(no subject)
Today I lack motivation to focus on what I should be focused on. My to-do-before-friday list is way too long but I can't seem to progress on any of the individual items. As soon as I turned my attention to this week's newsletter, the association contacts started sending me a ton of changes to the list, I have writer's block on the article I'm finishing, and I'm really too distracted to edit the video that needs to be done.
So I play online. I read the news. But that's just depressing. Of course, I had a head's up on the most depressing news of the day: a week ago, a business associate of ours went missing while flying home from Wyoming with three of his sons. Last night, searchers found the plane; there were no survivors. My heart goes out to their family.
I used to get excited about election day, but the last few years make me just wish it was over. I really don't care who wins anymore; I don't really like any of them (and in this I am including third party candidates.) There are exceptions of course. I do like the Democrat who is running for Governor of Colorado and his closest opponent is a scary, single-issue hack. Otherwise, much of my voting was done based on who I disliked least.
I don't like being that type of voter.
Health insurance meeting at work left me feeling I know a lot about our health insurance options ... and not liking many of them either. They're not really bad per se, but in our small company we have so many different needs that it's really a matter of asking ourselves what's the best for us as a whole ... and that's sometimes hard to separate from the "what's best for ME?"
Health insurance meeting also brought up the health care reform. Without debating the details of the Act that was passed, I think one of the biggest mistakes made with regard to it was allowing the insurance companies so much time to screw over the consumer in the name of the new legislation. And there are plenty of examples of insurance companies doing just that already.
"We have to raise our prices now because you won't let us in the future and all these extra sick people will sap our pools." Seriously? The national increase in premiums is expected to be around 22 percent. We're lucky; our rate is going up but not that much. I really believe it's more about having a perfect PR scapegoat to blame the increases on rather than any actual evidenced need to increase the rate.
"You won't let us exclude pre-existing conditions? Fine, we'll eliminate the child-only policies that a lot of families rely on even if they can't afford full family insurance." As I've said before, the pre-existing conditions exclusion was way out of hand; I can understand some upcharge but the blanket policies of the health insurance industry were ridiculous. They needed to be reined in. For example, I've lucked out in that I haven't had to get private insurance for myself. I've looked, but because I'm asthmatic (from birth, not an environmental thing), I could have easily a) been denied coverage or b) been asked to pay exorbitant rider fees to have coverage of the condition. Never mind that at worst, I've had to seek medical care for the asthma about once a year. I keep a rescue inhaler with me for which I have an active prescription - which means I am receiving active treatment - meaning it can trigger the pre-existing condition clauses. Never mind that on average, my asthma-related medical expenses are less than $40 per month. Oh, and just excluding coverage of the condition was not an option when I talked to the insurance companies.
Anyway, enough ranting for now. I'm gonna go try to finish up something today.
So I play online. I read the news. But that's just depressing. Of course, I had a head's up on the most depressing news of the day: a week ago, a business associate of ours went missing while flying home from Wyoming with three of his sons. Last night, searchers found the plane; there were no survivors. My heart goes out to their family.
I used to get excited about election day, but the last few years make me just wish it was over. I really don't care who wins anymore; I don't really like any of them (and in this I am including third party candidates.) There are exceptions of course. I do like the Democrat who is running for Governor of Colorado and his closest opponent is a scary, single-issue hack. Otherwise, much of my voting was done based on who I disliked least.
I don't like being that type of voter.
Health insurance meeting at work left me feeling I know a lot about our health insurance options ... and not liking many of them either. They're not really bad per se, but in our small company we have so many different needs that it's really a matter of asking ourselves what's the best for us as a whole ... and that's sometimes hard to separate from the "what's best for ME?"
Health insurance meeting also brought up the health care reform. Without debating the details of the Act that was passed, I think one of the biggest mistakes made with regard to it was allowing the insurance companies so much time to screw over the consumer in the name of the new legislation. And there are plenty of examples of insurance companies doing just that already.
"We have to raise our prices now because you won't let us in the future and all these extra sick people will sap our pools." Seriously? The national increase in premiums is expected to be around 22 percent. We're lucky; our rate is going up but not that much. I really believe it's more about having a perfect PR scapegoat to blame the increases on rather than any actual evidenced need to increase the rate.
"You won't let us exclude pre-existing conditions? Fine, we'll eliminate the child-only policies that a lot of families rely on even if they can't afford full family insurance." As I've said before, the pre-existing conditions exclusion was way out of hand; I can understand some upcharge but the blanket policies of the health insurance industry were ridiculous. They needed to be reined in. For example, I've lucked out in that I haven't had to get private insurance for myself. I've looked, but because I'm asthmatic (from birth, not an environmental thing), I could have easily a) been denied coverage or b) been asked to pay exorbitant rider fees to have coverage of the condition. Never mind that at worst, I've had to seek medical care for the asthma about once a year. I keep a rescue inhaler with me for which I have an active prescription - which means I am receiving active treatment - meaning it can trigger the pre-existing condition clauses. Never mind that on average, my asthma-related medical expenses are less than $40 per month. Oh, and just excluding coverage of the condition was not an option when I talked to the insurance companies.
Anyway, enough ranting for now. I'm gonna go try to finish up something today.