Dear LFTP: the co-pay-before-service senior
- Shouldn't a doctor's office trust its established patients enough to let them pay after the service is rendered?
A senior-citizen letter-writer is shocked her specialist now demands the co-pay before the visit and asks whether a doctor's office shouldn't trust established patients. The hosts' answer: the office runs on a system and medical non-payment is rampant, and her need to feel trustworthy is misplaced in an annual visit - while Dan (addressed by name) confesses he is part of the problem, letting small medical bills stack into collections, and the hosts riff on Subway, Applebee's, McDonald's and movie-theater payment norms.
More on Money
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Dear LFTP: the $4,200 loan that never came back
- How do I get past the sadness over the $4,200 loan my friend never repaid — do I just let it go?
The final Dear LFTP letter: a year ago a supposed friend asked to borrow money — her husband had left the country to renew his visa, her car was repossessed, she had no way to get to work.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Dear LFTP 2: unequal in-law cash gifts
- Am I petty for feeling less valued over unequal in-law cash gifts?
Mike reads the second letter: every year the writer's in-laws give cash to all children and spouses equally — except her, who gets half — while she hosts every celebration, visits weekly, and helps with repairs.
From No. 593 · Do You Hear What I Hear
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Dear LFTP: the stolen college fund and telling the 90-year-olds
- Should I tell my 90-year-old parents that their grandson stole my granddaughter's college fund?
Ben hands to Mike, who reads a grandmother's letter: her son helped himself to the college money the great-grandparents set aside for her granddaughter; she fears telling her parents, in their nineties, could shock them into a stroke.
From No. 586 · Nothing Personal
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Dear LFTP: the inheritance and the controlling husband
- Should a mother leave an inheritance to a daughter whose controlling husband will control it?
The second letter comes from a mother whose daughter married a controlling, rude husband; she wonders whether to leave a sizable inheritance knowing he will control it.
From No. 584 · When Vanek Was Here | Cambodia Testimony, Church Mission, Josiah Queen