Screwed by the Liberals Again

In case you missed it, the liberal government passed some new health insurance laws again last year that went into effect this year.  (https://help.ihealthagents.com/hc/en-us/articles/20207003806871-New-Short-Term-Health-Insurance-Law-Rules-for-2025) 

Let me set you the stage for how this effects me (and possibly you)...

For the last several years, I've been using short term health insurance.  It bypasses the Obamacare mandate, which makes it way cheaper.  I can't afford health insurance any other way, so there I am.  It's not great, but it's better than nothing.  Every 6 months, I would have to sign up for a new policy.  When I got the email saying my insurance was expiring, it seemed like it was the wrong month to renew, but I shrugged and got on with signing up.  That's when I noticed that all the new policies were 3 month with a 1 month extension.  I guess when I signed up in March for my new policy, I missed that fact.  Okay, fine, whatever.

I went into the site, did my thing, found my policy, and went through the process of getting my new policy.  5 days went by while I waited for my acceptance.  Instead, I got an email saying my application for new insurance had been 'withdrawn'.  Unfortunately, I got the email right before I went to bed, so there wasn't anything I could do about it (which didn't stop me from obsessing over it all night).  And time was ticking because my current policy would run out on the 30th.  

The next day, I contacted the company that manages this crap - ehealth, I think it's called - via chat message on their site.  The gal told me she couldn't help me and I would have to call.  So, I called.  I got a really nice lady who calmly explained to me that the law had changed last September and, in addition to the policies only being for 4 months each, they cannot be from the same provider twice in the same year.  They withdrew my application from United Health because I can't have them again this year. 

The only other companies offering short term insurance in my state... because, ya know, Obama fixed it so we can only have certain companies offering insurance in our states... are unheard of to me.  And either of them only offer indemnity policies instead of regular policies (PPO or EPO).  

I picked one and submitted a new application, because what choice do I have?  Even if I could afford to get a regular policy, you can't sign up for one of those outside the month of November.  (Obama again... although in all fairness, it's not just him. It's him and his cronies.  And Biden and his handlers.)  

So, as long as my application got accepted, I would have insurance.  Until 10/31.  (It was accepted, btw. So yay, I guess.) Then I'll have to go with the other unknown indemnity company for 4 months before I can go back to UH.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  On the upside, the new policy is cheaper with better coverage... except for the indemnity thing where we'll have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed by the insurance afterward.  

While I was doing this, I accidentally ended up in the section for regular insurance quotes, and discovered that the cheapest of those was $750-ish a month.  Almost twice what I was paying UH and more than 3 times what I'll be paying the new company.  That's like half our monthly income.  

Yes, I know some of this is my own damn fault, right?  I could crawl to Obamacare and beg for alms, but my hypocrisy only goes so far.  Come November, I might have to debase myself and do that or choose to go insurance-less.  

I'm a healthy gal.  I can go without insurance, right?  (Don't worry, I'm not that stupid.  Bad things have a way of happening, especially when you temp fate by going without insurance.)

Thursday This n That

Unexpectedly had yesterday off.  I took the opportunity to get some shopping done and then I made a vat of homemade spaghetti sauce - enough for 4 meals.  You see, a neighbor brought us another big bag of tomatoes.  So first I had to parboil and skin those.  I had so many, it just made sense to turn them into sauce.  They also brought us 5 more zucchinis from the plants I gave them.  Not sure how many zukes that is now, but man, my babies produced.  Well, my babies produced as long as someone else was raising them.  He said he's turning over the garden today, so that's the last of them, but I have bags and bags of zucchini in the freezer.  Yay.

Oddly enough, we did not have spaghetti for dinner.  We had hot dogs and french fries.  It was too hot to actually want to eat a big carb-loaded meal.  

Last night, my friend called.  I have today off, too.  I think I'll take care of those zucchinis and make another batch of bread.  Maybe I'll clean my bathroom, too.  Or I'll vegetate and rest up for tomorrow.

I have today off because their pre-sale home inspection got scheduled for today.  Fingers crossed we did enough to satisfy FHA and what we didn't do, but still plan on doing, will get them through to the sale.  We still have one wall of the garage to do and both decks to power wash and stain.  We'll get 'er done.

One of our fawns has visible antler bumps now.  Baby buck!  Yay!

Remember when nobody stuck their nose into anyone else's health business?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  I think it started with cigarettes.  Maybe it started with eating.  What you do with your body is no one else's business.  You really are not your brother's keeper.  Yeah, yeah, health insurance ties us all together somehow, which is wrong.  

Speaking of which, did you get a health insurance refund?  I looked it up and it seems that insurance companies didn't spend as much as they were allowed to spend versus the amount of premiums they took in last year.  Why?  Because fewer people are seeing doctors for non-essential things now.  One of the things they listed was elective surgery.  I thought elective surgeries were never covered under insurance.  :shrug:  So, it seems like more people are treating medical care like I've treated it for years - don't go to a doctor unless you actually need a doctor/  Huzzah.

What a world.

Anyway, that's about it for me.  How are things with you?  

Thursday This n That

Adapt dammit!  Whether you want to or not. 

I've been up since 3:30.  This does not bode well for human interaction.  And I have to go to Wallyworld today.  

Lucky for Hubs, he is exempt from my crankiness.  He and Mom are the only ones with that exemption.  The cat doesn't care.

I read a really awesome book this week.  It was a British suspense/thriller.  I need to coax some money out of my budget to buy the next book.  

Unfortunately, I got my new jacked-up health insurance bill this morning.  They added an additional $50 a month.  A month.  That's more money per month than I've made this year selling books, btw.  And I never use the damn insurance.  Seriously.  Never.  I only have it in case something bad happens.  If I'd taken all the premiums I've paid and never used over the years and put that money into a savings account, I'd probably have enough to pay for major surgery out of pocket.  Sheesh.

As I told Mom yesterday, don't get me started or we'll be here all day.

Yesterday, I saw a bald eagle.

No sign of Pierre the skunk since that one time.  I hope he's okay.  I mean, I'm glad he's not stinking up the joint, but I don't want anything bad to happen to him.

Send positive thoughts out to my BFF's great niece.  She's fourteen and they just discovered she has a brain tumor.  =o(  Come to think of it, send positive thoughts to her and her whole family.  It hasn't been the best of years for them.

It hasn't been the best of years for most of us, I'd say.  Sure, not as bad as the above, but we're each struggling with all of this in our own ways.  Hang in there.  By your fingertips or the skin of your teeth if you have to, but hang in there.  :hugs:

Sorry to be such a downer this morning.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Sunday Update - Week 43

Wow, that week went by fast.  Blerg.

First off, the new keyboard is a little crazymaking.  The backspace key and the home key are too close together so I find myself wanting to backspace, hitting the home, and disappearing letters I did not want to disappear.  Miss left and I get a line of \\\\, miss right and whoosh, letters are gone.  Argh.  This too shall pass as I get used to this damn thing, but writing with it is a challenge right now.

Speaking of which, I did write last night.  I'm this close to THE END.  Have to wrap up the climax and do the denouement.  I should have this done by the end of the month, which was my 'drop dead' date. 

I'm going to treat myself by doing genealogy in November, I think.  I don't deserve a break, but I think I need one.  Make it NaNoChillMo or something.  I might edit, but I'm not promising anything.

In reading news, I finished the 2nd Sleepy Hollow book and inhaled the 3rd one right after.  Cliffhanger on the 2nd, doncha know.  Impressive books.  Super fun to read.  Totally gripping.  I also read a Mickey Spillane.  Awesome stuff.  Natch.

Fishing was a non-issue last week.  I had personal things going on that precluded me going too far from the phone for too long.  It all wrapped up by Thursday night, so I went Friday morning, but the fish weren't biting and I was freezing my ever-widening ass off, so I left.

Oh, before I forget, I have a sale starting tomorrow.  Get the Dennis Haggarty Mysteries for 99c each tomorrow through Friday.  (Crap, I forgot to set the UK Countdown.)  Just kind of one of those SURPRISE sales that I didn't plan for until the last minute.  So it'll be a mostly unadvertised sale, since it's too late to get any ads.  =oO

Got our notice from the insurance company that they're jacking up our rates again.  Awesome.  NOT.  Our health insurance now accounts for almost 50% of our entire yearly budget.  Arghle.  I'd like to find the many politicians who did this and hold their heads in the septic tank until they make it stop.

On a less-irritating note, the big oak has dropped so many acorns that my driveway has a weird pattern to it now.  So many little round balls.  Everywhere.  Hubs keeps sweeping them off the concrete, but the gravel part is a sea of acorns.  So's the grass, but it's less noticeable there.  I'd pick them up and leave the piles for the deer, but they're so glutted with acorns, they no longer care.

Speaking of deer, we got a new buck in the yard yesterday.  We're calling him Snap, because one side of his rack is snapped off.  So, we have Oliver (the skinny orphan), Sym (the symmetrical racked one), Six (duh), and Snap.  No sign of the bigger bucks we saw last year.  And we have about 9 does and girl fawns.   Oh, and I almost forgot about the button buck.  So five bucks and nine does/girl fawns.  Not a bad herd.

And I'm spent.  What's up in your world?