Category Archives: Healthcare

Recovery is fun!


Especially when your boys are willing to spend many hours playing card games with you to break up the time spent reading on your new kindle or in front of the TV:

Phase 10

 

We’ve had this game for awhile but at first our brains hurt or we were just too tired or something to want to figure it out. But with a long weekend looming for 16 and considering that he was (shock!) feeling a little bored with his Xbox, he brought this out. We’ve since played 6 games, one with 27 and had a damn fun time smack talking and laughing at the whole thing.

Meanwhile, I made the mistake Thursday afternoon of thinking that I could take a walk in the beautiful warm weather we are having. Since that was scarcely 24 hours after my surgery, it was not the best plan. It wasn’t awful, but I did feel some cramping happening as a result so I shut it down completely the rest of the day and on Friday. Saturday I ran some errands with 16 and felt no side effects. Renee checked in to see how I was doing and if I wanted to just walk on the trail while they did our usual longer Sunday run. They had to be out there for 90 minutes. I figured even if I could only stroll for a bit that since it was on my favorite birding trail – especially in the winter – then that would be a great test plus I could enjoy the sunshine.

I strolled for a mile. I mean, really STROLLED. Did stop and try to ID birds from memory. I didn’t carry binoculars or a bird book because I had put on my running shoes and was prepared just in case I felt well enough to pump up the walking pace.

Which, I did, so miles 2 and 3 I sort of started into my previous fitness walking pace of close to 15 min miles. That took a 65 mins and they would still be on the trail for another 25 so I decided to start alternating some light jogging segments with the walking. By the time 90 mins was up I had gone 5.3 miles and felt 100% FINE.

So how about that? I went from doing the K9 5K last weekend under a bit of duress from the fibroid symptoms (36 mins) – evicted the pesky buggers on Wednesday – and then today, a week after the 5k and 3.5 days after surgery – I walked/jogged for 5.3 miles in 90 mins.

I like that kind of recovery a LOT!

Oh, and new habit check in – I added $5 to the total this week so I have $21.55 saved.

After I get into finishing taxes this week I’ll put my mind into coming up with something fitness related. Even though the recovery has been encouraging, I am being honest about my limits to come up with something else until I am totally cleared after the 2 week post-op visit and once the larger tax chore is mostly completed since that will take up time and mental capacity :-)

K9 5K


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No, I didn’t get a dog (oh, how THAT would traumatize my spoiled kitties!!) But, I did borrow a dog to participate in another Just For Fun 5k event – The Petco K9 5K that was held Sunday at the racetrack just by my house. As you can tell from the pictures – it was COLD. We’ve been under frost warnings for the last three night/mornings and they were not kidding about it.

When we met up with Tanja and her dogs, the one I was going to run with – Miles – was just shivering! Eve had to take off her jacket and wrap him up for a bit to get him to stop.

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Pre-race photo – Tanja has her ridgeback Sarah. Last year they finished second, this year they were third but with a better time so for Sarah, it was a PR on the course :-)

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I was just having fun, not going for speed and once Tanja and Sarah were far enough in front of us that Miles could no longer smell his mom, he stopped running full speed and we settled into a nice trot.

Running with a pack of dogs is hysterical! Here’s a few things you never hear at other race events but which were the most commonly heard things at the K9 5K:

“Heel! Heel!”

“Good dog”

“Oh, whose a good boy?”

“Hey, stop sniffing that butt!”

“Water for you and your dog! Fire hydrants and porta potty’s!”

and my personal favorite made as both a question (because the runners forgot to bring their own):

“Poop bag? Do you have a poop bag?”

And then again at the water stops:

“Poop bags!! Get your poop bags!”

Yeah….I was giggling a lot. There were also the sights and smells of many dogs making use of the poop stops. Weee. Including one larger dog who decided he had to go NOW and that meant cutting across my path dragging his poor unwitting owner into the trees. I managed to keep the rubber side down, but it was a little more treacherous than the usual race courses!

Miles did great – he only tried to veer off a few times and a quick “heel!” got him back on track. I have no idea about our time because I wasn’t participating for that reason. It was just fun.

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Oh, and dinner with all the girls later that night topped off with some after dinner drinks? Just added to the fun of the day.

(No one knows why that photo is blurry..ahem)

It was a great way to launch into Eviction Plans, Version 2.0 which will mean shutting down the longer runs/workouts for a couple of weeks.  FWIW the fibroids staged a last ditch attack in the middle of everything yesterday but I refused – REFUSED – to let them keep me from doing what I wanted to do.

As of Wednesday they will be gone – gone I say! Gone to where the termites lay.

Bwahahahahahaha!

(Yes, more morbid loony tunes around here – whatever)

Oct 26 – When politics and personal life collide


OK, so I am not transitioning DIRECTLY into fluffy fun from yesterday. There’s a transition of sorts.

As I hinted at in my race report, there have been some err….female problems..going on recently as I approach that time in a gal’s life when certain reproductive systems prepare to take a dirt nap :-)

When I went in for my annual appointment with the female lady parts doctor, she surmised that it would be a good idea to check out my uterus via ultrasound for fibroids or other irritations and potentially do what is called a hydro thermal ablation to sort of “cleans things out” and reduce the irritations and thereby reduce the excessive…er…flow. (yes, trying to keep it palatable for the male readers, but you gals know what I’m talking about, right? Right)

Since this is my first ever issue in this regard, and since my kids are older – the only experience I’d had with ultrasounds before was a while pregnant and external only and I did have to prepare in any way.

This morning I learned a little something about myself.

1) Running has definitely made me mentally tougher (hey, I ran that 5k after all these issues which in itself made my doctor laugh at my insanity and toughness). I know this for sure because today I did NOT kick, punch or scream at the ultrasound technician, nor did I allow my bladder to explode as it wanted to while she took what felt like 10 bazillion pictures.

2) Because I do drink water, and a lot of it, every day as my primary source of liquid – I really do NOT need to prepare for an ultrasound by drinking 32oz of liquid a full hour before the procedure. Since I am plenty hydrated as a rule and since my bladder clearly fills up FAST – in the future, I can just drink 24 oz 30 mins before.

Woulda been nice to know #2 ahead of time so that I didn’t have to test the boundaries of #1 :)

The politics part is that the second step of the ultrasound after she took a bazillion photos of my uterus through my overly full bladder and then released me to empty it (best feeling ever!) – part two was a vaginal ultrasound. As soon as she said that I almost involuntarily giggled. Yeah, giggled. You see, being the political geek that I am I had hear a little bit about this procedure this year. Thanks, in large part, to the Governor of Virginia who is now referred to on the left as Governor Ultrasound” (Tried to pass a law mandating a vaginal ultrasound for any woman who wanted to terminate a pregnancy. Also wanted to make her pay for it. Great guy – see yesterday’s post on how I feel about the GOP right now) Also, thanks to that coverage, I knew what the to expect before I even saw the wand that is used. And that thought in my brain which had me sort of laughing at the connection allowed me to relax and get through the second part pretty well. Even though it also seemed to go on forever!

Can you tell I am having so much FUN this “vacation” week?


I passed my latest blood test with flying colors! Cholesterol is down. Triglycerides are way down. I didn’t even have to debate with my doctor on medication – she was thrilled with how the Lovaza+diet+exercise seems to have done the trick. Unfortunately for my wallet, the Lovaza is a fairly recent FDA approved pure Omega 3 capsule so there are no generics yet, but she’ll keep an eye out.

Meanwhile, I get to go SIX months before testing again – yay!

Of course, since I happen to like that I lost 10 pounds and also that I have toned abs & can even see some muscle definition in my upper arms & shoulders….you know I will keep up the more extreme exercise I started. Yes, I will even keep up with the running – which is currently really just a super snail pace slow jog. And I wont go back to eating Skinny Cow every night. Ice cream stays a once a week (at most) treat. But at least now I wont worry about things when I go on vacation & pig out a bit. I deserve it!

In case you missed the twitter update

The worst 30 minutes of the year


George Clooney, Cannes film festival

Image via Wikipedia

 

Ladies – raise your hands if you knew exactly what I meant just by that title.

Now, I promise I’m not going to go into humiliatingly graphic detail here – isn’t it enough that I’m posting pictures of me from the 80s? – but I still have a few items to get off my chest about *that* doctor visit. *Speaking of chests, that one is the tied with dental visits as the second worst appointment of the year – OW ! Sucks to be a girl sometimes!*

It starts with the weigh in. No matter what your size, this is always unnerving, right ladies? I mean, I don’t even come close to having body image or weight issues and yet I always get *pissed* when that damn doctor’s scale registers a total at least 5 pounds heavier than my scale at home.

“Wait, don’t write that down on my chart! That’s not right. Let me take off my shoes! They have to weigh 2 pounds each!”  Yeah, that’s what I scream in my head as I silently step off the scale and follow the nurse into The Room.

Then it’s on to the next humiliating dance. No matter how many times you go through this, you still panic, right? You just *know* that despite all evidence to the contrary, the Doc is *going* to come into that room before you are done getting into that half foot sliver of a gown. Because it is somehow SO IMPORTANT that you be properly COVERED UP when he comes in! And it’s not just YOU that must be covered up. So should your clothes. Right? Because even more important than YOU being properly seated on the table with the gown fully CLOSED and COVERING everything that he is about to quite closely examine – well, it would be an even more earth shattering event should he see your BRA or PANTIES!! Oh no. They must be properly folded and placed UNDER your long pants and sweater. And don’t let even a hint of the bra strap show!!  Horrors!

And then? THEN?

Well, then you wait.

In the cold, no FREEZING room. On the table with the flimsy paper cover that crinkles with every breath & shiver & chattering of teeth as you sit there in that gown trying to cover every possible inch of skin.

So you start to look around. At anything BUT the end of that table and any instruments on the counter. If you have a good doctor there are things on the wall for you to read. No, not cross sections of human bodies, but nice things like pictures and thank you notes from other patients. Mostly of babies that he’s delivered of course.  You might even see pictures of people you know since he’s been in the area as long as you have (as happened to me last year). Or maybe you have a really cool doc who puts up funny cartoons and sayings to help you relax.

One of the reasons I like my doc is that he is fast & efficient. I’ll work up this feeling of nervousness & dread all day (today – heh!) leading up to the appointment and then he will literally be done with the worst of it in 2 minutes. All that anxiety for 2 minutes of what really amounts to mild physical discomfort.

One of the other  things I can count on about him is that he will ask the SAME DAMN QUESTIONS every time! EVERY time. Ten years into seeing him and it’s the same three questions which get us both through the procedure.

“How old are your kids?” (followed by small talk about the boys & their current endeavors)

“Where do you work?”

“Oh, do they have an MBA program?”

I do not know why he always asks about the academic programs offered at my university – but he does!

One of these years I’ll be in a good enough frame of mind to maybe throw out some random/snarky answers to liven up the conversation.

Or maybe I’ll just grit my teeth & give the same answers all the while wishing he had some photos of George Clooney or Patrick Dempsey on the ceiling. Now *those* would make me *relax*!!!!!

Ultimately though, when he shuts that door after he leaves and I start putting my clothes back on, all I will be thinking is “YES! Clock has been reset! I’ve got 365 days until I have to do this again!”

 

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Ladies – raise your hands if you knew exactly what I meant just by that title.

Now, I promise I’m not going to go into humiliatingly graphic detail here – isn’t it enough that I’m posting pictures of me from the 80s? – but I still have a few items to get off my chest about *that* doctor visit. *Speaking of chests, that one is the tied with dental visits as the second worst appointment of the year – OW ! Sucks to be a girl sometimes!*

It starts with the weigh in. No matter what your size, this is always unnerving, right ladies? I mean, I don’t even come close to having body image or weight issues and yet I always get *pissed* when that damn doctor’s scale registers a total at least 5 pounds heavier than my scale at home.

“Wait, don’t write that down on my chart! That’s not right. Let me take off my shoes! They have to weigh 2 pounds each!”  Yeah, that’s what I scream in my head as I silently step off the scale and follow the nurse into The Room.

Then it’s on to the next humiliating dance. No matter how many times you go through this, you still panic, right? You just *know* that despite all evidence to the contrary, the Doc is *going* to come into that room before you are done getting into that half foot sliver of a gown. Because it is somehow SO IMPORTANT that you be properly COVERED UP when he comes in! And it’s not just YOU that must be covered up. So should your clothes. Right? Because even more important than YOU being properly seated on the table with the gown fully CLOSED and COVERING everything that he is about to quite closely examine – well, it would be an even more earth shattering event should he see your BRA or PANTIES!! Oh no. They must be properly folded and placed UNDER your long pants and sweater. And don’t let even a hint of the bra strap show!!  Horrors!

And then? THEN?

Well, then you wait.

In the cold, no FREEZING room. On the table with the flimsy paper cover that crinkles with every breath & shiver & chattering of teeth as you sit there in that gown trying to cover every possible inch of skin.

So you start to look around. At anything BUT the end of that table and any instruments on the counter. If you have a good doctor there are things on the wall for you to read. No, not cross sections of human bodies, but nice things like pictures and thank you notes from other patients. Mostly of babies that he’s delivered of course.  You might even see pictures of people you know since he’s been in the area as long as you have (as happened to me last year). Or maybe you have a really cool doc who puts up funny cartoons and sayings to help you relax.

One of the reasons I like my doc is that he is fast & efficient. I’ll work up this feeling of nervousness & dread all day (today – heh!) leading up to the appointment and then he will literally be done with the worst of it in 2 minutes. All that anxiety for 2 minutes of what really amounts to mild physical discomfort.

One of the other  things I can count on about him is that he will ask the SAME DAMN QUESTIONS every time! EVERY time. Ten years into seeing him and it’s the same three questions which get us both through the procedure.

“How old are your kids?” (followed by small talk about the boys & their current endeavors)

“Where do you work?”

“Oh, do they have an MBA program?”

I do not know why he always asks about the academic programs offered at my university – but he does!

One of these years I’ll be in a good enough frame of mind to maybe throw out some random/snarky answers to liven up the conversation.

Or maybe I’ll just grit my teeth & give the same answers all the while wishing he had some photos of George Clooney or Patrick Dempsey on the ceiling. Now *those* would make me *relax*!!!!!

Ultimately though, when he shuts that door after he leaves and I start putting my clothes back on, all I will be thinking is “YES! Clock has been reset! I’ve got 365 days until I have to do this again!”

Sure, THAT, I remember!


I recently wrote about my little issue with Proper Names and how they have vanished from my brain.

Here’s a couple of examples of this from this past week:

Ran into a friend and her son while out running errands one night. The mom and I chatted, the boy says “Hi Ms N” and I say “Hi, how are you?” Notice no name inserted there. Why? Because I could NOT flipping remember it!!! Now, in my defense, this was not the son who is MY son’s age and therefore the one I know. Still, after watching enough sporting events together on the sidelines, I know the younger brother’s name. I do. I really DO! Only I didn’t. Came to me later that night of course. At least it finally did come to me.

Walked to the store last night. Ran into a mom and dad from football. Haven’t seen them in awhile since their son did not play on SB’s team this year. They have an older son who already played freshman football this year so we started talking about that. Talked a LONG time. Yes, I remembered their names. I remembered their boys names (middle son is SB’s age). To this very moment I cannot think of what their daughter’s name is!! I can see her face. I know she’s in 6th grade. I probably see HER more often since they live around the corner from my street and she walks to the elementary school that I pass on my way out to work every day and I see her at least once a week. HER. That girl. The one with NO NAME!!

Just now, I am laying on the sofa after spending all of last night and most of today battling chronic neck pain (doctor has referred me for physical therapy at this point as I have a muscle that is just perpetually over stretched and now hurts more often than not and when it flares, it flares badly & responds to no pain meds beyond maybe reducing it from a level 7 to a 4). Anyhoo…I’m pretty up and down all day today with my energy level and don’t even want to focus to read for very long so vegging in front of sports on TV is about my level of mental capacity. Laying there. Eyes closed for a moment and the ESPN baseball crew start talking about the basketball playoffs, and then about hockey and oh, see that player about to come up to bat? He’s from Canada! He’s wearing #33 – do you know why?

I swear that I opened my eyes, said out loud “Because that’s hockey goalie Patrick Roy’s number!” And I was right.

THAT – I remember!!

Are YOU stronger than a bread roll?


This all started back in 2006 when I was 41 and thought I should have some blood work done because I hadn’t ever done it (well except when they test your iron before donating which up until then had always been fine). I was a quite shocked to find out that my cholesterol readings were high. Like, 40 points high! However, both the good AND bad kind were high so the doctor suggested changes in diet & exercise to correct it. At the time I was going to Curves at least 3 times a week and they did BMI readings once a month and mine was always quite low. (yeah, yeah, I know, I am blessed with hummingbird metabolism which keeps my weight down even if I don’t try too hard, but still, low weight does not mean for a minute that you are “in shape”).

Of course I never followed up with the doctor. Life intervened. I didn’t really change my diet either. I *did* pick up the workouts. I declared Curves just not intense enough and as I’ve mentioned here, I started with a different, harder workout routine and I’ve really liked it.

Then they had a health fair as part of open enrollment month at work and a gal from Scripps was there with a BMI testing machine. I stepped up confidently.The workouts for the past year had surprisingly caused me to lose a few pounds so that I am almost down to where I was in my 20s. So I was pretty smug to say the least. Then – WTF? The reading came back like 5 points higher than it should have been given my age, height & weight! Aaack! The nurse offers to do it again in case she messed up any settings (doubtful since she can even log in the 1/2 inch that I am above 5’4 and I gave her the high end of my weight range). I let her and it comes back 4 points too high! Bleargh!!!

So I made an appointment with the doctor from 2006. I don’t mention the BMI debacle, but I go ahead and give blood at the lab again. That was Friday so I wont know for another week perhaps what the results will be. Meanwhile I realize this now ALL has to be due to diet. And I have to face my weakness for fast food burgers. And fries. And my overall lack of fresh produce. I’ve made a concerted effort in the last two weeks to only have fruit on hand as an afternoon snack, and to have salad with (or often for) dinner each night. Given that I already gave up the daily sodas or coffee over almost two years ago and I really don’t have a sweet tooth, I know it’s salt that getting me. And those burgers. Those juicy, yummy burgers!

Today after my two hour 5 mile run/hike I head up to Solana Beach because I need some more work out supplies/clothes. Finish up at Big 5 and go next door to order a nice oriental chicken salad to go. Salad, carrots, peanuts, chicken breast & ginger dressing. A 1/2 order. Yeah, I am going to treat myself to a soy Frappucino from Starbucks, but hey, I just worked out! Plus I’m only having a salad for lunch! Lemme alone.

Waiting for the salad I run into a friend and she’s eating there and the waitress drops off a plate of garlic rolls at her table. They are literally dripping oil from them. We both eye them with suspicion and discuss how we are NOT touching those. I’m relieved that I am not eating there so I can avoid the rolls.

Get home 20 minutes later and break into my salad container to find……garlic rolls….4 of them:

Yeah, I said 4. Yeah, there are only two up there. No, I was NOT stronger than the garlic rolls.

Yeah – guess I better work out some more.

Healthcare Reform is personal, part 2 – an historic weekend


**Oops – the problem with having two blogs!! But since this already went out on Twitter from this site, I’ll leave it**

On Rachel Maddow’s show tonight they listed all of the items that will take effect within the next year in the Healthcare Reform bill which passed this weekend. I’ve emailed them to ask for a link to that or perhaps a PDF because that was a very good way to present the bill.  Update: Link from Maddow show producers: Factbox

Update2: Even better breakdown from Steny Hoyer’s office.

Apparently those who have watched other media outlets this weekend other than CSPAN reported that they were finally going through a “what the bill means to you” kind of exercise.

Might have been nice for them to do that previously perhaps rather than just having talking heads spew talking points over each other heads all these months??

What do I know, I’m just an accountant with a blog :-)

Anyhoo – on Rachel’s show it was estimated that the provision to extend dependent benefits to children up to the age of 26 will take effect around 9/23 given that Obama will sign the bill on 3/23. A 6 month lag time. Minor bummer there since my son turns 25 on July 14 BUT…still…more than we had hopes of him having anytime soon! If/when I hear back from the Maddow show I’ll post the list here. Also, there was this rather simplistic page which estimates the impact on you given your situation and income though the options are limited. Still, another practical tool:

Washington Post health care bill calculator

So yes, I watched CSPAN all weekend. The most I’ve ever watched it! You know they had the best ratings ever given the historic nature of the events and that it did all come together on a weekend. I watched a lot of the Rules Committee meeting that went on for 13 hours – chaired by the 80 years YOUNG Rep Louise Slaughter who does not look at day over 70 and who still looked fresh and sounded sharp in that 13th hour and then the next day on the house floor. I’m telling you that even though my own 80 years young parents are in pretty damn good shape, Rep Slaughter was still damn impressive with her stamina and, well, yes, her patience in dealing with the tedium & ceremony of it all. I hope I have her energy at 80!!

I saw the protesters. Heard the reports of the ones with the bad behavior which was inexcusable. Saw twitter pics of some pretty darn nasty signs blended in with the otherwise sane ones. As one local posted on twitter, the tea party demonstrations were smaller this weekend, but a LOT more vocal and aggressive. He felt more frightened to be around them this time. Which was, I know, understandable since they were in desperation mode and this was democracy at its best. Well, perhaps in a few disgraceful cases, perhaps not at its best, but still, part of the process for sure. But I couldn’t help feeling that so much of that anger and fear on display was mis-guided. After all, they were revved up by the likes of Glenn Beck and a few of the more right wing fringe GOP congress folks such as Michelle Bachman. They weren’t at home finally seeing the cable & network news outlets showing point by point what the bill could mean to them. They were carrying the cries of “Socialism! Govt takeover! Armageddon!” and the likes. They were literally, somehow, convinced to their core that they were about to lose all semblance of freedom in their lives. I know because that’s what I heard one GOP congressman/woman on the floor of the house on Sunday as the role call of “debate” got rolling. “Taking away our freedoms” was an overarching theme.

But I couldn’t see it. I just could not see in anything I’d read or heard that convinced me that democracy would end with the passing of this bill.

Maybe because I look at it like my friend Lazy Buddhist who wrote her own personal story today on what this means to her: Why I’m so tickled health care reform passed. Notice that from her perspective, the passing of this bill provides her MORE freedom. MORE choice in what to do with her life.

The one huge thing I took away from the weekend glued to CSPAN is that the GOP could only argue from a point of anger. They argued about procedures and processes. They echoed (or lead) the tea party protesters chants to Kill the Bill and start over and then offered…….*crickets*……..Their voices were risen in abject opposition but without a single sense that they were truly empathetic that there IS a problem or that they have a different solution that will solve it just as well. Remember their plan as scored by the CBO would only have added 3 million people to the health care rolls. The plan which passed will cover over 30 million. HUGE difference.

And for each angry GOP protest on the floor, it was countered by a Democrat with a story about the people who will be helped. Some already well known thanks to President Obama reading their letters. Some who were relatives of the Representative. Some who were staffers of theirs. Some constituents. But the point was it felt like they were there for US. For people like my son and like Lazy Buddhist. And not just my son as I’ve learned about at least 5 other friends whose adult children will go back on their plans in September.

It’s lifting a burden off our shoulders. It’s making us feel MORE free, not less. It’s not perfect. But it’s also NOT a government takeover, or socialism by ANY stretch of the imagination. I ran the numbers on that Washington Post site and as Obama has promised from day one, it WONT change my coverage and it WONT raise my taxes.

It was the right thing to do. It took courage and determination. Courage and determination on display here when Speaker Pelosi lead the Democrats across the street from their Congressional offices, through the angry protesters, and into the Capitol:

Arm in arm, hand in hand, letting the people out side see that they were not going to be insulted & shouted down from what they knew to be, the right thing to do.

Why we need healthcare reform


Those of you who already read Dawn’s blog have seen this, so please bear with me. However, I think that this story needs to be circulated around just like all those lovely emails that have blazed through the country spreading lies about a certain candidate. Instead of spending bandwidth on that drivel, how about we all start talking about this?

First, go to The Journey and read that post that I’ve linked. If you don’t take the time to read the whole thing, just look at those pictures. Look at that adorable little girl. Then please, really do read it. Because as of this month that family’s options were exhausted and that beautiful girl is without proper insurance to cover her ongoing medical needs. For a summary of everything, check out her post on MOMocrats from last month. I’ll summarize really quickly here:

  • Existing insurance phases out part of policy that covers the specialized treatments her daughter needs – financial considerations of course!
  • Husband’s employer offers a group plan but it has lousy coverage.
  • Existence of group plan disqualifies them for consideration from High Risk Pool.
  • Daughter now labeled with pre-existing condition cannot qualify for other coverages no matter how expensive anyway – that damn bottom line again!
  • One last option is for her husband to request a pay cut so that the family qualifies for the SCHIP. Recent vetoes of the bill as submitted create this scenario because the new bills would have raised the income level limit up to where they are right now.

You can read the rest at those links to see where they stand now, but let’s just go over this shall we? A young family with small children. Father employed, mother staying home with kids. They are insured. Until the insurance company decides to drop coverage of certain high cost therapies and medications. So now they slip through the cracks into the realm of the uninsured. They have to choose between basic living expenses such as housing and food over medical treatments. And we call ourselves a civilized nation?!!!

Please, vote for a candidate who will take care of people like this!