By Cal Orey, The Writing Gourmet
As a health author for more than two decades, you'd think I'd be elated and jumping for joy today as I sit and read the CNN report on the new, improved health care reform. But I'm not really happy about this change. In fact, this morning breakfast doesn't seem all that appealing. Maybe I'll go on a hunger strike. I'm hardly alone...
ONE--My Bowl Is Empty: Not only do I write about how to get and stay healthy but I am a no nonsense health conscious baby boomer who has been paying high premiums for 20 years. Each year the rates are raised higher and higher. And the thing that irks me is that I'm in "Healthy Tier 1" but I don't get a rebate. I just keep working harder and harder to pay more and more. So, here I sit feeling like a furry gerbil on one of those little roller toys in a cage and moving it around and around so I can have my bowl filled a little bit with health perks if I continue to keep it spinning. Whew! So, when do I get a health insurance break?
TWO--My Bowl Is Empty: Another glitch is that while this new health deal is in action, my health insurance company is most likely going to hike up premiums a whopping 39%. Note to self: Call today and find out if it's true. But, I'm sensing it is going to happen in May and that the phone will be busy all day and all week and all month. Now, I flunked math in grad school but I do know that's a lot of bucks that I'll be paying. So what's a health nut to do? I fall in the cracks like after an earthquake. (Read: I'm not rich, poor, sick, or old enough to be cradled by Uncle Sam).
THREE--My Bowl Is Empty: Part of me is thinking "I'll just work 24/7 and dish out close to $1000 each month." (Slight exaggeration.) And my deductible is nearly $8,000 before I'm covered for any "catastrophe"... But I've never had to use my insurance so maybe not all is lost--except cash. I never have spent the night in a hospital (except when I was two when I had my tonsils out and my parents paid for that). And no diseases. Gosh, why am I working so hard to pay for so little? Why can't I have a rebate for maintaining healthy lifestyle habits?
It's back to self reliance for me. Now, where oh where is my copy of Henry Thoreau's works about how to survive and live the simple life in the woods? If I can hold out till 2014 (four more years) maybe my health insurance rates will go down a tad and I can afford a much needed vacation or a larger cage with a slower roller toy. -- Disgruntled Gerbil on a Roll to Keep Health Insurance
It's back to self reliance for me. Now, where oh where is my copy of Henry Thoreau's works about how to survive and live the simple life in the woods? If I can hold out till 2014 (four more years) maybe my health insurance rates will go down a tad and I can afford a much needed vacation or a larger cage with a slower roller toy. -- Disgruntled Gerbil on a Roll to Keep Health Insurance
