Sometimes I hate this country so much.

Not often, but it fucking makes my stomach turn that people like Stephanie and Daniel and Meg even have to think about these things.

Part of the problem is that the people who set policies don't have to live (or, too often, die) under those policies. Politicians have access to high quality health care and don't have to worry about the cost. Insurance company executives ditto. There are people who don't dare leave jobs they hate because they can't get health insurance otherwise. I read somewhere that when Herman Cain had cancer a friend got him into treatment at M.D. Anderson and when he was released another friend had him flown home on a private plane. At one point (several years ago) in DC there were news stories about children suffering the effects of lead poisoning; at the same time, Bush senior's dog was being treated for the same thing ... only with better care than the children were getting.

(And, by the way, the hospital ended up writing off the portion of the bill for my appendectomy the insurance company wouldn't pay for ... about $18,000 worth. so ... yay hospital)

take a look at family leave policies, insurance, unemployment, and cost of raising kids.

That is what the fuck is up.

There's a reason the generation born during the Depression/WWII is the smallest of the 20th century, and it sounds like the current generation being born will echo that.

A friend and former co-worker has a daughter who was born around 1975. My friend is still bitter that the company policy at the time was to terminate women the second the baby was born. She then had to re-apply for her job.

My insurance is a horrendous monthly amount, but no other company will cover me. I have no confidence that any part of the health care law will survive the next election, and Georgia is fighting funding a high-risk pool.

when Herman Cain had cancer a friend got him into treatment at M.D. Anderson and when he was released another friend had him flown home on a private plane

The first friend was T. Boone Pickens and the second was a corporate jet.

My mother worked between graduating from college and getting pregnant with me. She managed to hang on to her job after getting married (in 1949 it was expected that nice married ladies didn't work ... no outside the house) but when she got pregnant with me, they made her leave.

Daniel, I'm so sorry about all the insurance crap. I'm also sorry for all the other buffistas with big insurance worries. The idea of TCG ever getting laid off terrifies me; my out of pocket expenses without insurance would be horrible.

We had a quiet day today. We spent most of it on the train getting from Haworth to Edinburgh and then took a long nap at the hotel. I think the pace we have been keeping is starting to catch up with us. After the nap we walked around Edinburgh, which is an absolutely lovely city with lots of fun shops and pretty things to look at. Tomorrow, whisky tour!

There are people who don't dare leave jobs they hate because they can't get health insurance otherwise.

I have an employee grappling with that right now. She won't stay full time, but part time or freelance means taking on huge risk. I'd love to have her P/T or FL, certainly over losing her, but I just don't know if we can make it work.

[TLDR ahead, veering off the health insurance strictly, though that's part of it.]

And honestly, part of the reason I've been so on the edge recently is that it's really been coming home to me that as a single person (and with a mortgage to boot) I really have no safety net. More than that. I am the saftey net in some senses for four households. My father scrapes by on social security and VA benefits. My sister was laid off two years ago and is doing part time telemarketing with no benefits. My brother is unemployeed with massive student loan and cc debt.

And I'm one of the lucky ones. I am employeed at a decent salary. I can pay my bills, and provide substantial help to the rest of my family. But it's a house of cards, man.

And it could be so much worse. I don't have kids to support. My sister's health is precarious, with weight, asthma and other shit, but she hasn't (knock wood) had anything major happen. And how effed up is it that I consider it a godsend that my dad was hurt in the Navy so many years ago?

My brother was stressing out about having to dip into his barely there anymore retirement funds to handle this credit card settlement recently. Here's what I told him. It doesn't matter. There are so many people losing so much ground and no end in sight. By the time those retirement funds become relevant, either there will have been a revolution (of some sort) and everything will be different, or we'll all be so completely, Dickensianly fucked that it wouldn't have helped anyway.

Hand to god, that's how I see it.

By the time those retirement funds become relevant, either there will have been a revolution (of some sort) and everything will be different, or we'll all be so completely, Dickensianly fucked that it wouldn't have helped anyway.

That's how I view it, too. I wish I didn't.

My hospital also had really good food

Maybe you remember it that way because Deb came and brought you homemade vegetarian food.

Though the final dinner was yummy.

With Emmett we were out of the hospital the next day. It totally sucked. We had to keep trekking back because he was jaundiced and EM had severe post-partum depression, and we had a lot of trouble with breast-feeding. The first six weeks were hellish until EM went on ADs.

JZ had a breast-feeding specialist on-site working with her until she got into a groove which took until the fourth day. That made a huge difference. And I think the rest made a difference in her healing, because she was able to get up and down the stairs after her c-section immediately.