Boom

On Beyond Wiki

The email thread went something like flying robot spy bugs - flight of birds with supposedly weak feet - bloodsucking louse - rehabilitation of injured swifts.

Thus ends the day.

 

Well

It's been weird, lately, hearing my friends suddenly complaining about health care; all I can basically summon as a response is "yeah, the personal is political, isn't it?"  

With our current crazy system that makes it nearly impossible to afford health insurance unless your employer pays for a substantial chunk of it, Sweetie and I have taken tax write-offs between 9k and 22k of medical costs per year since we became domestic partners. Not all medical expenses are a write-off. 80 to 90 percent of the total cost in each year--so tens of thousands of dollars, each year--was paid for either by his employer (when they were self-insured) or by the insurance company (once they had so many employees they couldn't afford to be self-insured). This insanity has been our household reality since we had a household.

So the system is crazy, the expense is crazy, and the paperwork juggling is so beyond crazy it's turned funny. But I've also never experienced a lengthy waiting list to get a diagnostic procedure. While I've experienced a couple doctors I would rate as incompetent, I've never had the wrong leg sawed off, either. I know many parts of the whole need to be fixed, but I really have no idea how to make that happen.

I hear the word "universal" a lot lately, in relation to health care coverage, but what I hear is "everyone gets something, rich people get something better"--because of course that's how it is. There will be waiting lists, and more 10-minute appointment slots. My own doctor's small shared office just merged with a larger local outfit, because there was no way for her group to afford a million dollar computerized record system. So there will be more giant managed care groups, with all the partially-hidden mess that comes with those. As someone who has made extensive use of specialized health care since I was 24, I worry about what all this means, specifically, to me.

Today there's a piece in the NY Times about Obama and health care, mentioning that "average families" will pay $2,500/year less than they do currently (which is 3k out of pocket, and more like 12k if employer payments are included). We have no kids and much higher out-of-pocket premiums (currently a bit over 9k/year for the two of us), so we don't count as average--and certainly my health history falls depressingly on the crap side of average. So what I picture for my personal future of health care: paying about the same I do now, for shorter appointments and fewer visits with specialists.

I get that this is supposed to be in exchange for everyone having something, instead of some having nothing and some having lots. I get that kids need immunizations, and old people need affordable prescriptions because they are on about six of them each month, and I get that society as a whole should handle some of the related expenses. A system--whether it's a health care system or a traffic system or a system of the world--is only fixable for a theoretical average. Healthy rich people will still resent any expenses, poor unhealthy people will still get the wrong leg sawed off, and a few of you mostly-healthy families with kids will save a few bucks each year.

Or the zombie plague will finally come, and we'll all be off the hook for repairing our free market mess.

Overheard

This was from yesterday afternoon, but it's sticking in my head:
Girl 1: Like if you take the embryo of a puppy...
Girl 2: ha ha, yeah-yeah-yeah, ha ha!
Girl 1:...your body would like totally reject it.

Sporkgate!

"...each spork was assigned the value of an entire case".

Nuts and Chews

Saturday afternoon's magazine party was insane. It's been a couple of years since I had to be friendly/social at a big event designed to show off my general perfection, and I haven't missed it.

When I can get other people to talk, it's a lot of fun--it's good to be reminded that people aren't all jackasses--but there's so much internal commentary of "Did I just say that? Did I just say that other thing 10,000 times in a row? Have I just alienated an entire crowd with one sentence? Can I go home yet?" that my brain gets rather melty. Among other things, I think I told a banjo player there is no more annoying instrument than a banjo, repeatedly called a coffee vendor by the name of a major competitor, claimed to have made something I really only had about a 15% share of accomplishing, and also kept pointing out where I had spilled rhubarb goop on my dress (because everyone loves seeing stains, right?). Then I suggested "Obama Salami" as the name for an odd-yet-genius new flavor that adds lemongrass to classic salami. At some point shortly after that last flash of Tourette's-style brilliance, I shut down. Not a moment too soon. We have had more than enough of presidential salami.

The good thing about being behind the table at food-related events: chefs and vendors of excellent coffee and delicious cured meats kept slipping me tidbits, so I didn't get all dehydrated and ravenous the way I did back in the retail days. It was also nice having a zillion people tell me stories they were reminded of when they read my editor's letter about canning. In most cases, they didn't feel like "here I am, trotting out the same goofy little story I tell a million times each summer", but more like, "I haven't thought about this in years."