I will not get frustrated. I will not get frustrated. I will not…

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 12:44 pm (Writing by Ear)
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I don’t want to either end the old year on a sour note or start the new year on one, so today’s a good chance for a little rant about everyone’s favorite topic…health insurance! And it can all go away tomorrow with my Happy New Year post.

Until then, I need to vent. I bit the bullet a couple months ago and abandoned my primo (so they tell me) individual HMO plan that I’ve had for the 10 years I’ve been self-employed and switched to a newly offered high-deductible plan. So instead of paying a lot every month, plus co-pays for doctor visits, for the privilege of not having to deal with coverage issues, I now pay much less a month (2½ times less!) but have to meet a $1200 annual deductible, then cost-share for another $1000. Even with all that, it still saves me $800 a year over my old plan, and makes me eligible to start a tax-advantageous Health Savings Account (HSA), so I went for it.

But of course, the glitches are already starting. Though my Member Handbook clearly states in 2 places that annual “routine” mammograms are fully covered, it seems my annual mammogram a couple weeks ago was coded as “diagnostic,” thus incurring a hefty charge. Given that my OB-GYN calls it diagnostic simply so the place will also do an ultrasound (due to higher risk/family history), I have little faith that I can get this corrected, even though it is in fact my annual “routine” mammogram.

Hey, I’m even willing to pay extra for the ultrasound, as I understand it’s not routine for most women, though it is for me. But I balk at having to pay for the same smash-your-boob-in-the-machine mammogram every other woman in my plan gets covered for free.

The really rant-y part: I’m sure NONE of these types of administrative/system issues that hurt well-meaning, premium-paying citizens like me are addressed in the mega-cost, mega-debt-inducing, tax-raising, rammed-down-our-throats-on-Christmas-Eve, so-called health care “reform” plan that is expected to raise the premiums of — or eliminate completely — the kind of high-deductible HSA-eligible plan I enrolled in specifically to save money and “have a better hand in my health” as my insurer likes to urge 10 times a day in commercials…

That felt good anyway. Deep cleansing ujjayi breath. Inhale for 5, pause, exhale for 5, pause.Repeat today’s mantra: I will not get frustrated. I will not get frustrated. I will not…

Better go keep working on that last part.

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body
is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.
~ G. K. Chesterton


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Time it was, and what a time it was

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 11:41 am (Writing by Ear)
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We had a gorgeous 7″ snowfall over the weekend (not the blizzard other cities got) and it made everything so beautiful and Christmasy — including my mood. We also had dear friends over for our annual Christmas gift exchange, so the house is actually neat and orderly — for a couple more days anyway, if we work at it. PLUS, my sister and nephew arrived safely on Saturday, despite flight troubles unrelated to the weather, AND my brother and sister-in-law are in town for the week.

So, a good time to count blessings and capture a few picture-perfect points in time.

Notice the snapshots (mental or actual) that strike you today — I bet if you look, you’ll be surprised at how many you see, and how happy it makes you feel.

Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you.
~ Simon & Garfunkel,” Bookends”

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Cats a l’orange and a sweet Christmas story

Friday, December 18, 2009 at 2:23 pm (Writing by Ear)
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Both of the vets and one of the vet techs in the practice we visit have expressed how much they like orange cats like ours. When Mike’s cousin, also a vet, mentioned the same thing a couple months ago, I researched it a bit on the Web to see if others shared the opinion that orange tabbies were somehow more special than most.

What I found, of course, were people who said orange cats (called “ginger cats” in Britain) were the best and others who thought them nothing special. The sweetest thing I found, though, was a Christmas story* about tabbies (not just orange ones) and the distinctive “M” on their foreheads that warmed my heart and convinced me that our orange guys are special — no matter who else thinks so.

When the baby Jesus was lying in the manger, he began to shiver from the cold. Mary draped blankets over the infant, but he continued to shiver.

She spoke softly. “I don’t know what to do. I thought you were hungry, so I fed you. I thought you were wet, so I changed your diaper. I thought you were cold, so I wrapped another blanket around you.” She asked the animals in the stable to move closer so that their body heat would warm Jesus, but the child continued to shiver and cry.

She rocked the infant and then laid him back in a manger filled with hay. He continued to cry.

A small tabby cat who’d witnessed the scene knew what needed to be done. She leaped into the manger, cuddled next to the child and began to purr. It was the sweetest lullaby imaginable. The baby stopped crying and drifted off to sleep.

In her gratitude to the cat, Mary marked her own initial upon the tabby’s forehead so that tabby cats would forever remind the world of how one of their kind had comforted the newborn Jesus.

What greater gift than the love of a cat?
~ Charles Dickens

* Thanks to The Cat’s Meow for the sweet rendition of the tabby story. Visit the link to read the Islamic version of the M story, too.

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