医保新方案

情景:威尔士科奇勒公司,一家大型电器公司,员工们正在讨论新的医保方案。

Horace: Well, I, for one, think the new plan sucks. I mean, a fifty dollar copay? That's absurd. I don't want to have to pay fifty bucks every time I see the doctor. Not to mention that there's a five hundred dollar deductible, so any hospital visits are going to cost half a grand! Jesus!

Jane: At least there's some dental still. That's much better than a lot of plans my friends are on.

Horace: Did you read it carefully, though? There's no orthodontics coverage. Laurie has to get braces this year. That's going to cost a fortune.

Susan: It definitely will, I'm afraid. Adam had to get them when he was 13, back when I was working at the library, and the plan there didn't cover it. It costs us hundreds, and that was nearly fifteen years ago. I mean, we got him the good ones, because we didn't want him to be embarrassed at school – you know, no kid likes to have that chunk of metal attached to their teeth – but still …

Bill: And there's no provision for optical. I need new glasses every year, you know that. My eyes have a degenerative condition.

Susan: Oh, I noticed your lenses have been getting thicker recently.

Horace: I wish we didn't have to bring all this up – I know this isn't easy for people, to discuss their medical problems, but I think we need to stand together on this one.

Jane: Well – this is – kind of embarrassing, but there was one thing I noticed. No birth control provisions.

Horace: I heard a lot of insurance companies shy away from that.

Susan: Just how expensive is birth control for you, Jane?Lucky thing!

Bill: Hey, I know I get through my share.

Susan: And it's a managed healthcare plan – it locks us in to that HMO. I like my doctor just fine; I don't want to have to go to one mandated by the insurance company. HMOs have a terrible reputation overall, too.

Bill: Well, we're having a meeting with management to discuss it later. I don't know how much flexibility there's going to be on this, though. Times are still tight, and they're cutting costs.

Susan: Then they can cut the costs from middle management! God knows it's bloated enough.There must be seven people to do one person's job there.

Horace: Fat chance of that.

Jane: I think we just have to accept it. Maybe things will get better next year. Times are hard at the moment, after all.

Bill: I agree.It's not a good plan, but we're going to have to live with it, I suspect.

Susan: Oh, come on! We have to at least make some noise.This is intolerable.

Horace: I think we bring it up strongly, and maybe even have a lawyer look at our contracts, to see if they're violating anything. It wouldn't be the first time they've tried to screw us that way.

Jane: I can't afford a lawyer. I mean, I'm stretched enough with the kids.

Horace: I've got a friend who'll take a look at it for free. We at least need some ammo for the meeting.

Susan: That's a pretty good idea. God, I'm not looking forward to this, though. It's going to be a bitter pill for everyone to swallow.

Horace: I guess we'll be swallowing a lot of bitter pills – literally – if we have to eat this new plan.

Jane:I wonder if the bosses' plan is changing to? Somehow I doubt it.

Bill: I wish I lived in Canada …

贺瑞斯:嗯,首先,我认为这次新方案糟透了。我是说,55美元的挂号费?这太荒谬了。我可不想每次看病都要付55美金。更不要说500美元的自付额了,这样一来,每次看病都要花去半张千元大钞!天啊!

简:至少还有一些牙诊费用是不变啊。这可比在我朋友身上实行的方案好多了。

贺瑞斯:你到底有没有认真阅读过啊?这次方案可不包括牙齿矫形的费用。今年劳拉要安副牙套。那将是一笔不小的开支。

苏珊:恐怕是这样的。亚当13岁那年要戴牙套了,当时我还在图书馆工作,那会儿医保方案不包括这块费用。那花了我们好几百块大洋,而这差不多是15年前的事了。听我说,因为不想他在学校感到窘迫,我们给他安了副好牙套——你们是知道的,没有哪个孩子喜欢戴牙套——但还是……

比尔:而且还没有关于眼科的条款。你们知道啊,我每年都要换新眼镜。我的视力越来越不好了。

苏珊:哦,我发现你的镜片最近越来越厚了。

贺瑞斯:要是我们不必谈这些事就好了——我知道让人们讨论自己的医疗问题不容易,但我想在这份医保方案上,我们需要统一战线。

简:嗯——这——有点令人尴尬,但我发现了这没有涉及计划生育。

贺瑞斯:我听说很多保险公司都回避这个问题。

苏珊:计划生育要花你多少钱啊,简?你真有福气!

比尔:嘿,我想我已经读完我所关心的部分。

苏珊:这是一项管理型医疗保健方案——我们都受限于健康维护组织。我对我现在的医生就很满意,不想被保险公司指定去看医生。再说了,健康维护组织的名声也不好。

比尔:那么,稍后我们会同管理层开个会,讨论这个问题。但我不知道这件事的协调性有多少。经济仍不景气,而且他们正在缩减开支。

苏珊:那他们大可以削减中层管理的开支啊!天知道,人浮于事有多严重,7个人做1个人的活儿。

贺瑞斯:这(削减中层管理的开支)可能性也太小了。

简:我想我们只得接受。也许明年情况会好一些。毕竟,眼下不好过啊。

比尔:我同意。这不是个好方案,但是我认为,我们不得不忍受这一切。

苏珊:哦,拜托!我们至少也要抗议一下吧。这个方案太过分了。

贺瑞斯:我想我们该强烈抗议一下,或许还该请个律师检查一下我们的合同,看看有什么侵犯了我们的权益。这也不是他们第一次压迫我们了。

简:我可付不起律师费。我是说,我刚够勉强抚养孩子的。

贺瑞斯:我有个律师朋友,可以为我们免费看一下。我们至少要有所准备,才能在会议上开火吧。

苏珊:那倒是个好主意。天啊,可我不希望这么做。到头来,我们只能是自食恶果。

贺瑞斯:我想我们会吃不少的苦头——真正地——如果我们接受了这个新方案。

简:我怀疑老板会不会改变计划。反正,我持怀疑态度。

比尔:要是在加拿大生活多好啊……

Notes:

1. attach to

意为“(使)贴,系,粘在……上”。另外,人们习惯用attach importance to 这样的表达方式,来表达他们对某事的重视。

例句:Is there a dining car attached to the train?

本次列车有没有附设一节餐车?

例句:The old man didn't seem to attach any importance to the question.

这老人似乎一点也不重视这个问题。

2. bring up

意为“提及;提出……”。

例句:Mr. Chairman, I should like to bring up the question of the reorganization of the committee.

主席先生, 我想提出改组委员会的问题。

3. shy away from

意为“(由于羞怯等)躲开/避开”。

例句:She's always shied away from close friendships.

她总是避免与人深交。

4. lock in

意为“使固定”。

例句:On the new television sets, the color is locked in so that you don't need to keep changing the control.

这些新式电视机的色彩已调定, 你不必老去动控制钮。

5. Fat chance of that.

意为“那不太可能”。看到“fat”这个词,很多人会马上想到脂肪、肥胖之类的字眼,而fat chance从表面上来看应该是机会很多。不过我们今天要来介绍它另一个含义。其实“fat”在口语当中还可以表示“很少的、极少的,几乎没有的”意思。那么,fat chance是指机会很少,甚至根本没有机会。我们还可以用The chance is slim.来表示可能性小的意思。

例句:There is a fat chance Michael will be chosen by any director at Hollywood.

麦克被好莱坞导演选中的机率是很小的。

6. live with

意为“学会去适应;接受并忍受”。

例句:Most of us don't like the new regulations, but we have to live with them.

我们大多数人不喜欢新的规定, 但我们必须学会适应它们。

Links:

HMO健康维护组织

美国是一个医保模式多样化的国家,HMO是美国若干种模式中运行得最好的医保模式之一。HMO即为Health Maintenance Organizations的缩写,称健康维护组织。HMO在30年代由Kaiscer先生创办,最初是为解决本公司雇员就医,又不增加太多的费用。参加HMO的成员每月交少量保费后看病就不需要再花钱了,故医生和医院会尽量减少不必要的诊治以控制费用。为HMO工作的医生是其雇员,只拿薪水,不从病人服务中提酬。

HMO的医生较少像个体医生那样诱导病人需求,鼓励病人多开药,多向病人提供服务,而是把工作重点放在健康教育上,强化预防措施。同时鼓励医生用经济头脑,实行有效治疗奖励制,做好入院前准备,尽量缩短平均住院日,控制费用上涨。

HMO出现的初衷是为了解决医疗保险收费过高的问题,实际上是针对中低收入人群的一种医疗保险。然而廉价的优点也正是导致它存在局限性的弊源,因为它收取低廉保费的条件是给投保者的医疗设下条条框框。为了控制成本,计划规定投保者就诊的医生或医疗机构必须由保险公司指定,并严格限制医疗服务范围,因此经常发生医疗延误而引起的争议,并引起法律诉讼。

美国货币

美国货币由纸币(note or bill)和硬币(coin)组成,包括美元(dollar)和美分(cent)。硬币上铸刻着:In God We Trust(我们信仰上帝)。

美元中的“一元”票,俗称buck,这种叫法在影视中听得最多,它的原意是“雄鹿”。其中有个典故。一七九二年四月二日,美国才开始有了自己的货币。在这以前,北美是英国殖民地,流通着许多不同国家的货币,而且还有代替货币用的商品,尤其在同当地印第安人的交易中,有的用贝壳、烟叶、河狸皮等来代替货币,而最普遍的是用buck(雄鹿皮)。因此到今天,美国民间仍然把美元中的一元称作“buck”。 一美元(a dollar) 还经常叫做a single,a bill。10美元可以说ten bucks也可以说a sawbuck。

buck是英语中一种非正式口语用法,表示钱,即“money”,流行于美国和澳洲。相当于汉语中的“块”。

例句:He owes me ten bucks.

他欠我10块钱。

相关词组如big bucks意为a lot of money。make a fast buck指“一下子赚得一笔钱”,常指“不义之财”。

英国英语中,grand常指“一千英镑”(one thousand pounds);而在美国英语中,常指“一千美元”(one thousand dollars)。现在,有人经常说自己的月收入是10 grand,其实就是说1万。

硬币的正面叫head,背面叫tail。