Dear Reader:
I've been trying to sleep unsuccessfully for the last little bit, so I thought I'd get up and blog for a bit before the sleeping meds kick in.
Speaking of meds, I've been thinking--in a bit of a round-about way, of course. About drugs and money. As of right now, with my unemployed status, DH is bringing home the dough/bacon/etc. (OK, he just brings home the money, and then I go out and buy the bacon and make/cook the dough). According to government statistics, even on just his one income we classify as "middle class". I think that if what we are is part of the median, the U.S. must not be so terribly wealthy. Or at least, not in the vast majority.
While pondering our financial situation, I started to make a breakdown of where our funds go, just to see how much we are actually living on compared to what DH "makes" on paper. It boils down to this:
--a little over 25% goes to taxes
--another 16-17% goes to health insurance
--another 7-8% pays for medicine and medical fees
Leaving us with a grand total of approximately half of his actual income to live off. Suddenly we're not so wealthy. And now see why we're understandably concerned about the feasibility of affording to raise children in a good environment? Leaving out all other potential factors for the time being.
And you would think that with as much of our income going into medical care as goes into taxes we would be getting pretty decent care. Not so much per se. Though we're still much better off than so many others in this country, which is downright deplorable. Today the specialist that DH has been waiting nearly a month to see just pushed back the basic, preliminary appointment to determine whether or not he needs a diagnostic procedure another 3 weeks because her office over-booked her. Nevermind the primary doctor referred him to the specialist because she thinks there is an underlying problem causing his arrhythmia--yes, I did just say that his heart is beating irregularly, causing him to be on a slew of medications that cause everything from depression to unnatural weight gain, to high cholesterol, and possibly the loss of several years of his life, not to mention costing us hundreds of dollars in medications and doctor's appointments every month--and this underlying problem could be detected by a relatively minor diagnostic procedure. Which he can't have until he sees the specialist and she recommends it. Zod only knows how long after that happens that he will actually have the procedure, followed by another millenium of waiting to find out what the problem is, and then ultimately resulting in some far-distant invasive procedure. Or maybe just a switch-up of the meds. In the meantime, his heart will continue to beat irregularly, we will spend 1/4 of our take-home income on drugs and doctors.
And lest you think this is an isolated incident, I waited over a month for our doctor's office to call and make a referral for myself to a different, unrelated specialist's office. That is with me calling multiple times to check up on the status. Now that they've referred me on, the new office has decided they must review my files before deciding whether or not to take me on as a patient before ever making a preliminary appointment. I've been waiting 2 weeks on them. I've called once, and will be calling again shortly to determine if I should just give up and try someone else. This is for a problem resulting from a surgery I had nearly 2 years ago that my doctors so far have tried to insinuate is hypochondriacal, at least until I spent 2 months in non-stop pain and nausea. I actually had to dig around in the medical lit myself to try to figure out what's wrong with me. I've got it narrowed down, but until I actually see a specialist there's nothing I can do, and I can't confirm or reject my hypotheses. So maybe by Christmas? I guess I don't have to worry about whether or not I can afford kids if I can't even have them because I can't get my pre-existing medical problems taken care of.
And so much our lovely healthcare system. When people rant against universal healthcare raising taxes, don't they realize that their lovely free-market health system is already costing them at least a quarter of their income--taking as much as if not more from them than taxes? And for what? To be treated like less than dirt? To lose weeks and months of healthy living, and possibly years of total living, even though we're paying out the wazoo?
Dear Reader, when I'm not depressed I'm angry and when I'm not angry I'm depressed. Too depressed for anything, even sex.
Dear Reader, I'm pretty bummed right now.
'Til next time,
--The Limbo Runner
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