h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi!

I meant to ask about this earlier...what exactly does losing medical insurance entail? More expensive drugs? No therapist paid for?

This all sounds horrendous to me, living in a fully social healthcare system. Our prescriptions cost a flat rate of about $10 per item - but I've got a pre-payment certificate which means I can get everything I need for 4 months (currently 4 items/month) for $50. Then again...the only other care I get is really 'safety net' - a short visit to a shrink every 2 months, plus about the same for a Community Psychiatric Nurse, just to keep regular contact and make sure I'm not deteriorating. Nothing you could really call 'Therapy'.

Anyway...it must be desparately scary losing insurance. I hope you stay well. Remember - there's no reason why you shouldn't! I know lots of people with b-p who live without major episodes, once they get a proper diagnosis and drug treatment.

My home state of Tennessee has an insurance program called TNcare for the uninsurable like me. But the program is in financial crisis, and may go under all together. Politicians are afraid to raise taxes to fund it, so they are putting forth a plan to throw thousands of TNcare recipients off the rolls. With TNcare gone, a few people will still get Medicaid, but nobody knows who will and who won't. TNCare pays for all my medicines, which range in the hundreds of dollars a month. And pays for half of my therapy appointments, Medicare pays for the other half. So if I lose TNcare, my parents will have to take up the slack and pay for all my meds and half my therapy. Ow. The fate of TNcare is being decided in the courts, and looks bleak either way. Either they throw a bunch of people off who really need it to keep the program afloat, or the whole thing goes under. If I lose TNcare and Medicaid, I will still have Medicare for part of my doctor appointments, but no money for meds at all. I am lucky that my family gives a damn about me and will cough up the money for meds if I need it -- I have friends who may lose coverage who have no such family support, and they are scared. If you ask me nobody who is schizophrenic or bipolar should ever have to go without their medicine. The situation is just insane. The government and hospitals will wind of having to pay more as more mentally ill people wind up in psych wards and jails.

Personally, I'm doing pretty well. I have 3 paintings in an exhibit tomorrow night. Yay! I like my new therapist. (Still miss my old therapist though) I have started drinking more water and fewer cokes, with the result that I have lost a little weight, and have been able to get to sleep earlier, which is great. I am planning to have acupuncture to improve my energy level and regulate my periods. And I am going to get retested to see if I have anemia -- I was diagnosed with it back in 2000, but quit taking my iron supplements a while ago, and really need to get that checked.

PS Thanks for defending Americans on that other thread. Nebulaman doesn't know what the hell he is talking about when he says Kerry and Bush are the same.

Hi Ed, you've been quiet. You on vacation?

I was. Now I'm back.

...and in my absence, they finally got around to publishing my very first Entry: A3059255

(delayed because two different sub-eds went missing!)