Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Give You Everything I’ve Got for a Little Peace of Mind

While Christmastime is upon us, I usually find my mind scattered and broken, split into scores of pieces and focused on everything and nothing.  At those times I usually like poetry and Radiohead.  Or I like picking up my guitar.

Debt’s steadily mounting now that my student loans are out of their grace period and I’m having to make four separate payments instead of one consolidated one.  Thankfully the consolidation process should be done within the next month or so.  I’m doubleplus thankful that I don’t have student loan debt as high as many other students.  Right now I think I’m making around 15 different bill payments per month, but hopefully by the end of January that’ll drop down to half of that or so.

I was without health insurance for many years.  When I started my job in May I finally got health insurance, which I was super excited about.  However, the benefits I imagined from having insurance quickly changed when I realized how my particular plan worked.  (Actually, I have no idea how it works.  Too much legalese in that document.)  I have a very high deductable ($4000), which keeps the cost down, but means I have to pay a lot of stuff until my deductable is met, which likely won’t be met unless there’s some kind of horrible accident.  Keisha had a CT scan done a few weeks ago and I got my claim in the mail yesterday, telling me that out of the $1700 total cost, I was responsible for $1300 of it.  Suffice it to say that Keisha and I didn’t see that one coming.  It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder what good is my insurance doing me?  Thankfully I’ve got a HSA through my company and they match my contributions, so I’ll only actually be paying myself $650 while the MLC pays the other half.  I’ve not followed the whole health bill thing, but if it can help me, then great.  Blah. 

Me, Keisha, Clint, Alex, and Rachael all went ice skating last night.  The city has an outdoor rink set up and Mondays are free nights.  I did manage to make it around the rink several times without falling, but I stayed within arms reach of the wall for the most part.  I give definition to clumsiness.  But I never fell, thankfully, and we all had a great time.  Tonight me and Clint and Keisha are making a gingerbread house.

Random Bits and Pieces

I picked up the Beatles Anthology videos to watch, Dave.
Brandon Sanderson posted a free short story of his over here.
“A fool's lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.”—Prv. 18:6
Seventeen
Less than 100 pages remaining in Warbreaker
Writing Wednesdays tomorrow, with a map!

8 comments:

Bill said...

Health insurance is a tricky business indeed. I'm paying a bit more for a standard BlueCross BlueShield plan but it should be fairly similar to the plan I used to be on with my parents a few years ago so I shouldn't have to pay too much out of pocket I'm hoping.

logankstewart said...

Bill: Yeah it is. I, too, have BC/BS, but I have no copayment. What happens is that my overall bill is reduced by some sort of deduction that BC/BS pays (usually not that much) and then I get a bill for whatever's left. Fortunately, my Health Savings Acct at work is all tax-deductable and comes out of my check before taxes are applied. I think when Keisha gets a job as a teacher she'll have better insurance and she'll probably switch over to her own, which would be great.

David Wagner said...

Enjoy those Beatles discs! They're very well done.

logankstewart said...

@David: Sadly I'm stuck with VHS tapes right now. The library had in DVD copies, and when I went to pick them up they weren't there, having just been checked out before I arrived! Hopefully I'll get some time to watch some.

David Wagner said...

I'm soooo tired....

Don't know how I didn't pick up on the Beatles lyric in the title post the first time... man, I'm slippin...

logankstewart said...

Dave: Correct. I love that song.

Marie Cloutier said...

The health ins situation in this country is ridiculous. I hope Congress and the President can get something done to help us all out.

logankstewart said...

Marie: Well said and I completely agree. Now we just have to wait and see.