that I'm working for a company with 100k+ employees, we're paying more in healthcare costs (deductibles, coverage, co-pays, etc.) than we were when I was working for a 500+ employee company. I guess the savings is passed on to the shareholders vs. the employees. I hope that maybe, just maybe, this will change in the coming months as open season comes up on the calendar, but, for some reason, I don't think it will. If anything, I would expect to see another increase in healthcare costs. Oh well, at least we have insurance.
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