On 10/31/97 12:46 PM, Tim May (tcmay@got.net) passed this wisdom:

I had an engineer working for me who cheerfully used the company medical plan for all it was worth. If his kid had a cold, off to the doctor. If his wife felt feverish, off to the doctor. If he had an upset stomache after lunch (understandable considering the state of company food and burrito-vending machines in 1980), off to the doctor. He may have paid $5 per visit. Of course, he took off a lot of time to make these various treks to have his kids, himself, and his wife "treated" (given aspirin, told to drink plenty of fluids, whatever). A nice racket for the hospitals.

This is one (of many) things my ex-wife and I used to disagree on ... she would want to haul the kid or herself off to the Emergency room everytime anything happened ... the idea of sleeping on it and seeing how it seemed in the morning was foreign to her; I can see that broken limbs getting sharp raps in head etc ... but every little sniffle ... of course premiums are up. For us, it was zero co-pay since between my retired military status and back then Raytheon medical coverage I never had to lay out a penny, when its that free eats easy to over-indulge ... and during those times I spent in the ER waiting room I saw many other doing the same thing. Brian B. Riley --> http://www.macconnect.com/~brianbr For PGP Keys <mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key> "Home is where your books are" -- Kitty O'Neal