What the snizzle???

April 19, 2010 on 3:35 pm

So, something that I forgot to blog about last week, health insurance, both my wife and I are State of Idaho employees and we always joke one will never get rich working for the state but the benefits are great.  So the State of Idaho has great insurance which is a good thing.  But there is one down side to this great insurance policy that I learned the other day.  The policy has an individual cap on the policy of 1 million dollars.  When I think of a million dollars that just seems like a lot of cash, but there is a potential that cash could go very fast with Tessa.  So what happens when one meets the cap, well the person is not covered by insurance anymore.  They have meet there lifetime cap.  That is wild to think…It is funny, in doing some quick research one can find that only 22% of family insurance plans have a lifetime cap below 2 million dollars.  The current plan that we are on has a 1 million dollar cap.

Now I do not know where you may be politically and at times I really do not care where people are politically.  I vote and if you talk to most folks they would say that I am on the left.  So, we have this nationalized health care that folks think is the end of the world.  Some “Christians” believe that it is a sign of the end times….  Guess what it is not a sign of the end times.  Because, we will not know when the end times will happen; we are told to keep a watchful eye for the end, but we will not be in the loop on when it happens.  God so much smarter than us; he made the world in 6 days.  I cannot even get my house clean in 6 days.  Nationalized health care is not a sign of the end.

I do not know what to expect with Tessa.  There could just be a few medical bills or there could be a lot of medical bills.  If there is a lot then I am happy for the public health plan that will be in place.  I cannot even think of how one would be able to afford coverage if something catastrophic happens after one meets a cap on insurance.  Would one then think that the child or person is now a burden?  Would one question there decision to have a child at that point?  Would this split a family apart?  Why would a person think that medical coverage is a choice?  I do not know if medical coverage is a right…but, I do think that medical coverage is something that everyone should have equal access to, and the care should be of quality.

So what happens when one meets a cap?  I am not sure…  Can one get another job at another company and be covered again.  Would Tessa’s hydro be pre-existing at that point since one meet a cap?

If you want to laugh then the following is for you.  So I am able to donate time to my wife since we are both State of Idaho employees.  So, the policy states that I am only able to donate vacation time to my wife which is fine with me.  I have maxed out my vacation time and it will be good to give some to her.  Other folks in my office will also donate time.  So my wife and I are expecting that she will receive 160 hours of donated time.  I planned on donating my max which would be 80 hours.  I would still have a good deal of time left for myself and I al so have ton of sick time which I was expecting to use.  But a dude is not able to take sick time if he is on paternity leave.  How crazy is that.

I think back to a lot of my college studies.  I studied under some great feminist professors.  I would actually consider myself quite a feminist in my thought process.  We so value Family Values but then we put the mother in the role of primary care giver.  The father misses out on a lot of the development of the child.  I joke with my wife, I cook, I clean, I do the wash and I do not complain.  I am a good “wife”.  I am actually very good with SGO, I am able to read to her, change a diaper and get her to go to bed.

So there is a way around the paternity leave aspect.  Since both Heather (C section) and Tessa (hydro) will be classified as “sick” then I qualify for FMLA leave.  Thus, I would be able to use both vacation time and sick time.  Is this truly a big deal in the grand scheme of things?  Nope, but I sure think it is an interesting double standard.  Is there gender equality in this area, nope.

I think of a song in all of this.  God is great, beer is good and people are crazy.

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