But now I can say it is the space of two years that I have to endure without medical insurance that will be the scariest time for me.
When I retired I lost my employer provided health insurance so I have been trying to watch over my health as best as I can. I do not qualify for any kind of medical assistance provided by a government agency as my wife and I make about two thousand too much to qualify. That left the burden totally on me and in our for profit health care system it means I am making bets that i will not suffer a seriously illness during this time until I qualify for Medicare in June 2012.
Now that would be ok if I did not have health issues. One I am a diabetic. Two I suffer from lympedima, Three I have a enlarged prostate typical of a man of my age. That means a whole horde of medical issues can come up and one has this week.
I with a weaken immune system as a result of diabetes and as a result acquired a urinary tract infection this past week. Now that is treatable with heavy dose of anti-biotic ($126) and frequent visit to the doctor to verify it is Cleaared up ($80 per visit with a minimum of 2 visits). I also had to renew my meds to shrink the prostate and that is $106 per month this is to allow for more flow and thus flushing your system out of the ecoli that causes the infection. I am fortunate in that my Doctor is aware of my financial situation and therefore asst me with free med samples when possible. Even so if you are on a fix income you can see how you can run through your savings or money set aside real quick.
The reason why I call this my scariest time in my life is that with our medical for profit it can limit my options real quick to a catastrophic situation as I would not be able to afford medical assistance. What does that mean it means folks like me become frequent flyer's at the local hospital emergency room. Because of the cost of emergency room care if becomes one more bill that goes unpaid and the cost then is passed on to the taxpayer.
Ultimately you pay for universal heath care one way or another with catastrophic care being the worse choice for the tax payer to make as you only see folks when they are in their greatest and costly need. Where if simple routine preventive health care and reasonable price meds would of kept the health of the individual from escalating to that point.
To me before I found myself in this situation and even now I have always believed we needed universal health care for all with coverage from cradle to grave similar to what all modern countries have with the exception of third world or the US has.
In the Shop
Well I have not been able as I hoped to get into the shop but I have planned out what and how I am going to build the 4 end tables from dimensional lumber The top will be 21X24 inch in size with glued up 2X4 and bread board style ends. The finsish will be natual or antique pine stain. I am hoping this afternoon to get out into the shop and cut to length the pieces in need and get them ready for milling down.
I have picked up from Craigslist a almost new benchtop Delta 10" bandsaw for $75 and need to get new blades on it and adjusted ready to use. I say almost new the previous owner used it one time and broke the blade in not knowing how to use it. I am recycling a portable tablesaw base pulled from street side trash for it's base.
Reading
I began rereading of one of my favorite travel writers Bruce Chatwin "Songlines" his last book before he died. I waiting on getting Robert Reich's newest "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future".
I am courious to see if his ideal of what is coming similar to what was forecasted by the book "Muddling through Frugality"wrote back in the 70's
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