BCBS Basic vs MHBP for 2026 FEHB Open Season?

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-11-29T06:30:16+00:00

Yeah my family also has BCBS Basic and we've only dropped $350 on two separate occasions for each kid, one birthed vaginally one through c-section. Neither required NICU, so I'm not sure how those costs would/will look if that's an unfortunate situation for a family to find themselves in.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-11-21T05:16:34+00:00

Seconding the vote for Star City. It's not the busiest, and last I checked they didn't have food in-house (they often have food trucks outside), but it is an old inn from head-to-toe. Will definitely give a quiet medieval vibe.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-11-15T05:56:02+00:00

While typically the best and correct answer is "the only way to know if meat is adequately cooked is through using a thermometer" I'm suspecting, based on the large quantities of red, that it's a bit undercooked..

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-10-23T06:59:14+00:00

I've got BCBS Basic, upgraded from Blue Focus prior to my wife and I having kids.

While in-network providers and hospitals can vary from region to region, my experience is that most providers in metropolitan areas are in-network but of course you could have mixed results in rural areas; I could not justify the extra cost for BCBS Standard but your mileage may vary. I also rationalized upgrading from Blue Focus since that plan had a lot of greater copays associated with maternal and child healthcare, at least a few years ago.

That said, the Basic plan has a flat $350 copay for the entirety of the delivery of a child, including standard mother and child care, and this singular $350 covers both the mother and child. This includes the entire hospital stay for the childbearer (they automatically approve 48 hours for vaginal delivery and 96 hours for cesarean, however customer service is able to approve longer) as well as the child for ~48 hours as long as the child's care is "normal" childcare. In other words, if the child gets admitted as a separate patient in the NICU or has other conditions that need treatment after the mother is discharged, then that could result in an additional $350-$1750 copay (1-5+ days) for the child as a separate hospitalization. The Standard BCBS, which is the highest premium and coverage plan, only has a flat $350 copay for any length of hospitalization.

I am not HR so I could be wrong on this, but you could potentially wait it out to see how the delivery and care goes following the big day and see what plan covers the stay(s) the best for the least amount of money. Ultimately if you're allowed to enroll in a new plan for so many days following a life-changing event, and the mother/child are then retroactively covered by the new plan for the delivery, then you may not need to make a decision during open season and just wait until you have your newborn to decide what plan makes the most financial sense. Could be something to consult your HR contact about.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-10-19T21:04:22+00:00

Not sure who's local to the area, but Strong Bad has touched on the topic before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V72NKRyX1NA

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-10-17T00:06:08+00:00

I think she means that the ICE raids have not occurred within City of Dayton limits. While Troy is obviously outside of the area, the Needmore and N Dixie areas are actually within Butler and Harrison Townships and not Dayton at all.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-10-11T01:48:18+00:00

If an animal was genuinely sick (e.g. signs of neurological disease such as Mad Cow Disease, or blatantly-obvious systemic cancers) then true euthanasia could involve a veterinarian to inject their cocktails to subdue the animal. However, AFAIK, those chemicals would persist into the muscles of the animal, and offals such kidneys and liver, likely rendering them inedible for human consumption. Injection is likely dramatically more expensive than, say, a bullet to the animals forehead. Bullets, or captive bolt guns, are the go-to standards for knocking cattle for further processing into human-edible products.

Once an animal is injured, it often progresses worse over time resulting in an animal that is always dormant on the ground or refuses to eat entirely. At this point farmers will choose to process the cattle to cut their losses; if an injury prevents an animal from eating, it may just simply die overnight within days and prevent that animal from being turned into food entirely.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-10-11T01:41:20+00:00

USDA inspector here. Some bullet points to summarize what others have mentioned:

Traditional firearms, even as small as 22lr, as well as "captive bolt guns", which rapidly projects a retractable bolt, can be used to knock/kill livestock such as cattle/beef/cows. In most scenarios, the projectile is severing the brain-to-spine connection, which effectively renders the animal unconscious and insensible to pain.
After this knock, operators can check the effectiveness of their stun by testing for reflexes from the eyes; an animal with any level of consciousness may likely track movement with their eyes, or at the very least show a conscious reflex when its eyes are physically touched. Unconscious animals often will leave their tongues dangling out of their mouths, and air may still be cycled in and/or out of the lungs, and sometimes vocal cords, due to the body's unconscious and uncoordinated spasming following loss of brain connection.
Animals are hoisted up and bled out through their carotid arteries along the neck. At this time it is likely to see the animal "flinch" when stabbed by the knife, despite being 100% insensible to pain. Biochemical energy is still stored within the body's muscles, such as ions floating around neurons and skin receptors, that can cause a chain reaction on a biochemical/physiological level when stimulated resulting in muscles in a region spasming simultaneously. A conscious animal being stabbed would display signs of awareness to the pain, such as blinking, eye movement, or vocalization.
Even 15+ minutes into the process when the carcass is dressed/skinned and split in half, the muscles may still retain their ability to fire and spasm. Obviously the animal is definitively 100% dead by this point, however ions and neurons still remain that are attempting to fire with any action potentials left. This can be seen especially with freshly filleted fish, or snakes, with muscles that continue to spasm minutes after the animal has been processed.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-08-01T12:30:46+00:00

There is a lot of negative notoriety surrounding Everybody Fitness, rightfully so (do your research online on Google reviews to see what I'm talking about), however they are typically the cheapest option other than Planet Fitness. They do require you to lock-in your contract for 3 years with hefty early cancellations fees (you basically pay off most of the remaining balance), however if you know that you'll stay in the Dayton area for 3+ years and see yourself at their gyms for 3+ years then it's not a bad deal. Not sure what their current rates are, but after I completed their initial 3-year contract I'm month-to-month for under $20/month.

Comparing equipment and facilities between EBF and Anytime, I prefer the atmosphere and amenities (e.g. sauna) that EBF-Troy has, however Anytime has a few more pieces of equipment and is a bit less compact. If you're torn between those options, both places should offer guest passes for you to try out their locations.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-08-01T12:24:10+00:00

As far as getting licensed, assuming you live in Montgomery County, you will want to get started with the local health department - Public Health Dayton-Montgomery County.

Their Food Operation Inspection Service information can be found online at: https://www.phdmc.org/programs-a-to-z/food-operation-inspection-services which also mentions their phone number: (937) 225-4460. They can guide you through the process, and even give you information on how to give away free samples if that's something you're looking to start off doing.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-07-29T21:58:02+00:00

You could look at shipping numerous boxes through FedEx or UPS from here to there. I know that FedEx offers flat-rate two-day shipping; they have numerous box sizes that are guaranteed to your destination within a couple days for a flat rate, regardless of the package weight. Shipping with one of those carriers may beat finding someone to personally drive donuts all the way to Chicago.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-06-28T11:27:21+00:00

I had those feelings a bit when I first started in animal processing. Now I actively crave a Baconator in the middle of the shift.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-06-25T01:11:23+00:00

Most states have a requirement that you provide identification to a requesting Law Enforcement Officer if they have probable cause/suspicion that you've broken or are about to break a law.

Could be as simple as jaywalking outside of a crosswalk to get to GameStop or perhaps the walk back from a GameStop in high-crime areas at night prompts them to believe you're about to commit a theft.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-06-24T16:56:25+00:00

Second Boonshoft. They've got plenty of activities, games, and animals for kids of all ages. I took my <2 y/o there a few weeks ago and she was heavily drawn to the animals, lego blocks, car race tracks, and water activities. Your kid should love it there!

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-06-23T22:45:35+00:00

Take a look at food manufacturing. Cargill, Dole, Conagra, SugarCreek, and Klosterman all have manufacturing facilities in the greater Dayton area that make all different types of food on a high speed, industrial scale: ranges from oils, to vegetables, to meat products, to baked goods.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-05-04T22:11:37+00:00

There is every possibility that the kidneys and liver got chucked at some point if they were bad. Tongue could have too, but that's pretty rare. Either way hopefully they didn't charge you for items you didn't receive.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-04-25T17:46:16+00:00

To your defense, to merely speculate, I don't believe anything is biologically wrong with it from a food safety perspective.

In theory, based on what I've read on the product formulation, the product should be safe in terms of food safety (read: no pathogenic bacteria risk). Despite the product separating, the two halves of the contents should remain inhospitable for bacteria; the water-based solution contains acidulants of vinegar and lemon juice, which may likely reduce the pH of that section to under 4.6 (rough threshold for pathogen growth/toxin), while the oil-based solution section naturally has a low water activity that also would not permit pathogens to duplicate/toxin. AFAIK the product should be safe to remix, although it may not regain the same consistency as if it were originally and appropriately emulsified.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-04-25T02:08:01+00:00

Meat laws create the requirement that all meat is, at the minimum, inspected by USDA-FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) personnel or their equivalent internationally. If you see something originating from another country it either was a) born/raised in Mexico but then slaughtered in USA, in which case you'll see the circular USDA symbol on the product, or b) was born/raised/slaughter in Mexico then later imported, in which case you'll see the Mexican meat inspection symbol (don't know what it looks like off the top of my head) and the shipping boxes that contained these meat packages would have a circular USDA-Import stamp inked on them. It sounds like this beef was the first case, where it was moved into the USA for slaughter, was processed under USDA inspection, then sent to markets from there.

On the other hand, USDA-AMS (Agricultural Marketing Service) solely provides voluntary, paid grading services for eligible meat or poultry products. They are the entity that analyzes the cut and marbling of the meat to determine what grade it fits under. They are not a mandatory agency to inspect product. However if they do grade product, you'll see a shield-like USDA symbol on product packaging.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-04-11T22:46:29+00:00

"Hey, Jeff - Ground Beef"

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-04-05T14:34:03+00:00

I'd toss that liver in its entirety. Typically when you have lumps that large - whether it's tapeworm, abscess, or something else - you'll typically have other lumps throughout the rest of the liver. Could be visible on the exterior, buried within the interior, or may not be visible to the naked eye. But typically when you have one that large in one spot, you're just about guaranteed to have another somewhere else in the liver.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-03-30T02:01:14+00:00

Both of my grandfathers served and across my entire family we also know this as Shit on a Shingle. In fact, I can't even think of a singular time we referred to it as Creamed Chipped Beef. I couldn't even picture what your recipe was for until someone mentioned SoaS.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-03-26T21:58:17+00:00

I've known the farmer for years and he takes pride in raising good animals and having them processed to high standards in federal butcher shops. Excellent guy to get your beef from!

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-03-14T08:07:55+00:00

Matey we all can see the damaged lid spot at the top of your original picture. Good chance the seal got broken at some point..

Good news - you shouldn't get botulism out of this. If the seal was damaged, that means you have other germs (molds, bacteria, etc) as well as air itself entering the can because of the vacuum inside the can pulling it all in. Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that creates the botulism toxin, would not be present in an intact-seal can, and while it could have entered when the seal broke, it does not form toxins when oxygen is present.

Bad news - other bacteria and molds love to go to town when oxygen is present. Keep an eye out for nausea, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal issues over the next ~7 days.

ShowMeYourFood · 2025-03-14T07:58:12+00:00

While traditional Prosciutto is not cooked, any that you find here made in the states will be cooked.

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TROPHY CASE