But what if...?

Hey all,

Hope you are having a good week. I made it through the weekend of watching all four kids. The pizza party was absolutely crazy; we ended up making 7 pizzas. The kitchen was a disaster, but I think everyone had a good time. I don't know, because all I did was make pizzas all night. My mom came about at 7pm and helped with getting the baby a bath and into bed. By the way, said baby is teething and is a crying, snotty mess most of the time.

Got up at 3:30am to run, it was a beautiful 77 degrees out. The run totally sucked. I did pretty well until about 16 miles, and then I just didn't feel like running anymore. One problem - my truck was 4 miles away from where I stood. So I had to get my sweating, tired, cramping, angry butt back to the parking lot. I am not going to be ready for the marathon at this pace. It is in 6 weeks and I am feeling like I am in big trouble. One problem is that I have already spent over $1200 getting the f!@#$%^ing tickets to run in this f!@#$%^ing marathon with the flight, the hotel, the registration. Isn't running great?

Saturday I couldn't really move from the couch because I just didn't want to. Madison went to Disney and me and the boys just hung out. On Sunday, everyone made it to church with clothes on, so I call that a total success. It was very nice to see my wife again, with much more appreciation for her than before she left.

One last thing... We haven't talked about TV in a while, but for us right now it is all TNT and USA network. We are watching "The Closer" and sometimes "Rissoli and Isles" on Mondays. The rest of the week we are watching stuff like "Burn Notice," "White Collar," and "Covert Affairs." This week I started taping "Flashpoint" on Friday nights. We tape them all, so I don't really know when they come on, but we really like these summer shows. And, of course, "Cake Boss." Forgetaboutit.

Tomorrow is the START OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!! Are you kidding me?!?! I am so excited. But you know what else is starting tomorrow? Orangewood Christian School's middle school football. It is not going to be televised, so I will let you know how it goes.

Topic

I want to talk about getting hurt. Not hurt like "I got a boo boo on my little finger." I mean hurt like you have to miss work hurt. Like, if you broke your hand playing basketball with your kid. Or if you tore your ACL during a coed soft-ball league game. Or if you were in a car accident and had something really serious happened to you.

Back in the old days my father was part of a group. There were about 10 dentists that got together and vowed that if anyone ever got hurt the other 9 would take shifts working at his office to keep the office afloat.

I heard a couple of months ago that a local orthodontist had cancer. I don't know him very well (in fact, I wouldn't know him if I bumped into him on the street), but I know he lives in my neighborhood. So I called his house (neighborhood directory) and talked to his wife. I told her that I just heard about her husband and asked her if the family needed anything. I asked if they needed meals and I told them I would be praying for them. Then I asked if the practice was going to be okay and if she needed anything from me in that capacity. She then told me about the group he is in. Turns out he is in one of those groups of about 5 orthodontists and they are working at his office.

It got me thinking. Now, I have never had to worry about this kind of stuff. I am in a practice with my dad, so if either of us gets hurt then the other one picks up the slack. I have had some mishaps (broke my wrist, had surgery on my finger) and it was no big deal. My father has had to have some surgery and he wanted to take time off to recover and it was nothing.

But what does the solo practitioner do? Do the groups still exist? Do you just cross your fingers and hope nothing ever happens? What the heck is going to happen to our practices if we get hurt? And... what would happen to our families?

Do you have disability insurance? I have to admit that I have disability insurance, but don't know how much. I don't know the parameters of the plan. I don't know when they start paying. I don't know how much they would pay. I don't know anything. I THINK that it will start paying out in 90 days and I THINK it is tax free and I THINK my income would go down significantly.

I know I have the maximum insurance, but I don't think it would cover all of my income. I just found out that insurance will only pay 60% of your income (seems that if they will give 100% of your income the incentive to go to work goes way down, and all of a sudden that hangnail will keep you from work).

I have to pay for so many insurances that I stopped caring about all the insurance decisions I have to make. For me, it is out of sight, out of mind. I have never used it, so why would I have to keep it fresh in my mind? I know, I know that is a bad attitude to have, but I don't have the capacity to store all this information. (I can, however, tell you all the stats for all of the last 9 Gator quarterbacks... weird, huh?)

How is it for you? Are you burying your head in the sand and not worrying about it?
Are you over-insured? Do you have advisers? Do you have an insurance agent who basically tells you what to do? Do you ever double check him/her?

Let's not even talk about malpractice insurance. I don't know a thing about that. I think in this instance I am over-insured. Come to think about it, I hate ALL insurances. I know it is called insurance for a reason. It is "just in case." But I pay all this money for my car insurance, and have never been in an accident. I pay all this money for disability, and I never get hurt. I pay all this money for malpractice insurance, and have never had a claim against me.

I pay for fire, flood, theft, car insurance that I never use. In fact, in the fifteen years I have carried all this insurance, I remember using the insurance once. Home, office building, work, car. All of it, ONCE. So why would I bother understanding all the ins and outs of all my policies?

And the worst of it... I have this huge life insurance policy. If I "expired," my wife would be living very large and here I still write you - living. Go figure.

Have a great Wednesday
john

Tomorrow... college football... who cares who is playing? YEAH!!!!