I mean - get this...yesterday I was literally GIDDY with JOY for finally getting through the Connecticut healthcare insurance website (that would be through the Affordable Care Act - for those of you who haven't explored it yet. AKA "The Exchange") and was able to get an AMAZING healthcare plan for my family.
As a double entrepreneur income family, it has been very financially difficult to get good health insurance. This has been especially hard to swallow because when we were emploYEES, we had the best of the best plans. As soon as we opened our own businesses we were saddled with pre-existing condition clauses and extremely high premiums if we wanted the same type of policies. Or even a lower bells and whistle policy.
But it's all relative. We ended up with basically a catastrophic, Major Medical type plan for the past 9 years. It was affordable but literally paid for nothing before hitting the $10,000 deductible. Did we put out as much or more than if we paid for that $1500-1800/mth policy with all the bells and whistles? No. But medical bills were still a burden. 3 kids, a hernia surgery, bad knees, bad shoulders, mammograms, dentists, gyns - it adds up!!!!
JOYfully, we are now the proud owners of a policy that consists of $35-$45 co-pays for almost everything (and NO co-pays for our children) with the deductible of $2500 waived except when hospitalized. AND - this is the ICING ON THE JOY CAKE - for less $$$$ than we have been paying for that crappy-a** policy we have had for 9 years. Imagine...a healthcare policy bringing JOY...
BTW - for the record - one would think - yea, their subsidy is HUGE because they must be at the poverty level.
Not even close. Not even less, less close. Not even less, less, LESS close. I was SHOCKED by our subsidy. And my point is this. Before you go complaining about the Affordable Care Act, you need to do your legwork. And if you are complaining because you make so much $$$$$ that you didn't get a subsidy? LOL - REALLY? Paleeze. OBVIOUSLY - it IS all RELATIVE. The policy I obtained for our family - without the subsidy - was an expensive policy. I will give you that. But it STILL was less expensive than what we would have been paying for this same policy before January 1st.
I know - I know - people are b*tching about their policy benefits going down and the price going up. Or their policy being canceled. It's all relative, I understand. But you know what? Our family has survived on less and paid more - and not just for health insurance.
It's like incessantly complaining about your daily aches and pains and debt and lack thereof in any arena, when people you know and love as well as those you don't, are battling cancer or other health hardships, losing loved ones, living on the street etc. etc. etc. They surely would trade places with you. But then again - it's all relative...
At any rate - this brings me to the real point of this blog post.
Want what you have. WANT WHAT YOU HAVE!!!
Our family has made so many sacrifices in the past few years, most in the name of being there for our children, as they grow through to adulthood. We could be the well-off family with two full-time working parents who can't get to their kids games, struggle to get them home from practices or leave them in after-school for un-godly hours because they are on the road to work in the morning at 7:00am and not home until almost 7pm. We could have. Lord knows - We WERE!
But we made the choice and we live with the choice. And we complain about it sometimes, and we feel cheated sometimes and we had LOUSY insurance!!!!! But we want what we have and we deal with the hardships
A Facebook friend recently posted this and you should give it food for thought:
"Do not spoil what you now have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for"
Greek philosopher Epicurus
Does this apply to all we have? No - I suppose not. Certainly if I were ill - I wouldn't feel this way. But seriously - for the most part - it rings true. I hoped for a fabulous husband and I hoped for children and I hoped to own my own home and I hoped to drive
I have all of this and more.
And I also have a child with special needs and a fat mortgage and business debt and a pinched nerve
and a mini-van (smiling?)...but I have good health insurance!!!
And I want what I have and what I want may change and then I will change what I have and I will change what I don't want and then I will want what I have. It's all relative.
The point is - take JOY in the now - in what you have. Surely, much of it was what you brought to your life - what you hoped for. Now.want.it! There is JOY to catch, my friends! Now go and catch it!!!
I mean - SERIOUSLY? A health insurance policy???
Yea - a health insurance policy. Cuz...It's ALL relative, ya know?
JOY JOY!
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