John and I decided to go on a nice long walk this evening. I pushed the stroller and John walked the dog. He said at the dinner table that he was in the mood for a nice long walk and that sounded great to me! With appointments left and right today, there wasn’t much time for other physical activity and it was nice to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather.
When I awoke this morning and weighed in, I was happy to see another pound come off. This one took three days, but that’s ok. If I average a pound every three days, that will mean two pounds a week and that will be enough to make my September goal of ten pounds lost during the month. It will also mean that, should I be fortunate enough to keep up the pace, the 100 pounds will be gone by the deadline of 1/1/11. Yay!
It seems like such a long way away, and so much more to do, but I’m up for it! I have to be! I got a letter in the mail today from the insurance company that said our family premiums would be going up from $856 per month to $1,008 per month starting in November. YES! You saw that right — over $1000 per month for health insurance. That is insane! I do know they are up-rating me by 25% because of my weight though. So… once this weight is off, we can also save on insurance. That is just one more reason to get this weight issue under control. I can do it!
Tags: insurance premiums, walking
Every time I hear what Americans pay for health insurance premiums and see the commercials on TV put on by people who don’t want a public health care system, it makes me want to scream! You have my sympathy! As a Canadian, my health insurance premiums for a family of four amount to roughly $120 a month. Yes, we sometimes have inordinately long waits for surgery, but if I wanted to, I could go to a private clinic and pay. With the money we save ($900 a month) we could probably afford to do that, if it was necessary. Health care should be a benefit of living in a wealthy society that ought to be willing to share its wealth with its citizens, not simply a privilege for the rich. OK. That’s my rant. I’m done.
Hollycat – proud Canadian
Well, I agree that in a wealthy society everyone should have access to affordable health care. But, I don’t know the right way to go about doing that. Making it government run seems like it would remove some of the choices that the wealthy (even middle class) citizens have. When providers are limited to the number of procedures they can perform or are limited in how much they can charge/earn, then it seems it would be difficult to get the specialized care even if you were able and willing to pay for it above and beyond what the government allows.
The problem, unfortunately, goes much deeper. The drug manufacturers, health insurance companies and doctors co-exist in a very co-dependant, ugly relationship. As a result, doctors are too expensive, pharmacy drugs are too expensive and health insurance is too expensive. The whole system needs an overhaul in my opinion.