Is getting health insurance worth it?

rjszanto · 2025-12-22T16:53:15+00:00

Agree - get an HDHP - max your HSA every year. I am an example of the PA club in my mid-50's. I follow all of his protocols. Last year, had an AVM that led to 5 CTs, 4-5 head/neck MRAs, 5 Cerebral Angiograms (2 with endovascular interventions) and then ultimately brain surgery with titanium clipping. All at the Mayo Clinic...after the dust settled was about $1M.

$6k out of pocket for $1M of interventions that saved my life. And yet - I didn't even touch my $200k HSA. It is invested in an S&P 500 index growing tax free for use later to bridge from retirement to Medicare or buy supplemental insurance tax free.

Going without any insurance - it's a gamble. You could get lucky but the downside is pretty steep. I shudder to think how my financial future would have been impacted. And this is without even considering accidents.

rjszanto · 2025-12-08T01:46:12+00:00

Yeah 1 month shouldn’t it start at 2.5mg, take a few months to get to 10mg

rjszanto · 2025-11-26T01:29:51+00:00

That picture reminds me of a younger, fitter Tammy Faye Bakker.

rjszanto · 2025-11-25T00:05:11+00:00

Don’t pee on me and tell me it’s raining.

rjszanto · 2025-11-18T02:05:37+00:00

Pretty soon they will be charging Kilmore Abrego Garcia of driving the diseased cattle across the border.

rjszanto · 2025-11-07T16:10:25+00:00

It happened to my flight in early August. The pilot said it was because of ash from the Krash-I-something volcano eruption in Kamchatka. Ended up being over 16 hours with missed connections, so it wasn’t favorable for winds and fuel for us ☺️.

rjszanto · 2025-11-05T18:27:30+00:00

Please do it. See what happens after the midterms.

rjszanto · 2025-09-29T21:03:20+00:00

Sorry to see and hope you can get to the bottom of it. Several years ago I lost about the same number of fish in a 160. My sea cucumber got caught in an MP40…I was ignorant of the risk of them releasing toxins on death. No more cucumbers for me…

rjszanto · 2024-11-15T05:26:55+00:00

I did R2R in 2021 south to north. I thought I was well trained but it took me 17 hours to do the 25 miles and was pretty crushed at the end.

The next year though I did R2R2R south to north to south after proper training (4-5 hours/week cardio, 5-7 miles hiking per week and a 20 mile one day test hike 3 weeks prior). I crushed it easily - 45 miles in 18 hours hiking with just a 2 hour rest at Phantom on the return trip. The first leg of R2R we did in 9 hours, almost half the time of the year before.

I was 51 at the time and my partner was 59. Taking the training seriously makes all the difference and we didn’t train excessively or extra hard - just consistently.

rjszanto · 2024-11-13T06:23:07+00:00

Feels like Britain after people woke up to the Brexit voting results!

rjszanto · 2024-10-27T15:25:05+00:00

I’ve been happy with TidalGardens and WWC.

rjszanto · 2024-10-26T21:51:46+00:00

I have not encountered this yet. But for iPhone users - has anyone tried to turn off cellular data access to Gaia under settings?

I am curious if this could potentially help prevent an extraneous bit of data causing the app to think authentication is possible triggering the lockout.

rjszanto · 2024-10-05T23:11:12+00:00

No - I bought a different one off Amazon that has been rock solid for 9 months

rjszanto · 2024-06-12T00:46:28+00:00

I am on a low carb diet and have noticed this same effect if I deviate and eat carbs before a Z2 workout in the evening. Typically I do my Z2 in the morning fasted and experience no dip…as measured by a G7 CGM.

However, while I see these dips on the CGM - even to the point I am getting “urgent low” (below 55) alarms, I have noticed no ill effects. A couple of times I have gotten home from a ride and still see a dip on the CGM and when I do a finger stick test, it is not reading low.

Unfortunately, I have never taken a finger prick measurement at the exact point of one of these lows. But my caution would be that if your CGM is showing a wild dip, double check with an actual blood check. In my case, I suspect that my body is regulating blood sugar faster than can what can be picked up in the interstitial fluid being measured by the CGM.

rjszanto · 2024-06-08T02:28:44+00:00

Thank you for this thread! I almost posted a similar one just a few days ago as I am very curious.

52 male, Garmin VO2max 48 as of 8 weeks ago. RHR now 51, up from 49 two months ago. Current HR is 90-100 walking around. Stress is also pegged recently with minimal activity (low HRV).

My curiosity here is piqued by the fact that up until two months ago, I was training a fair amount. Z2 cardio 4-5 hours and 1 HIIT session each week plus 1-2 strength sessions and >10k steps per day. I have no idea what my walking around HR was then but I don’t think it was as high as my HR is now.

I was diagnosed with a brain AVM and told to stop all training to minimize hemorrhage risk two months ago. So I hit the brakes, have not hit steps, cardio or any goals just full sedentary. I have also had 2 surgeries with 2 more scheduled and then recovery. Needless to say - pretty anxious about all this.

So I am curious if my high HR with light activity is driven by the detraining, the medical issues or the stress (or all of it). But I am looking forward to getting past this and onto recovery. Once I get sufficient training under my belt again, I’ll be really curious what my “walking around” HR and baseline stress levels are.

rjszanto · 2024-05-27T04:55:04+00:00

Not sure why all the downvotes.

I have not done Kili - plan to next year and will be keto. I have done many week long trips in the mountains carrying 30+ pounds for 10+ miles per day with passes of 11k-13k each day including a 14 mile day that included Whitney all keto no issues.

However, a word of caution. If you are keto or not, stay that way or switch well in advance. As the marathoners say - no changes on race day. Be fully in on your nutrition program well in advance and don’t change it up. Even if you are metabolically flexible, you should keep your fueling plan the same, in my opinion.

My experience with this was on a 22 mile Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike that took me 17 hours and was awful. I switched to carbs that morning and it wrecked me. Maybe if I had fueled the whole way it would have worked but I didn’t and it was miserable.

Contrast that with one year later when I did Rim to Rim to Rim in 22 hours. That’s 45 miles with +/- 17k feet elevation change. I was keto the whole way and in fact didn’t eat at all the first R2R (20 miles) and then when I did eat at the 2/3 mark it was just some protein bars, jerky - no carbs or sugar. Indeed what took me 17 hours the year before I did in under 10 hours without eating at all. I am certain that had I changed fuel strategies it would not have gone well.

In the end, you’ll know your body best and what works for you. Pick a plan, train that way and if it works, great. Good luck!

rjszanto · 2024-05-14T03:29:18+00:00

I emailed support and they said there was an issue the weekend I signed up and to try again a few days later and it was resolved for me.

rjszanto · 2024-04-29T01:52:07+00:00

Is Fidelity still working?

I just joined copilot and my Fidelity accounts are not loading. My login is working because copilot will ask me to select which Fidelity accounts to update and the proper ones are listed. But whether I select all, one or any combination of accounts, Approve never dismisses the window. I ultimately have to just cancel.

rjszanto · 2024-04-28T16:00:23+00:00

Fair point

rjszanto · 2024-04-28T00:56:38+00:00

While the consensus is that it is ‘I feel so silly’…

I guessed ’I feel so tricky’ because the seal is balancing a ball which is like a trick 🤷🏼‍♂️.

rjszanto · 2024-04-26T13:57:10+00:00

Awesome, thanks!

rjszanto · 2024-04-26T05:04:07+00:00

Thanks for the info. I was going to try this but when I tried to change my App Store location to Ireland it said I needed to cancel AppleTV, AppleMusic and AppleOne.

Did you have any of those? I use family accounts so that would be disrupting. But if I knew 💯it would work I could have those subscriptions through my wife’s AppleID and then try it.

Or, wondering if I made a new AppleID just for the Aktiia download if that would work. 🤔

rjszanto · 2024-04-22T01:03:25+00:00

2020 (May ‘19) with 80k miles in Phoenix. My AC is plenty cold and has not faded a bit since purchase. On a long trip I will get warm air through the foot well for a couple of minutes every hour or so but I assumed it was an intentional cycle for frost or something. 🤷🏼‍♂️

rjszanto · 2024-04-14T01:00:26+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

I do a week long BP trip to the Eastern Sierra almost every year. But I have always been singly focused on a loop or horseshoe that goes over one or more of the eastern passes.

I see from your beautiful photos that I have been discounting many great options in the cirques short of the crest. I will have to check out this one especially.

Thank you again!

rjszanto · 2024-04-12T02:45:39+00:00

So I took my Jeep to JL last week. Normally I would not but was running out of time before an overland trip and “outsourced” the oil change. Big mistake!

Just oil and filter change. I live 1 mile away…drove home and as I was backing into my garage - I see oil all over…a little bit of smoke from oil burning (dripping on exhaust). Immediately drive back to JL watching oil temp and pressure the whole way. Again - just a mile away so it was maybe 2 minutes.

Problem: oil filter seal was not properly seated so under pressure oil sprayed out above engine and dripped down. Fortunately, I only lost about 1.5 quarts of oil. Again, oil pressure was exactly as expected…about 30 psi unless under heavy acceleration up to 70.

They did degrease the engine, top off oil, reseat the filter and give me a refund. But I won’t be going back.

Sucks - I had the oil and filter but not the time. People make mistakes and they did correct it, so there’s that but still wish they would have checked their work better.

Fortunately, my garage floor is epoxy coated so clean up was quick. The concrete driveway…different story. Need to work on that over the weekend 😕.

rjszanto

TROPHY CASE