Rhymes with FAIL

We have not had the best luck with getting mail on this trip. Our friends back in California have been quite diligent about collecting and forwarding it, but the USPS has been about as effective and efficient as Inspector Clouseau's stoner cousin from Amsterdam.

So far, every Express Mail envelope--supposedly overnight service--has taken at least three days to arrive. Priority Mail, which is much cheaper, has shown up in about the same time, except for the one which got lost. That was the one which included our vehicle registration renewal from the DMV and three DVDs from Netflix. From now on, it's UPS or FedEx or some commercial delivery service we can actually depend on.

On the other hand, there are some things I would like the federal government to be responsible for. I don't think I have ever been more in favor of nationalized health care than I am right now.

After two months of shenanigans, we finally got the COBRA paperwork from D's former employer. The bad news? They want $700 a month to continue our health insurance. I'm not even kidding:



I'd like to point out that this plan used to cost $24 a month for the both of us. Either D's former employer was subsidizing a lot more of the premiums than we guessed,* or the insurance company is taking this opportunity to gouge its customers. I won't speculate.

Bottom line, we're not willing to pay that much for the privilege of later paying a high deductible if anything actually happens. We chose the high-deductible plan so we would pay lower monthly premiums. This is just obscene. And, clearly, it's also punishing anyone who dares escape their corporate shackles to pursue an independent career.**

Anyway. Now we're looking into less expensive alternatives for individual health insurance. (Being a Navy veteran, D can always go to the VA, but we'd like an alternative for those times when you don't feel like waiting several hours to see a doctor.) If you have ideas, we'd love to hear them.

~CKL

* Note that there was no way for us to find out how much COBRA coverage would cost at the time we enrolled in our health insurance plan.

** Okay, maybe that metaphor is a bit excessive. I apologize. We've been visiting a lot of colonial sites and hearing about how human beings used to be bought and sold as property. Sadly, I don't think that particular urge has fully vacated our species.