Safe but Not Satisfied: Group Insurance and Health Reform

We are now officially covered by a group health insurance policy once again. Can I get a WA-HOOOOOOOOO!?

The difference between this plan and the one we were so graciously allowed to go to great lengths to obtain and pay for is stunning. I didn’t mention it here because it gets into a lot of TMI territory, but my husband had a health issue come up last month that he had to get checked out with a CT scan and then a test they had to knock him out for at the hospital. On top of lingering bills from the finger smashing incident, I have a bill from the CT scan for $927. I am sure the hospital bill will be a doozy. I fully expect that what we pay out of pocket (let alone the premium) for this one month under our individual policy will be less than our out of pocket maximum for the entire year under my work plan.

Which reminds me, I have to call my elected representatives and give them a hard time. It’s been a while. They miss me. (Especially Pete.)

Because even though we are now safely ensconced in a group plan, I am not forgetting about health care reform. I am not giving up. I am not willing to wait.

Because it could be me again that needs it. It could be you. It is me and you, because my company has been struggling to deal with the ever-rising costs, and I bet you have been choking on the costs too–even if you don’t see the numbers to realize that’s where the profits went, that’s where the raises went, that’s where the donations and the tithes went, that’s where the taxes went.

Right now I feel more safe but not satisfied. Why should I feel good because I now have what others don’t? Should I just forget what it’s like to dread opening those bills just because I now have a Flex account? Should I just pretend it’s suddenly not that urgent because it’s momentarily not that urgent for me?

No. I can’t, and I won’t. The world isn’t fixed when I’m doing okay and messed up when I’m not. I refuse to let my sense of personal customer satisfaction be the only barometer for what I think this country should do for its people, because I’m far from the least of these, even on my worst day. We never had it that bad, not even when we were most scared and most frustrated; we only got a taste of the helplessness and injustice many have felt trying to battle both disease and insurance at once. But it was enough of a taste to make me say enough is enough. It’s enough to make me keep fighting.

Let’s do this thing, America. Our future needs it, starting now.

Survivor: January

We have been having trouble with our Internet connection at home, and since it’s the school’s, not our own, there’s not much we can do about it. That hasn’t helped my blogging and keeping up on email, but I suppose the bigger problem is that it seems 8, 9, 10 hours a day are just gone out of my day now and by 9:00 p.m. I’m in a catatonic state. Can’t imagine why.

Kidding aside, I really figured I’d be happy with basic survival skills this month–if I got to work every day and everybody in the house found something to eat three times at least once a day, we’d be doing pretty good. I guess I’m exceeding my low expectations since I’ve yet to oversleep or resort to takeout for dinner and I did get the Christmas decorations down today before the clock ran out on January.

This complete change in routine has forced me to be more organized as far as meals and to go back to getting shopping, laundry, hair braiding, and the like done on weekends instead of whenever I felt like it. I’m actually pretty proud of myself for doing as well as I have so far. And now that I’ve said this, I’m set me up for a major domestic fail of some sort, I’m sure.

And now that I’ve been satisfied by discovering Bon Jovi gracing my TV to make up for the Pro Bowl (football nerd alert!) being mysteriously absent, I need to get my getting-up-early booty to bed. Livin’ on a prayer . . . and coffee.

Wordless Wednesday: Carousel

Workin’ for the Man Every Night and Day

I think I’m getting the hang of this working thing.

Go figure, I think I like it too. Yes, the days start early and the drive is long, and sometimes I sit at my desk in my cold office for so long that my pulse slows to roughly 40 bpm and I have to take coffee via IV to get going again. But on the other hand, I don’t have to repeat simple requests seventeen times in a row seven thousand times a day or help wipe any part of any other person’s body.

At work my office has a door and a huge stash of snacks and no Mr. Potato Head parts on the floor. Sometimes there are coffee runs or people stopping to say hi. And I get to have LIVE, INTELLIGENT CONVERSATIONS with actual, mature, ADULT HUMAN BEINGS.

For example, last week I got to spend an hour with two others comparing ideas and opinions on designs for a major project. I love that kind of thing. People think that editors must be quiet, shy introverts, but I am a collaborative person and I think actually an extrovert. Those conversations and connections to the bigger picture give me the energy to go back and do the focused solo work. I did miss that sometimes as a freelancer. (Of course, there is also the imposing wall of deadlines looming over me to keep me focused. Yikes!)

I have my morning routine down pretty well and was just able to simplify our daycare/grandmacare schedule. AJ is doing great with the new routine, although she was happy to spend Saturday at home just lazing around in her pajamas and then ballerina outfit. Me too. (Well, minus the tutu.) I did feel like I should have been working on the weekend, since that was when I got a lot of my freelance work done, but it is nice that now when I’m off, I’m really off–no choice, no guilt.

Today was the first day of Aaron’s new semester, so we’ll soon see how his weeks flow and how all this goes with him juggling a ton as well.

Time to go juggle some chili into my crock pot.

Wordless Wednesday

Jeff

Baker Publishing Group mourns the loss of a colleague and friend, Jeffery A. Wittung. Jeff, one of Baker’s academic editors, was injured in a car accident on his way to work January 6, 2010. He passed away the evening of January 10. He leaves behind a wife, Marne, and two daughters: Ana (5) and Kate (1).

We at Baker Publishing Group will miss Jeff greatly, and we invite you to pray for the family Jeff leaves behind: his wife and daughters; his mother, father, and sister; his in-laws; and the extended family. They find comfort in Jeff’s faith and in their own, but their loss is severe.

Sunday: Strange Mercy

“You can’t conceive, nor can I,

the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”

—Graham Greene

Workweek 1 / Prayer Request

First week down. I commuted to work four days and the weather was only nasty three of them. Today I was able to work at home, which probably saved me the embarrassment of falling asleep at my desk. The mornings came very, very early this week.

Aaron ended up not going on his retreat because of some doctor’s appointments and things he needed to deal with. So he could stay with AJ some of the days I worked and get dinner going before I finally got home. Thank goodness! AJ did great with letting me drag her out of bed, bundle her up, and drag her out in the dark (baffling to her) to head to Miss J’s day care or to meet my mom. I don’t think she gets yet that we’ll be doing this all the time.

Going back to work at the same place I worked six years ago is strange in the way our whole life has been since moving back to Michigan from Oregon: The same, only different. Familiar, but it’s changed. Old friends nearby but lots of new people too. Really it was like being in one of my crazy dreams: I dreamed I went back to work, and you, and you, and you were there . . . and they gave me your old office but stole all the furniture except one of the crappy brown chairs and a pile of screws.

The first day was a lot of meeting new people and chatting with those I’d worked with before, getting set up on the computer, and regretting those shoes as I toured the building which is now much bigger than it was. I’ve also been gradually recalling the terminology and processes I didn’t use as a freelancer–how to set project schedules, how to do pre-production tasks, technical terms like cast-off and loose lines and Green Envelope. It’s like dusting off all that German I learned back in school (Kennst du Ingo? Ingo ist mein Freund.). But I was pretty much able to get right to work.

If it wasn’t clear enough that this is a good place to be, Wednesday we all got a reminder: someone from editorial was in a severe car accident on the way to work. We waited to hear anything at all, then heard he was in surgery and did one of the remarkable things about working at a Christian company: those who wanted to gathered in a conference room to pray for Jeff, his family, the doctors, the other person in the accident.

Like they prayed for me eight years ago when Aaron’s brother died.

Like they have prayed for so many.

I stepped in the room as they were already praying, and this struck me so hard I was immediately in tears. But many eyes glistened as we agreed For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory and the company president reminded us, “This is why we’re here. This is so much more important than what’s on your desk any given day.”

Please join the many praying for Jeff. They did surgery on his heart that day and are now most concerned about pressure in his head. Family has come from out of state to be with his wife and young daughters. Miracles have happened but he needs more.

.

More blogging soon–after I go catch up on my sleep. Ah, Saturday sweet Saturday . . . suddenly I love you so much more.

New Year, New JOB!

Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na . . . I got a job!

Or rather, the job got me. I wasn’t really looking for it, but some opportunities you just don’t pass up. Especially when you really need benefits like insurance you can afford. I just had to get my ducks in a row (hence the photo) and find some blogging time amidst it all before I said anything here (the “40″ hint was for 40 hours a week).

This came about a couple weeks ago and I start Monday (when, most inconveniently, Aaron leaves for a week-long retreat). I’ll be a trade books editor at a publishing house. Let’s call it Family Religious Publishers for now, although some of you know its real name because I used to work there before we moved to Oregon and have been freelancing for them for the last six years. So they know me, I know them–heck, I even have my old office nameplate ready to slap back on the wall.

So I’m not really nervous about it, but I have had my freak-out moments over the last couple weeks because it is a total life organization makeover: Who will take care of our child? How will I get to work? How late will I get home and when am I going to cook, eat, shop, braid hair? I’m going to have to get up how early?

The job is about 45 minutes away from home, although I will be able to work from home one day a week. We couldn’t make that work with only one vehicle, so we had to find a second car. Obviously we needed day care for the Joygirl. Clearly my wardrobe has atrophied significantly over the last six years.

Day care: One of our neighbors has been extremely pleased with the in-home day care person she started using this fall. And my daughter has declared that she is marrying their son, so shouldn’t they spend some quality time together? Unfortunately Aaron’s schedule for this semester is terrible–more afternoon classes to work his internship and study time around–and the day care lady couldn’t take AJ late enough a couple days I would have preferred . . . but eventually we figured out how to make it work. I think. Thank goodness for my mom, who is helping out a couple days a week. AJ has spent a few days at day care already to get used to it and she seems to have enjoyed it and had no trouble at all saying goodbye to us, so I feel good about it.

Transportation: We couldn’t possibly pull off this schedule with one vehicle, and I wouldn’t want to commute in a giant gas-sucking truck anyway (except on snowy days). We needed to find a car that gets good gas mileage but is still comfortable for my 6′5″ husband and our budget. We tried various wagons and ended up with a 2005 Scion xB–the box car people seem to either love or hate (Aaron thinks it looks “badass”). It’s small but it’s funky, the interior is surprisingly big, and it gets 30+ mpg. (I’ll post a photo when I locate it under all the snow we just got.)

I wasn’t really ready to be excited about the job until I had those two major things under control–more like Good Lord, what have I done?–but now I’m ready to actually think about the working part. Freelancing definitely has some great advantages as far as flexibility. But it was hard to work at home with a three-year-old and honestly, I think I will appreciate her more and be a more patient parent when I’m not with her 24/7. I will enjoy working with people again and having a clear line between work at home. And after a month I will have paid vacation/sick time and the all-important health insurance. WILL WORK FOR INSURANCE.

Ready or not, publishing here I come!

Wordless Wednesday

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