I didn't get to watch much of the President's address to Congress on Tuesday because I needed to help my daughter and her science project partner make a chart. Silly me, I thought the fact that the school required the charts to be computer-generated meant that the school had taught the kids how to do that - no such luck. I did catch some of the speech and commentary, though, and I got all teary-eyed watching Speaker Pelosi up there and hearing the President address "Madame Speaker" - wow.
On the other hand, I got a real chill when the President started talking about more taxes on "gold-plated health insurance". I wonder what that means. I have, as a government employee, really good coverage but I pay a whole lot for it and I still have co-pays that can really add up if both kids need doctor visits and a medication - and don't even mention the costs of an ER visit! I doubt I pay as much as a private sector employee would pay for comparable coverage, but any private sector employee of a company that offered a good PPO would also be making much more money than we are to begin with, you know? That is sort of the way the whole govt. compensation package works - bad pay for such high levels of education but decent benefits...a trade-off. We have always both needed to work, largely for health insurance, as middle class families tend to need to do. At this moment, our highest monthly bill is our mortgage, at about $760, followed closely by child care, at about $725, followed closely by health insurance, down to about $600. The second and third place rankings of child care and health insurance flip around a bit depending on what health plan our employers contract with in a given year - this is much lower than it was in just the summer. We really cannot afford for our insurance to be taxed more and I expect we are better off than most. Argh.
4 comments:
We're paying through the nose for a comprehensive coverage plan after being on catastrophic insurance for 2 years. I would surely like to see what this "gold plated health insurance" looks like. Maybe this will end up being my issue. I get twitchy when people talk about universal health coverage meaning that there will be longer waits for emergency services for one's kids while some richies get breast transplants. Bede, who is from Canada, is supportive of universal health coverage, but says that yes, indeed, the waits are long. I just wonder... what about universal health coverage for children under 21? Surely that's a no-brainer?
I need to do something to help...
In other news, my daughter barfed four times today. I think she had too many stuffed grape-leaves yesterday. Stuffed grape-leaves are flavored with lemon-juice. Poor girl.
This belongs in an email as opposed to a blog, but I've written this much, so here goes.
I hope that Lucia feels better! LSB got pink eye over the weekend, but is taking drops and seem fine. I can't remember the last weekend without a bug!
By stuffed grape leaves, do you mean dolma? I love that stuff but my children would sooner eat sewage, I think.
I am in favor of universal coverage, but I certainly could not trust any version Bush has of it. The idea of him tinkering with such things just makes me feel panicky.
Me too. One of the reasons DH gives for staying in his job is the good insurance- but it has risen EVERY SINGLE YEAR since Bush took office, when it had been rising much more slowly before, yet I recognise that for our income level we doing VERY well on the insurance home front.
Yes, dolma, dolmas, dolmades-- whatever you call them, they are YUMMY. I like to make them, but I need to get ahold of some grape leaves without the stuffing.
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