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Just in case you weren't convinced by Steven Brust's situation last year.
The office of the President of the University has decided against Ted. He died eight working days before his five-year anniversary (though he actually served the University for 34 years, which simply doesn't count because the University contracted out the kitchen for 29 of those years), so he falls into a different category. So what this means for me, since I luckily have a daughter at school, is that I get "pre-retirement" benefits until she is 22, and "retirement" benefits after I turn 62. The pre-retirement benefits qualify us for medical care for the next seven months. After that I can pay almost a quarter of my take-home pay for COBRA -- who knows what that stands for, but it's a continuation of medical benefits -- for eighteen months. Since there will be a gap between Emma turning 22 and my eligibility for Ted's retirement pay, I won't be eligible for health insurance from the University when I do reach 62.
Which means that I am on my own -- because I work in a field where benefits are scarce -- until I reach 60, when as a widow I will be eligible for Medicare. Thankfully, Medicare does now have drug benefits, which I understand are complicated and not tremendously good, but not nothing. Drugs are the main expense I have -- sorry, I already did all the non-drug approaches to my conditions, and I need the drugs. I can drop some of them as they are only for comfort, but the others keep me alive. Because of these conditions, it may be impossible and will certainly be expensive for me to find health insurance on my own.
But Arnold Schwarzenegger has a solution for me! He wants to pass a law that makes me individually responsible for my health! He wants to pass a law that will make it mandatory for me to have health insurance! That is, I must have health insurance, but there's no corollary that anybody must provide me with health insurance, or that health insurance must be affordable.
I might be able to salt away some of the life insurance money to pay for my expenses during the years I'm not eligible for anything. Well, I mean, I can salt away the money, but I'm not sure that will be enough to do the trick.
The office of the President of the University has decided against Ted. He died eight working days before his five-year anniversary (though he actually served the University for 34 years, which simply doesn't count because the University contracted out the kitchen for 29 of those years), so he falls into a different category. So what this means for me, since I luckily have a daughter at school, is that I get "pre-retirement" benefits until she is 22, and "retirement" benefits after I turn 62. The pre-retirement benefits qualify us for medical care for the next seven months. After that I can pay almost a quarter of my take-home pay for COBRA -- who knows what that stands for, but it's a continuation of medical benefits -- for eighteen months. Since there will be a gap between Emma turning 22 and my eligibility for Ted's retirement pay, I won't be eligible for health insurance from the University when I do reach 62.
Which means that I am on my own -- because I work in a field where benefits are scarce -- until I reach 60, when as a widow I will be eligible for Medicare. Thankfully, Medicare does now have drug benefits, which I understand are complicated and not tremendously good, but not nothing. Drugs are the main expense I have -- sorry, I already did all the non-drug approaches to my conditions, and I need the drugs. I can drop some of them as they are only for comfort, but the others keep me alive. Because of these conditions, it may be impossible and will certainly be expensive for me to find health insurance on my own.
But Arnold Schwarzenegger has a solution for me! He wants to pass a law that makes me individually responsible for my health! He wants to pass a law that will make it mandatory for me to have health insurance! That is, I must have health insurance, but there's no corollary that anybody must provide me with health insurance, or that health insurance must be affordable.
I might be able to salt away some of the life insurance money to pay for my expenses during the years I'm not eligible for anything. Well, I mean, I can salt away the money, but I'm not sure that will be enough to do the trick.
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