aaaaaand another month goes by
Merry Christmas in July!
I'm enjoying some awesome Caruso's coffee at Seekers Coffee House as I type this. I'm here because, sadly, weekend business is slow at Jim's Coffeehouse and they are now closed on Saturdays until at least after Labor Day. I hope they can weather this recession. I dare say I hope we all can. At the barbershop this morning more than several of us commiserated about our lousy job and health insurance situations.
Yes, I am very grateful to have any job in this economy. After my struggle to find health insurance -- any at all -- I finally was able to get coverage through the company for whom I'm working. The provider is still United Healthcare, as I had before, but the coverage is quite different -- not so much in what it covers, but what percentage of the cost.
I previously paid for half my premium and my employer covered the other half, and I knew this time around I would have to pay the full premium... but this premium is more than double what I paid before... yet it has no dental rider, has a deductible, and has an out-of-pocket maximum that is more than double what I had before. So for my increased premium, I'm getting significantly less coverage. Significantly. Yes I'm using a lot of italics in this post.
On the plus side... if there is one... I will be able to deduct any medical expenses above 7.5% of my income from my taxes. And since the IRS considers self-employed individuals to be "businesses," yes I will be itemizing for the first time.
And it shouldn't be too difficult to reach that yearly out-of-pocket maximum, because I had a CAT scan a few weeks ago to check on my Hodgkin's. I'm very happy to say that today marks the four-year anniversary of my last radiation therapy treatment, and I'm still in remission! I will have a blood test and X-ray in January, then another CAT scan a year from now. After that, it will just be the blood test and X-ray once a year. Hurrah!
So yeah, to say the least, I'm none too happy about this insurance situation, especially after all the screwing around I had to do to get it. (Even though they received my application in late May, I did not receive my new card until the day before my CAT scan in early July, for various reasons totally unrelated to me. Although I was the one who had to take action to get it fixed. Several times.)
It still beats having no coverage at all, and I know others are in far worse situations than I am; however, it does tend to break one's optimism.
IN OTHER NEWS, Becki and Matt are getting married today! And tomorrow afternoon I'm playing for Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory's Into the Woods. There are just three shows left: tonight, tomorrow's matinee, and tomorrow evening. More information can be found here, and if you scroll way down, you can even read my bio.
So that's where things stand right now. Life is life. And I don't know where the hell July went.
