I can't wake up.

Yeah, I hear you. At this point, I'll settle for not feeling like my brains are leaking out of my ears.

Leif has apparently discovered sarcasm.

Excellent!

My university charges for health care. I pay $120-150 a month (I disremember exactly how much, because they just raised it again). Good thing is that there's no copay though. (the majority of my care occurs at the onsite medical center) Also psych coverage is to laugh at. But at least it exists.

Excellent!

It's a good skill to develop, but it's also a little weird to get zinged by a four-year old.

Except for the whole reason to work as a staff member at a private university IS the benefits, as the pay for comparable jobs at a) business and b) public universities is quite a bit higher.

I guess I should say this is true for my local area, which has 4 public universities/colleges, and 5 private (which is sort of insane considering that Rochester is a small city)

Which would be me. And if I have to pay taxes on my health insurance, I probably won't be keeping my health insurance because I won't be able to afford it.

I think that's about everybody I know.

My university has done some really interesting things with health insurance. For starters, the Basic plan for single people is only $20 a month, AND they put $200 in a Health Care Reimbursement Account for you, so the first couple of office visits or prescriptions a year are reimbursed for free by the Uni. They have a really high percentage of staff who have coverage, as a result, and this is a stated goal of theirs.

I just switched to the Basic plan, and pay $115 a month for me and the two kids (down from $175 a month for a plan with no prescription deductibles and lower office visit co-pays.) It's going to save us a lot of money this year, since we are basically healthy and the money we save on the monthly payments will cover the increased copays, and we'll have good coverage for anything catastrophic. Also, hooray for no copays on well child visits.

On the other hand, their dental plan reads like it was written by crack-addled monkeys.

Well, if he is talking about a non-itemized deduction, it wouldn't really have that much effect on most people unless they have a really expensive health plan. But it probably won't raise a lot of money either and will just sound horrible in a political speech.

I think Bush and the neo-con philosophy is all about an ownership society. I think they'd like to dial things back to enfranchisement only going to landowners. If you don't own your own home and you're not a business person, then you're not much of an American.

24: megan and ita - me too! And did you like the hommage to Paul McCrane's two run-ins with falling helicoptors on er?

ION, The Daybreak site is up again and it looks like there will be three new episodes up next Monday.

I don't have that much taken out for insurance, a little under $15. But, my check is pretty small (what with the non-profitness and all). Taxes already take a pretty huge chunk (though I almost always get a pretty big refund.)

In short, I need free health care and more money.