Today I'm Grateful For . . .

This has been a crazy week. There's been a lot of work drama. I've lost count of the people I've personally known who have died this week or people I'm close to who have lost someone significant. I'm working through some tough personal stuff.

Through it all, however, what I'm focussed on is all that I'm grateful for. The list is long, so you might want to get comfortable.

I'm grateful for the ability to laugh at the outrageous. Sometimes the options are to laugh or cry and I find myself choosing "laugh" more and more these days.

I'm grateful for the Affordable Care Act. Because of it, mental health care now has parity with physical health issues. What does that mean? Your insurance company can't set crazy lifetime limits on care or say that you can only seek a certain number of treatment sessions if you're depressed. Treating mental illness is not "one size fits all." Thanks also to the ACA, women's health care now includes guaranteed coverage for reproductive care. This is a huge step forward.

I'm grateful for my health. Yes, I have hypothyroidism and yes, I've got a certain amount of weight to lose, but in the overall scheme of things, I'm healthy. And when I get ill, I can go to the doctor and not worry I'm going to go bankrupt or choose between paying medical bills and my mortgage.

I'm grateful for my family. Well, most of them. I'm grateful for my mom, my dad, my brother, and most of my extended family. They're pretty awesome and supportive. Hell, I'm grateful for the rest of them too. I'm grateful that they taught me what love is not.

I'm grateful for my friends - the new ones and the ones I've had for years. They love and support me all the time. They are witty and keep me in stitches. They are fun and adventurous and never let me take myself too seriously. These are the folks who make sure I never get too big for my britches.

I'm grateful for Sammy and Zoey. There's just something about pets that brings about immediate calmness. I give them full credit for my blood pressure remaining constant in the healthy range. Without them, the crazy Type A side of me would win.

I'm grateful for Betsey and Ross before them. They taught me how to love unconditionally. They broke my heart when they died, but I needed the lesson on how to recover from it, in that moment. Without it, I would never have survived the Summer of 2012.

I'm grateful for my job. Each day is an adventure and interesting. Today was one of the really good days.

I'm grateful for my presentation skills. They say that one of the greatest fears most people have is public speaking, but I've never been afraid to present to groups of people. I freak out about preparing my presentation, but actually presenting doesn't faze me in the slightest. That played out today . . .

I'm grateful for the mentorship my friend Tim has given me over the past six years. He's helped me grow into the alumni relations professional I am today by challenging me at every step and always demanding better of me. We've known each other for almost 25 years and he's always believed in me and seen more in me than I've sometimes been able to see in myself.

I'm grateful to be able to finally see myself through the lenses my forever friends have been looking through for many years.

I'm grateful to finally be learning how to better handle my stress and anxiety through yoga, mindfulness, journalling, and therapy. It took me 42 years, but I finally figured out that asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

The True Cost of Pneumonia

If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, you know that I've had pneumonia, bronchitis, and an ear infection in the last three weeks. Fortunately, I'm fully on the mend now and feeling about 95% like myself.

Now that I'm close to well, I've started to notice all the bills arriving from the plethora of doctors, nurse practitioners, x-ray technicians, radiologists, ENTs, and pharmacists who have treated me since September 25th.

Let's take a peek at my bills. These are all retail prices, but of course, BCBS has the established rates they will pay and the rest gets written off by the provider.

• 4 Prescriptions . . . $235
• 2 Walgreens Take Care Clinic Visits . . . $178
• 2 Primary Care Physician Visits . . . $315
• 1 Chest X-Ray at the Hospital (does not include Radiologist). . . $550
• 1 Ear, Nose & Throat Doctor Visit . . . $190

TOTAL MEDICAL BILLS RELATED TO PNEUMONIA: $1,468 (excluding the Radiologist)

Fortunately for me, I have great health care insurance. Sure, I have a $2,500 annual deductible on top of my monthly premiums, but once I pay my deductible, I don't owe another penny unless I go outside of the vast BCBS network. Because I'd already fulfilled my deductible requirement, I owe exactly nothing on all of these bills. I don't even owe the difference between what BCBS paid and the actual bill.

I've got awesome medical insurance and I didn't give one ounce of thought about could I afford to go to the doctor. But if I didn't have insurance, I'd have thought long and hard about going to the doctor. Close to $1,500 would have been a very difficult pill to swallow.

And I know that for a fact because there were a number of years, in the not so distant past, when I did not have insurance. I worked for myself and could not afford it. Plus, I had a pre-existing condition that either made it nearly impossible to get or grotesquely expensive. I didn't go to the doctor for preventative care and only went to the doctor when I was sick in dire emergencies, which meant almost never. When I had no insurance, no health care provider gave me discounts. I paid full retail value.

Let's contrast this with the recent experience of my friend Sarah. Sarah lives in Toronto, Canada, where she is fully covered with the universal health care that Canada offers. I know what you're thinking. You think Sarah waits six months to get into the doctor and has to appear before multiple death panels to determine whether she deserves treatment or not. That could not be further from the truth.

When I had pneumonia recently, by coincidence, Sarah had it too. I swear I didn't give it to her. Sarah called her doctor and got in on the same day. In addition, she was allowed to bring her entire family with her so they could receive flu shots. The doctor examined her, diagnosed her, gave her family flu shots, and set Sarah up with prescriptions to make her healthy again.

The only cost Sarah paid for all of this medical care was $84 which was the co-pay for her prescriptions.

$84. 

I pay more than $84 in health care premiums monthly in addition to the almost $200 per month I put into my Health Savings Account to cover my annual deductible. So annually, I spend close to $4,000 in out of pocket health care premiums and my deductible. This does not include my dental insurance or vision care.

Quality health care insurance changes lives. People are healthier because they receive preventative care.   Preventable diseases are prevented. Chronic diseases are treated at lower costs. They stop worrying about whether Sally's emergency appendectomy will bankrupt them. They have dignity.

It boggles my mind why we spend so much time and energy in the United States arguing about whether or not we should allow everyone to receive quality health care. Do we believe some people are less deserving than others? Who are we to decide that? And how do we decide where to draw that line about who is more deserving and who is less deserving?

Health care is not a luxury. It's not a "nice to have" or an "extra." It's also not an "entitlement" in the condescending, dignity stripping way we talk about entitlements in this country these days. Health care is a human right. Period.

The Affordable Health Care Act (aka Obamacare) isn't perfect. I'll admit that. It's also not the plan I wanted. I wanted Universal Health Care for everyone. For now, we've got the ACA and although it's not perfect, it allows millions and millions of people to get insurance and stop worrying about whether they'll go bankrupt from an unexpected medical procedure. I just wish people would give it a chance. And maybe, one day, the USA will join the rest of the developed world and provide Universal Health Care for everyone.

2012 LMS Presidential Endorsement: President Barack Obama

After much deliberation (about when to release my endorsement), I have decided to announce my endorsement for President of the United States tonight.

Now before I tell you my pick in the 2012 election, I want you to know that my choice isn't perfect. Actually, no one is perfect. In the past four years, President Obama has made some decisions I disagreed with and put forward some policies I have felt didn't go far enough. 

Four years ago, it's no secret that I was in love with President Obama. I believed in Hope and Change. Four years later, I still am in love with President Obama and I wholeheartedly believe in Hope and Change. 

Sarah Palin rhetorically asked a couple of years ago, "How's that Hope and Change thing workin' for ya?" Well, I have to tell you, I think it's worked out pretty damn well.

We've had 31 consecutive months of job growth and 5.2 million new private sector jobs. The October Jobs Report will come out in the morning. Everyone expects it to be another month of positive job growth.

Obamacare. The GOP has attempted to make the term some derogatory slur. It's not. Thanks to Obamacare, I can never be denied insurance for a pre-existing condition and possessing a uterus is no longer considered a pre-existing condition. Young adults can stay on their parents' insurance until their mid-20s allowing them to pursue dreams without jeopardizing their futures. Insurance companies are required to spend at least 80% of insurance premiums on actual insurance benefits or send out refunds. I didn't receive a refund this year, but I know quite a few people who did. President Obama is also firmly behind the idea that women should control their own bodies and make decisions that are best for them and their families. If the right to control my our own bodies isn't enough to vote for President Obama and all Democrats, I don't know what is.

Nine words: Osama Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive. 

Oh, and Chrysler is not pulling out of Michigan and Ohio in favor of taking all their Jeep production to China. They're expanding to build Jeeps in China that will be sold in China. There's a big difference. My tax dollars helped build that.

The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill to be signed into law by President Obama, gives women more freedom to fight back against pay discrimination. I think it says a lot about a President when his first major piece of legislation is to help bring equality to half our population.

DODT is no more and POTUS endorses marriage equality.

Fuel efficiency and clean energy alternatives are a priority to President Obama because he believes in leaving a healthy planet for future generations.

President Obama ended the war in Iraq. The war that was started based on a bunch of lies by his predecessor, by the way.

Middle class tax cuts that resulted in an average savings of $3,600 for typical families over the past four years.

He doubled funding for Pell Grants. That's a big damn deal. I had Pell Grants when I was in college. Today, I'm a successful, home owning, tax paying woman earning more than I could without that education.

That's a very small list at what President Obama has done. I believe that in the next four years, he can accomplish far more that will move the country forward for everyone, not just the top 1%. 

So to answer Sarah Palin's question about Hope and Change, it's working quite nicely for us, thank you. We are far better off than we were four years ago. And I'm fully committed to the path President Obama is taking us down. I know that when he's given another four years in office, President Obama will lead us to full recovery.

Therefore, without reservation, Little Merry Sunshine endorses President Barack Obama for a second term as President. As I said on October 27, 2008, 

If you're reading my blog and still undecided, I ask you to think about the kind of country you want to leave for your children and grandchildren. If you believe in equal pay for women, that health care is a right not a privilege, that women have a fundamental right to control their own bodies, that all people absolutely are created equal, that sometimes more gets accomplished by sitting down face to face than with the "either you're with us or against us" approach, that the politics of fear don't work, that every American deserves equal opportunity, and that government should do that which we cannot do for ourselves, then you owe it to yourself and future generations to vote for Obama.

Now if you're still undecided, I don't know what to say to you. Watch the videos below and then go vote for President Barack Obama.

Oh, and in case you're curious, yes, Sammy and Zoey are Demo-CATS and fully support President Obama.