Bloomin’ Milkweed

Well, its now the time of summer when milkweeds begin to bloom. “Dad-burned, bloomin’ weeds, anyway!”, some folks might say. Despite that, these Common Milkweeds (asclepias syriaca) are interesting plants to observe, not only in summer, but also in the fall. Milkweeds are popular with insects---the Wikipedia article mentions Monarch butterflies, Milkweed Beetle and Large Milkweed Bug, among others. Wouldn’t that be something to be a plant and have bugs and beetles named after you!! In the next photo, the Milkweed blossom is inundated with what looks to me like a type of lightning bug, though I could be wrong about that. 'Tis the season for their appearance, too.

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Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day, weatherwise. Coolish breezes from the north continued to bless us with refreshment. In the morning, I spent time crawling around pulling the sorrel, quack grass, pigweed, lamb’s quarters, and catnip from the flower beds I whined about in Sunday’s post. Usually, I allow most of the catnip to grow because the cats love it. They joyfully rolled around on the catnip sprigs I pulled up yesterday.

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Afterwards, I went into the house to do some bookwork---pay bills, mostly. Wish I could have joyfully stomped them into the ground! Recently, we received our annual reward letter from our health insurance carrier……every July they “reward” us by adding $100 to our monthly premium. Isn’t that considerate of them? Especially since we are very healthy and hardly ever have claims. Not that it matters anymore…..as it is, our health insurance is essentially worthless to us unless we would---God forbid---be diagnosed with a serious illness or suffer a major injury. God forbid, please, on both counts. Because the premiums have risen so markedly the last several years, we’ve had to raise our deductible to a high level and go to a 50/50 co-pay situation.

As self-employed people, we must purchase our own health insurance, of course, and believe me……there are NO good deals out there. Does anyone know…..are health insurance companies accountable to anyone? They seem out-of-control to me. Do our government leaders ever talk about reining in insurance companies? Or is the insurance industry just too big to touch? I wouldn’t doubt it. I can envision the insurance execs leaning back in their leather desk chairs, perusing cruise and resort brochures, maybe yacht catalogs, too, then beeping the secretary and saying, “Hey…..its time for our premium increase, isn’t it? Type up the form letter and send it out to our customers. Heehee.”

I wish some of you readers from Canada would weigh in on how your healthcare system operates up there. Do you pay health insurance premiums each month? Are you free to choose your own doctor, hospital, etc.? Do you get the care you need right away? What about mental health services?

Not that I expect to be hospitalized for a mental illness again, but it did happen to me once, unexpectedly, three years ago. Lo, and behold…..our insurance company had stopped covering mental health services a few years before that. How nice. I’m still slowing paying those bills off. My breakdown occurred outside of our home area and I was conveyed back to our local hospital by ambulance…..haha……the bill for that 2-hour excursion with me strapped tight to a gurney was $1500......$750/hour! (It would probably cost $1000/hour now!) Then add in the cost of my five days in the hospital AND the psychiatrist fees. We psych unit patients would sit lined up in the hall each morning, waiting our turn to meet with the psychiatrist who visited the unit daily. Mostly, she sat there and clanked metal clipboard charts opened and closed, scribbling here and there. When it was my turn, she would simply ask, "How are you today?" Finally, on the fifth day, she phoned my husband while I sat there, to ask him if it was ok if I went home. I recall she told him it would be ok for me to drive, but not to anyplace like Chicago. Sheesh. Each one of those five-minute-or-less sessions with her cost $100!! Its a racket, in my opinion. What is the matter with our health care system that such exorbitant fees are allowed?! Things are really out of whack. The health care industry needs treatment, big time......it needs bundled onto a gurney, thrown into an ambulance, and hauled off to the hospital.

Having the fanciest digs and making the most bucks possible seems to be what healthcare is about nowadays. Hospitals in our area keep trying to outdo each other by spending and spending on new additions and remodelings. Politicians at all levels---national, state, local---are mainly concerned about the next election, thus you have a situation where nothing ever gets fixed.

I can't make heads or tails of what the currently-proposed health care overhaul consists of and if it will even help self-employed people who are struggling to pay high premiums. Government leaders are most concerned about people who fall into the "uninsured" category, and rightly so, of course, but I hope they will also figure out a way to provide relief for self-employed folks and everyone else who struggles to pay very costly health insurance premiums.

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In the meantime, I attempt to "insure" relatively good health by: not smoking, not drinking, getting enough sleep (my favorite), walking, eating plenty of fruits and veggies and dark chocolate (another favorite).

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Believe it or not, I'm actually in a very good mood today! The above rant just sort of blossomed its way into existence. Blame it on the bloomin' milkweeds (and, the arrival of the health insurance letter).

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