The green card medical exam ripoff

A friend of mine is in the process of applying for a green card. A part of the process is getting a medical exam that is suppose to make sure you don't have "the cooties" and plan to bring them to this country. Fair enough, isn't it?

But wait. Like many other services in America, this one is out-sourced to the private sector, which means, in order for a doctor to be certified for providing a green card exam, he or she needs to follow some rules regarding what needs to be examined etc.. However, there is no regulation regarding the price of this service. In the name of free economy, each doctor can charge as much as he/she wants. Actually, if you think about it, this is can be a good lesson for the green card applicant who, in many cases, comes from a country with a different economical approach, where (God forbid) the government regulates the fees for services like that. What a better occasion for a lesson in American economy then while applying for a green card!

The list of doctors who are certified by the government (USCIS) is long. There are many options in the San Francisco bay area and not knowing that the fees for this service are not regulated, my friend sorted the doctors by the closest location to the San Francisco downtown area, where he works. In order to get a cross-reference for each doctor, he googled the doctor's name.

The first doctor he came up with, who has an office downtown (how convenient), apparently has a website, which seemed somewhat too flashy and shiny to my friend (he said it reminds him of the Walmart banner ads in his yahoo email...) .

The first thing he noticed when he called the doctor's office is that, unlike any other doctor's office, they answered right away... they even didn't ask him to wait on the line for 2 minutes!

As for the charge? An examination for a green card costs $499! (I guess this is another lesson in American economy where whatever the price is, it ends with 99). This looked to my friend way more expensive than he imagined. Since he is insured by health coverage, he can get the same exam from his doctor and pay nothing but, here, he has to use the services of "doctor greedy" and pay whatever the charge is.

The high price and the "x99" pattern made my friend somewhat suspicious and therefore he decided to check some more options. Another doctor he called, who is located further away but still in the downtown area, told him he charges $350 for the same service. This is where my friend realized that this is truly an open market. He just needs to keep on calling to find the right price. Indeed, every doctor he called gave him a different quote. Another "fact of life" that my friend has come to realize applies here: the geography factor. The further away the doctor's office was, the lower the price was. With that in mind, he decided to call a doctor who works in the Richmond area (a.k.a the new Chinatown). In a thick Chinese accent, he was told that the same service is going to cost him only $190! I'm sure we all agree that this is a long way from the initial $499 offer.

Well, this is not the end of the story. As a last step, my friend called a doctor, located in the Mission district. This time, in a thick Spanish accent, he was told that the same exam will cost him only $100! Again, all these doctors appear on the same list. All are certified by the USCIS to perform the same exam! It is needless to say which option my friend chose.

The joy of street parking

I had to leave the house early today in order to move the car which was parking on a "Wednesday spot". After roaming around the block where the car was suppose to be, I finally realized that the car was stolen or got towed. Looking around more carefully, I have noticed a SFDC small sign, stating that on October 30, no cars are allowed to park 3o feet away.
I could swear that when I parked the car on Sunday, the sign was not there, which means the sign was put on either Sunday or Monday, leaving me 1-2 days of notice...
According to the code violation, the sign was put due to an event. No clue about what kind of event was provided.
Long story short, I had to go get the car from the towing garage on 7th st. and leave these people $320 Halloween present.
I guess it's bad luck but I have never thought that such thing could happen.

If people in san Francisco would really want to save gas...

The following is an idea that came to my mind while standing in traffic on the way from Target in Dally city back to San Francisco. The reason I was doing the way to Daly city is because San Francisco does not have a Target /Wall mart/Kmart or any other discount stores of that kind.
The rumour says, that the city does not allow those jumbo chain to run their business in the city. While the reason for that might be justified, the end result is that people who are trying to make a living in the city and cannot afford shopping in anything else but discount stores, find themselves driving to places outside the city. This created pollution, traffic congestion and wastes peoples time. Furthermore, I know many people in the city that will tell you that one of the main reasons they own a car in the city is to be able to go shopping in the discount stores outside the city.

I truly believe that instead of taking about how people should switch the light bulbs to annoying florescent, the city would allow more reasonably prices discount stores for the benefit of the people living in the city, we can really make a difference (and not just talk about it).

"Environment Friendly"

The other day, I was driving in the hills of San Francisco when I have seen this odd scene.
A driver of one of those "I'm-so-environment-friendly" Hybrid Honda, rolled down his window, took his arm out and .... shamelessly through out a half used, no so environment friendly, cigarette. God, I should have gotten a camera phone long time ago!

Organic Shmorganic

I went today to http://www.soupfreaks.com/ for the first time. Now for those of you who are not familiar with institution, let me just say this: This place is so "San Francisco" that if the city to hold the next Olympic games, this should be the official soup provider. This ain't the place you want to discuss your last visit to Mel's dinner, or someone can call the cops on you.

As I entered, I couldn't miss the big flat LCD screen, which serves as a menu, listing the soups dejour. Normally, you would choose your soup by its main ingredient (potato soap, cream of mushroom soap etc.), but remember? these are freaks! Instead of putting extra broth in their soup, they put an extra portion of creativity in naming their soups (yes, ever more than Jamba Juice).

Can you guess what does "Freakin’ Moody II" stands for? (hint: this is not the a new game for Sony Play Station III) , How about the guessing the kind of vegetables in "Veggie Shmeggie"? Is that a shortcut for Smushed Vegetables soup, like the kind you give for babies? mmm... not sure I would like that one.

Now, to be fair, every soup is followed by a short description that suppose to give you an idea of what's inside (in case you weren't able to figure it out from the name...). The description however, give you way more than that. Soup freaks make sure you know the life story of the chicken that was used for your soup ("...100% Natural, free range Rosie Chicken") , they also want you to know that the beans you are bout to eat, came all the way from Tuscany (..." Tuscan White Bean"). Mmm... For some reason, I was sure that Tuscany is famous for their wine. They even take care of the those of us who weren't lucky enough to have a sense of smell, telling us that one of the ingredients is a "fragrant vegetable stock".

No matter what kind of soup it is, at the very least, they make sure that at least one of the ingredients is either: "organic", "vegan", "free range", "natural", "fragrant" or all of the above. With all that organic-shmorganic going on, I was beginning to wonder whether they recycled my soup after I was done with it(I'm pretty sure I left some broth in my cup)...

Free Public access space in San Francisco – Financial district

One of the most well kept secrets in San Francisco is the public access space. Many buildings in the financial district and downtown were forced to provide a communal area with public access. Needless to say, they didn’t do it voluntarily (who would…), therefore the property managers do not go out of their way to advertise that their property has a public access space.

A former colleague of mine has found out about that a while ago. She was trying to get a list of all public access places but was not able to find it on the web. Eventually, she contacted to the city’s chief engineer and after few emails back and forth, she was able to get a hold the list.

I’m working on getting this list again (I promise to publish it) but for the time being; take a look at this one: 323 Sansome St. San Francisco CA, on the 15 floor.

This open space has great views, a small garden and some tables with chairs. There are plenty of food options around this building so you can grab something to go and enjoy it while it’s still fresh. Way better than eating your lunch over the keyboard!

When you’re there, you’ll probably notice some other people. That’s because they either work in this building or they read my blog like you did…

San Francisco - a different point of view

This blog was created for a single purpose: to collect my random thoughts regarding my life in the city. Yes, I know what you're gonna say. There are plenty of bloggers in the city, there are even blogs that specialize in San Francisco. That's all true BUT... I find that they are very similar in nature. At least for my taste. There is more in common between them than you would expect from a city which claims to be so diverse and multicultural.

This blog is going to challenge those common beliefs that many people, living in the city, seem to share, such as:
- ipod is the best thing happened to humankind
- Driving a hybrid (SUV?!?) makes you a better person
- Organic food is tastier and healthier
- iphone is (the 2nd) best thing happened to humankind
- The Chronicle is a great newspaper (or at least worth 50 cents)
- The farmers in the Embarcadero center are real farmers
- The list is long and I have to go to bed

Stay tuned...