OK, why am I posting today of all days? Because I work for a giant faceless corporation with offices all over the world and they are hosting a contest. And I can no longer contain the sarcasm. The sarcasm, it burns. Here is the crib notes version of the email I got:
Giant Multi-National Corporation is hosting its first International New Year’s
E-card drawing/art contest, open to our employees’ children and the youth in the
communities where we have operations. An International New Year's card is
like a Christmas card, but we can't use the word Christmas because we wouldn't
want to show favoritism to the Judeo-Christian tradition, and heaven forbid we
call it a Holiday Card because everyone knows that's code for X-mas
anyway. The theme for the 2009 contest is "Feel the Joy of Sharing" and
artwork should demonstrate cultural diversity and a sense of
community. Feel free to use all the shades of brown in the 128 box
of Crayola Crayons when drawing the Sharing.
In other news, I planned Bobo's First Birthday Party last night. Hot dogs, hamburgers, and S'mores in a brand new fire pit in our backyard two weekends before Thanksgiving or something. I am happy about the First, but sad because, you know, my baby is growing up. BUT! Only 7 more weeks of pumping. I am thrilled. I might actually go an entire year feeding the baby only breastmilk (and baby food) with no formula. That would be something. I might not make it the whole year, and that's OK too. The pumping output is really tapering off, so I am taking fenugreek, and I pump on weekends sometimes now, and I dropped day care bottles from 2 or 3 to 2 only (I only send two now). So, I've done all I can. He takes 2 five-ounce bottles on weekdays, and we'll see what happens. He crawls real tummy up crawling now. And he learned to do that the same day he got his two bottom teeth. It was a busy sleepless time at our house. He also started walking along on furniture over the weekend and that's something too. I'm pretty sure he's all gross motor skills all the time.
Last night, Chuckles was sitting on his bed working on his homework (red, green 5-9, and Tt) and we were chasing Bobo around and throwing him in the air and dangling him by his feet and Chuckles just kept chugging along at his homework. Chuckles is the guy at Woodstock trying to find a shower to wash the mud off so he can make it to class on time while everyone else strips naked and slides in the mud while cutting class.
I am thisclose to ditching the Mirena IUD. I am still spotting. It's been like 9 months. I am so over the mini-pad. I will wait until I wean to see whether that helps (although truth be told, at a year, I only plan to give up pumping...I am not stopping nursing). That is all on that topic.
Abrupt topic shift: Health Care Reform. I am against it. As I am sure you knew. I really don't think health care or access to health care is an enumerated power or an inalienable right. Just don't think so. Sorry. It is a service and like other services, my libertarian heart thinks everyone needs to pay for their own. I am fine with a little Medicaid here and there as a temporary thing, but really, not feeling the low for health care. I am fine with high deductible cost-sharing plans too. I happen to have had good-to-great insurance for most of my life, but I am willing to have higher co-pays and cost-sharing or a high-deductible plan so that I shop around for cost-effective treatments. I am fine with that. I'm a smart consumer. But I don't have many chronic conditions and I am not gravely ill, so my perspective is, as always, governed by my own experiences (note: I did buy Cobra once and it was not cheap and I was young and healthy and could've bought insurance on the open market a whole lot cheaper but I was too lazy to investigate and I was not going to risk ruin on going insurance-less).
Oh, and I believe that you and your doctor should make your health care decisions together (which is a really cryptic thing to say but it does mean keep insurance and government out of the exam room and out of the equation...whatever the decision: end of life care, abortion, pain management, birth control, when to stop labor, when to resuscitate a premature infant, VBAC, c-section, etc).
You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but here are some reasons why I am for health care reform:
ReplyDelete"I am willing to have higher co-pays and cost-sharing or a high-deductible plan so that I shop around for cost-effective treatments."
"I was too lazy to investigate"
I am not too lazy to investigate - heaven knows I've done a ton of research on health related things (infertility comes to mind) - but info is hard to find and harder to comprehend in a lot of cases. And when you're in a situation (say, currently in labor) you might not have the luxury of research if something unexpected comes up.
"I was not going to risk ruin on going insurance-less."
Very few people want to risk ruin, but often they don't have a choice.
"keep insurance and government out of the exam room and out of the equation"
This requires reform. Currently insurance has a lot to do with what kind of treatment you get.
The problems that need reforming:
- It should be possible to get insurance even if you are sick (currently it's not)
- Insurance should be reasonably priced. For my mother to get insurance on the open market would be $1000/month, and all she has is diabetes. She's working a super crappy job ONLY because of the health insurance. She doesn't otherwise need the money. Ditto for my MIL.
Other stuff comes from this. For example, if everyone is mandated to have insurance, there's no "pre-existing condition" stuff, because you can't just wait till you're sick and then get insurance. The mandate is a way to keep people from gaming the system.
We don't need single payer, although that is easiest to understand. We do need a system that actually works, which is not what we have now. Regulation of the insurance industry could solve the problem as well.
btw, congrats on making it a year pumping. I hope to do the same.