Hi again, Sue, Our system is far from perfect. It's a multi-billion dollar enterprise ... and if you have a pot of honey sitting in the yard, don't be surprised if you attract a bunch of bees to go buzzing around! The system is a national one, largely ruled by the national government, and partly funded by them (but on a drastically reduced basis in recent years) - but administered provincially. The government-related agency is the only payer allowed, and I understand that in most provinces a doctor can choose to practise outside of that system, but if he does so, he must practise entirely that way, that he can't be billing the provincial system for part of the service that he offers (to avoid having him bill the lucrative stuff directly). The chief problem is that for many elective procedures, there is a long waiting list. When one has a painful hip, the prospect of waiting for more than a year to have replacement is not a pleasant experience. But I don't think that we use our operating rooms on a 24 hour basis, either. And they have beds (or O.R.s) shut down, sometimes - shortage of staff ... or shortage of money. Some people travel to the U.S. for care, at far higher cost, and some travel to such as India, where quality care is available, and at much lower cost, for people who can't wait in the line-up here (or whose service isn't covered, e.g. facial tucks - but they can be done here: private-pay). Sometimes (usually a rather small) part of their costs are recoverable from the provincial plan when they've gone elsewhere for service. While there are a good deal of tears shed over the shortage of staff, no one seems to get much out of breath running hard to get some trained people from other parts of the world to become licensed here: quite a few Ph.D.'s from various third world countries are driving cabs, here. Though a large number of Canadians can't find a family doctor, quite a few of us figure that the government isn't enthused about empowering a lot more doctors - which means more bullet holes in the rain barrel, depleting the water even more rapidly. And many of us feel that quite a few procedures currently restricted to doctors could well be carried out by nurses ... but no way are the medical associations going to stand still for any kind of nonsense like that being put into place! Plus - there's a shortage of nurses, as they cut back on training a while ago, and many of our grads move to the U.S. Same with our doctors. Seems to me that such people should reimburse for much of their training. But - we're just as bad - we seduce many such trained people from various less developed parts of the world, where such trained people are scarce and precious, and losing them something of a disaster. Also, many nurses work short hours per week per institution, in order to avoid the need to pay benefits to full-time workers. And any fool knows that a patient needs to be seen successively, day by day, by the same nurses - a lot of incipient problems can be forestalled by an observant nurse ... provided that s/he deals with the patient daily. Also - the medical system, in whatever country, is a bottomless pit. My old step-uncle, who died in his mid-80's a few years ago, had had three hip replacements. Such things were unheard of 50 years ago. And many patients undergo heart by-pass procedures in recent years: it's routine, these days. And we replace hearts, lungs, liver, kidneys, etc. (everything except heads?). I think that I heard a while ago that when a heart transplant takes place, something like 25 people are in the operating room. We old farts never heard of having MRI tests, CAT scans, etc. - but now they are reasonably commonplace (but still expensive). And they are learning of more complex (read "expensive") procedures day by day. Many Canadians are pleased with the system that we have. And there is quite a large number who complain about it. The main complaint is that people should be allowed to pay for their care, outside of the system, should they choose. To which some reply that it is possible, now - just convince some doctors that they should practise on a private basis, with all of their patients paying them directly. One of the major problems is ... ... that if a doctor sends in a request for payment for a visit, the payer must pay him ... or prove fraud. Many docs put patients through pretty quickly. And over-prescribe drugs ... partly to get the gal/guy off his/her back ... quickly? Many European countries have, generally speaking, quality health care, at much lower costs per capita than the costs under our system. And your sustem costs a lot more than ours, per capita ... and a substantial number of your people aren't covered, and do get some care, but many say that it's not first class. I'm thankful that on my occasional visits to my doc, for regular (if somehat infrequent) physical exam, he doesn't give me any indication that he's under time pressure. But we patients are aware that most of us sat for an hour or so after the time assigned to us, as well. I am mightily thankful that I've had almost no contact with the medical system for many years - haven't taken a pill in 30 years at least, I think. When my ex- (named Sue, by the way) was suffering on a downward trail with cancer a few years ago, our adult children felt that they had no complaint whatever with the care that she received. She'd been head of food service in a major local psychiatric hospital for 20 years (and ironically ... it was her gut that did her in!) and whether that enabled her to receive special treatment I have no idea, but I didn't hear any whisper of such a thing from the offspring. Good wishes to you and yours - and I hope that the New Year brings many pleasant surprises. ole joyful

I got all the documentation from MIL. I don't know who this adjustor is, but he clearly has less homebuilding experience than me. He totally missed the ballusters, handrails, misidentified the species of wood. The roof is damaged. There are chunks of siding missing and he didn't account for that. She does have replacement coverage, so I don't get the depreciation thing. I need to call them, but I need the contractor to add more detail to his written estimate as well. Tree removal is way more than $250 around here. You won't even get someone to come to your house for that. Plus there is nowhere to take them. The nearest disposal for trees is an hour away, so there is 2 hours of labor plus the dump fee there. It's a pine, so no one wants it. This was a huge tree, over 24" diamter. I don't know how to handle the siding and roof issue. The siding can probably be matched good enough, especially if we powerwash and restain the entire side (can I ask for that? It's cheaper than replacing the siding on the entire side). There is no way to match the roof, but the roof is circa 1990, and it isn't visible from the ground. Do we just patch that section and have it not match? I don't want to over reach, but I also don't want to not ask for what she is entitled to.

Well, this has definitely been a learning experience for us! We've not been happy with the level of responsiveness from our insurance company although it supposedly is ranked as one of the top companies in the country. In many ways they have screwed up from the get go. So, we've been feeling that we are definitely on our own on this one. After more than a month of hassling this, we are starting to think that perhaps we should have just hired a GC. But, at the start we didn't realize that the scope of the necessary repairs would keep expanding into the realm where a GC might be necessary. Our adjuster just told us to find some companies to bid on the heating and plumbing work (all that we initially thought was involved). As we get further into this, we are realizing all of the additional things that will need to be worked on. I guess we are lucky in that we have the funds in hand to pay for some of the initial expenses such as temporary lodging and initial diagnostic work on the house. A number of times we've talked about how in the world people who don't have the extra money would be able to handle making these payments and then waiting for reimbursement. Our insurance company didn't even step up and offer any assistance with finding temporary lodging until more than two weeks into this. And, then, they didn't have any better options than I'd managed to find after hours and hours of searching on my own. I think some of the issues we are having are due to our wanting to do things our own way to make sure they are done correctly and in a manner suitable to a 100 year old house. The insurance company has four approved contractors in our city, and if we had chosen to work through them all of the money would have gone directly to them through the insurance agency without us having to be involved at all. But, we started looking into reviews of those companies, and they weren't great. So, we opted out of using those approved contractors. We are ending up acting as our own GC, but it is a lot of work! We are lucky we have the time to do this. Yes, we have just considered paying off the rest of the mortgage and could do that. But, we live in a pretty pricey house and that is a good chunk of money that we might want to have available elsewhere in this entire process. So, we are sitting on that idea for a bit. And, when asking about pocketing some of the money by doing work on my own, my intent is not to defraud or raise rates. I just want to know why I could not do the painting myself since I am as capable as the professional that I know the insurance company will be paying a pretty penny to do the same work. So, are some of you suggesting that we just hire a GC, have the GC make a bid for the entire project, and then make our own arrangements with the GC on how we could save some of the total sum by doing the work ourselves? Thanks for all of the advice and personal experiences.

Dianalo, I beg to differ. I did not judge a doctor to be "less competent" because of his office decor. We were ~then~ talking about how office decor can have a psychological effect on people. I said that with this opthamologist, the decor was so depressing and uncomfortable to myself and my daughter that I decided to look elsewhere. Our long-time family eye doc had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly and I was looking for a new one to take my family to. There are many equally good eye docs in our city; my goal was to find one that was not only a good physician, but that I thought we would enjoy for the long-term. I don't need or seek out high-end or fancy offices, but I do appreciate comfortable ones. This can be achieved with a little or a lot of money as long as they put some thought into it and make their patients' comfort a priority. You have to also keep in mind that physicians and dentists are like everyone else, some really enjoy creating a great atmosphere for their patients,their staff and themselves just as we here enjoy creating a great atmosphere in our homes and our workplaces for our family, our friends and ourselves. Some don't and that's ok, too, as long as it's clean and comfortable. But . . . you give me the choice between a few equally good, well-qualified physicians with a pleasant, caring bedside manners and who all have good staffs and I'll pick the doc whose office I feel is the most welcoming and comfortable. But, an office that is thoroughly depressing and uncomfortable to me, as this eye doc's was, with the wood everywhere that actually gave me a sliver touching the wall; with dim, gloomy (seriously) lighting; with a lack of enough light to read by; with uncomfortable no-armed plastic chairs, lined up one next to the other so that I was bumping elbows with the person sitting next to me; with too few end tables to give you space between the people and to hold reading lamps; with hardly any magazines and the ones there were old and looked ratty; with a patient bathroom separated from the waiting room only by a thin door that was right between two of the chairs . . . and let's just say that sound carried very well out there, I couldn't help but think that this guy was not very concerned about his patient's comfort! Was this guy a good doc? Yes, but as I have already stated, there are many other equally good docs in town. And his prices were no lower than the rest. BTW, he dressed very well and was a pleasant person. I didn't judge him by his clothes, his shoes, or that he didn't spend a lot of money with his decor. That is not the issue; lack of patient comfort and apparent unconcern for his patients' comfort was the issue. It was my call to make and that was my (very detailed) criteria for making it (LOL!). Now, let us get back to how different interior decor in medical/dental offices can have a psychological effect on people.I find it a very interesting topic! Lynn