One last jab from Romania

Remember when I talked about my computer being broken? Remember when I said I thought it was the AC adapter ? Remember when I talked about how we were unable to find an AC adapter in the whole of Bucharest? Remember when I allowed myself to be convinced by a couple of very nice Romanian guys that it was NOT the AC adapter? Remember when I sent my computer in for warranty repairs? Remember when they shipped it back working very well with only a new AC adapter?

Oh. You might not remember the last one. It just happened. Doh!

It is nice to have my computer back though. It is a good sized laptop unlike Swell's. Her computer is tiny and dainty - like her. My computer is large and heavy - like me. My screen looks like a big screen TV compared to her Ipod sized screen. 17 inches! The warranty guys basically said that if the AC adapter breaks again and I raise a big enough stink I get a new computer. Here's hoping.

So our wonderful friend April wrote in her blog a little while ago about the run around she was getting from her health insurance company. The title of the blog was "Blessed and Angry" as she was, rightfully, angry with the insurance company but blessed because she has access to health insurance.

We have yet to see Michael Moore's movie Sicko but I really want to. It may have to wait until it is out on DVD. I know that many who read this would be mortified that we enjoy Michael Moore movies but we do. As I've said before my political leanings are far more left than most.

What do the two preceding paragraphs have to do with us? Well I have not had medical insurance of any kind in 5 years. Swell is now, also without medical insurance. She had it from her work before we moved and then we would have received any care we needed in Palestine for free.

Now that we're back we need to find insurance for her for sure and for me if we can afford it. That's the big thing.

If we can afford it.

Medical insurance is tremendously expensive and when you are doing a family plan it basically covers nothing. Most of the insurances that we can afford now - i.e. are less than $600 a month - are high deductible insurances. $5000-$10,000 a year. We don't mind high deductible insurances. We're mostly worried about catastrophe. Cancer, car accident, pregnancy...

...wait. Oh. That's right pregnancy is not covered by any of these plans. Not a dime. Not even if you exceed your deductible.

I am disgusted that living in the United States of America we need to beg a multi-million dollar company to take on our lives and be kind enough to allow us to access health care. If we pay for health care out of pocket we pay 2-3 times as much as the insurance company. If we do buy health insurance they will only cover a small portion of potential "illnesses". Yet, the right wing conservatives here in the US claim that this is the greatest system of healthcare in the world. The pundits cry, "People have to wait for care in Canada and are dying in the streets because they have to wait so long". Not entirely true of course but at this point I'd wait for care because as it stands now if I get sick we lose everything.

When Swell realized that pregnancy wouldn't be covered by the types of insurance we can buy Canada moved up the list of desired places to settle and we're not even gonna have kids anytime soon.