I have heard both sides and I have worked in the health industry most of my working years. I can officially say that it is starting to get out of hand. I live in a conservative area and work in an extremely conservative area. Very few that I have talked to want anything to change. They are very afraid of changing to a government run health-care system. But I can tell you that if we dont do something then none of us are going to be able to afford any health insurance. There has to be a happy medium between the two extremes.
I am ranting because I just got my health insurance renewal. The premium has increased by 25% per month. That turns out to be 510.48 more for the year and that is just for me. Logan has his own policy and Charles gets his from work. If just mine increases 25% for the next five years then my monthly premium will be over $650 a month. And I can tell you that I have not had a pay increase since 2006. The agency I used to work for full time had nearly gone belly up multiple times in the past 3 year so no raises. Now I work for myself and I am working a contracted rate that will probably not go up anytime soon. The company I had worked for had insurance that was $130 a month for my part but you could only go to certain doctors/hospitals affiliated with the parent company of this agency. The area residents call this hospital a death hospital (you only go there to die. Very bad reputation for a rural hospital). Charles' work wanted over $600/month to add just me to his policy and over $1100/month to add both me and Logan. That was laughable! On top of all that our current policies have a $5000 deductible for me and Logan and $1500 for Charles!
Another therapist I work with said he went to a patient's home and there was a lady sitting on the couch who was fine the other day and who obviously had a stroke in recent hours. She couldn't walk or talk well and had been like that over a day. She did not seek help because she doesn't have insurance. Now this person is not likely to ever work and will be a drain on the system for years and years. Now how dumb is that!
For all the naysayers out there I just have to say that there has got to be a better way. I think we are too big a country to have a completely government run health system. It would be too complicated and is not very practical. But there has to be some kind of regulation on the healthcare industry. They should not be able to raise premiums so high. I go to the doctor a few times a year for the usual checkups and sinus stuff. Since historically hospitals can charge $30 for an aspirin you have to think that someone somewhere is getting all this money. They need to investigate where all this money is going! They say that medical expenses are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. I think in the near future that medical insurance premiums are going to be added to that list.
Okay, I am done ranting and I guess I will now go and pay the bills.
I did meet with the director of Nutrition for Logan's school District. We talked for about 45 minutes and I had a few surprises. The biggest one is that the nutrition department's budget is not included in the School District's operating budget and gets none of the money from the government that goes to schools directly. They operate independently as a non profit organization. The money they get comes from sales of food, cash subsidies from the government, and donated commodities from the USDA for each meal they serve. In districts that serve at leas 60% free or reduced priced lunches (which Logan's school district does) get an extra two cents per meal served. Because much of the food that is served is from donated commodities, there is going to be a lot more soy, corn and wheat based products. The things that really put on the pounds! These very things are also given to big cow farms and chicken farms as surplus commodities with the sole purpose of a cheap way of fattening up the livestock so they can be brought to market quicker. The director of nutrition gave me lots of information including menus, ingredient lists and nutritional information for many of the lunches they serve. She has also tried to start a few programs in the classroom so that the curriculum is tied into what is current in the cafeteria. I told her that Logan came home one day and told me that he was learning the food pyramid and found out he is supposed to eat mostly grains! I was shocked because that is utterly false. The food pyramid has been changed to make fruits and veggies the biggest group. Unfortunately the grain lobbyists won when the new graphic was designed. Fruits and veggies were seperated into their own groups on the new pyramid so the grain slice is bigger than each one seperately. She wa also very disappointed to hear about all that. She agrees that she needs to work more with each school on the curriculum and training the teachers better on their programs.
After reviewing the information I think that they are doing a better job than many schools but think that a lot more can be done. The menu reads like a fast food menu and we are training the kids to eat these things every day. Even though the hot dogs are made from chicken and the hamburgers are 100% beef with no additives. The cheese pizza has half cheese and half imitation cheese (which is made mainly from soy and corn) so there is lots of room for improvement. The school follows the recommendations from the USDA. So the main thing is to change the rules that the USDA puts out. I sent out my letter to many people in government and at the school district. I have signed a few petitions to improve school food programs. There is a lot going on out there right now. Mostly because the old requirements expire this year and need to be renewed. Any changes in the program can only be made when the program is renewed. Also this turns out to be something that First Lady Michelle Obama is promoting right now. I hope to continue working with the school and writing to those in government to get better nutrition in the schools.
I also saw a great movie called Food Inc this weekend. It gives a lot of insight to where the current global food market is going. We saw the movie Saturday night and the national news showed many clips from the movie because of the recent e-coli thing. If you see the movie you will understand where the e-coli thing is coming from. Not good. I wont get into it here but check out the links.
I am finally better. I had something that made it hard for me to talk and I just coughed all the time. I didn't really feel bad except for not sleeping because of all the coughing. I got a steroid shot to help with that but not sure it made much of a difference. Anyway, lots has happened. So a quick summary.
Logan has been to the ENT several times because he may have to have his tonsils and adenoids taken out. The doctor took another culture and even though the infection keeps coming back it looks we are going to wait at least until the summer. He doesn't have any of the other problems that usually come with this like sleep apnea, snoring, fever etc. So we are in a holding pattern for now. I am really glad about that.
Charles has been working hard. His boss has asked him to start working 50 hours a week so I am back to cooking all the meals. We usually split it. But this will work out okay too. He will just get to do more dishes!
A great nurse that I used to work with died last week from complications related to his cancer. I went to his funeral this past weekend with other past coworkers. He was also a Pentecostal preacher so it was quite a crowd! He will be missed dearly. I just called to check on his wife and the answering machine picked up with his voice on the recording. Now I am really sad. He was only 10 years older than me.
We started some seeds a few weeks ago and now I am ready to put them in some bigger pots until they are ready to transplant. It looks like spring is already here though! Lots of things around here are already blooming. I am just afraid that we are still in for some cold weather and it will kill everything off!
We sprang a surprize on my Dad for his 70th birthday. We are going to meet him this summer on vacation in Vermont. He was very surpised! We had to explain it all to him though - he didn't get the hints we gave.
Well that is a quick update. Hopefully I will get a few pictures up soon.
There are many things that I am planning to do this year to improve my life, my family's life and my surroundings. My new goals are "evolving" as I said before and I don't have them quit defined yet. My previous goals
1. Improve our finances. 2. Spend more time having fun! (Got to have #1 to do #2) 3. Get in better physical shape. (I know - practice what you preach. I am a physical therapist after all!) 4. Be more organized.
Well there is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!
The Good: Our finances have greatly improved. Amazing in this economy. Our retirement funds and Logan's college fund did dive but there is more time for them to pop back up. Lots of time! We are completely debt free except the house. We still owe just over $100,000 on it. Charles' new job he got a year ago turned out to be a great thing. He has now become a permanent employee and has had two raises so far. He is also a foreman of the whole metal shop and the company is planning to expand in this year. It is a very stable company with booked contracts through 2010 and it also has no debt. The owner runs everything on profits. I have changed my working situation too. Since things were looking up I now work mainly as a contract physical therapist for many different home health agencies. That allowed me to close in my coverage area. I can get more visits done in an 8 hour day if I want to. But instead I have chosen to limit my hours so that I can put Logan on the school bus in the morning and be home when he gets off. I am also taking a day off every other week to volunteer in his class and take some time for myself. Now down to the numbers. With Charles working we have managed to save $25,000 this past year. We have it in a high interest savings account that earned 3.5% last year (just got my statement). That is our emergency fund and we don't plan on touching it unless one of us is unable to work. I think we did so well because we stuck to our budget and our best tool was to use cash for food, household stuff, and our remodeling. I also had a cash budget for Logan's clothes and haircuts. I did have to increase the food budget during the third quarter so we weren't eating pasta and rice all the time with the increase in food prices. We had enough left over at the end of the year that we bought a new TV (and of course I found a great deal). So our number one goal last year was to improve our finances. We have definitely done that. This year we will continue to save so that we are putting money in our retirement and college funds and the extra will go to some desperately needed remodeling (If you have seen my kitchen you know what I mean!).
And the fun part - we have mostly stayed at home for fun stuff. We watch DVDs that I get at the library. I just watched the Great Debators last night. Really good! We are reading more. We are spending more time in the garden working on the yard. We are trying to get more projects done. We did take some day trips this year to local happenings and parties. Nothing big, but we were never bored. This year we are planning to travel a bit which we have not done in a while.
The Bad
Getting organized. Well, in my defense we have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I had made a few trips to drop of stuff at the thrift store and we finally cleaned out the "junk room" We plan on turning it into a loungeing room with a new futon for guests. Still working out the details on that. Overall it has improved since I have had a little more time to work on it, but here is still lots of room for improvement!
The REALLY Ugly
Getting in better shape. That hasn't gone as well. I go in spurts and do well for a few weeks then I fall off the wagon! I believe that this one is now going to the top of the list this year. I plan on making this my number one priority and will be working out a plan to do it over the coming weeks. You have to have a plan!
So now you know what I did last year. Soon I will post my new goals and will recap them as the year goes on.
Animal, Vegetable , Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is my new favorite book. I don't get much chance to read a book through but I "listen" to them in the car while I drive all day for work. I had listened to this one earlier in the year and I just re-listened to the whole thing and I love it even more. This is one that got me motivated to do the garden. She is an award winning writer who decided to write about her family's experience homesteading and eating mostly local foods in western Virginia. They moved from Tucson where things don't grow easily to the lush mountains of Appalachia. They gave up things that they could not find locally like bananas and mostly ate what they grew themselves or bought from local sources. It took them about a year to get the resources set up and they started the next spring. They even raised their own chickens for eggs and meat and started a flock of heirloom turkeys for the meat. Parts of the book are very funny like when her turkey hen started to woo her husband since they imprinted on humans as their "family". It also explained the current politics and growing practices of the 99% of our current food supply. Most of which I already new was bad for the planet and for people. It turns out that the majority of food grown conventionally (with pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones, antibiotics, and herbivore meat animals forced to eat other animal remnants) is much, much less nutrient forcing us to take supplements to meet our nutritional needs. Like regular eggs have a lot of cholesterol and saturated fats. But free range (not the same as cage free, believe it or not) chickens produce eggs with more of the good cholesterol and unsaturated fats and are naturally high in omega 3 oils ( I used to wonder how they got those omega 3s into the egg with cartons labeled "higher in omega 3s").
I have to say that we are really enjoying our garden produce and are already planning for the fall garden. This book is well written as are all her books and was a big inspiration to getting out there and just doing it. My new prescription of Nasonex also helped since I don't have the side effects of allergies like I did last summer. I would even think of getting a few hens for the eggs but I think at this point that would be biting off more than I can chew. Maybe when I "really" go part time. She also has a nice little website with meal ideas and recipes.
Uh, well... it's been a long time since I have posted. A lot has happened but the worst was that I was really sick with what I think was the flu. It really knocked me out and I was out of the game for five days. The past week was all about catching up on everything that I should have done. I plan on posting about several things that has happened in the past week that I want to post on but haven't gotten to. So... It will be coming this week. (I hope!)
Wow, it is March already! We haven't had much fun this past month. Logan and I have been sick on and off. Today it's Logan's turn. He was sick and I took him in - It's strep! Now another round of antibiotics. The pharmacist at Target is getting to know me pretty well. Then the insurance card was declined. Just another phone call I need to make to get it all straightened out. Luckily it was one of Target's cheap cash medicines. if the insurance worked I would have paid a $10 copay. But Target sells this one for $6 cash. Unfortunately, Logan missed his first soccer game with the big kids.
Financially, this month seemed even better than last even though we spent close to our $500 on food and extra medical bills that we rarely have. We actually spent less that $3000 this month! I think it has been before Logan that we have spent so little. I haven't opened the new savings account. Life has gotten in the way of some things so that is next on the list for this week. I have a big rummage sale next week at work to raise some money for one of our nurses who has tongue cancer. That will be a big job so I cant wait until that one is behind me.
I am still sick but doing better. Sinus infection turned into bronchitis and now on my third antibiotic and have a referral to an ENT on Monday. Should be loads of fun!
Okay, warning! This video is a little gross. But if you don't want to ruin your love of lemons in your water at restaurants then, well, don't watch the video. Sorry but I had to share this one. I found it on the blog Wise Bread.
I have been sick for the past week and also had internet problems that I didn't really feel like dealing with. I am now on the mend and hopefully I have made my last call to my DSL provider for a while. But it may be a week before I can catch up on everything so I will continue this next week. Thanks!
You may be considered ordinary by some, but you're far from boring. You elevate the mood of any discussion, and people miss you when you're not around. You are secretly very dominant and powerful. Most can only take you in small doses.
