Obamacare Saved My Life

Obamacare literally saved my life.
I had weird chest pain and went to the emergency room. If I hadn't had insurance through Obamacare (and that was the only way I could have had insurance), I would certainly have waited to see if it went away, and I would have died.
If not for Obamacare, my wife would be a widow, and my child growing up without a father.

So please keep this in mind: When Republicans talk about repealing Obamacare, they want people like me to die. They know Obamacare saves lives, yet they want to get rid of it.

Thanks, Obama!

PS: Here is a summary of the parts of Obamacare.

Back from Death's Door

You might have noticed a lack of blogging. If you don't follow me on Facebook, you don't know I was trapped in Washington, DC with a collapsed lung that almost killed me.

Chalk up another victory for Obamacare. Anne and I signed up for insurance via Obamacare earlier this year. With a pre-existing condition, I wouldn't have been able to get insurance otherwise.

And if I hadn't had insurance, I almost certainly would have waited a bit after my lung collapsed again in the wee hours of June 28. Since this one was not just spontaneous (while I was asleep, just like the 2013 one) but also a tension pneumothorax which had already shoved my heart into my right lung, any delay would have been fatal. And I owe Bhavya a Klingon Life-Debt now, as she got me to the ER in time. And then sat with me for hours.

Heart should be on the other side!

Here was the summary I wrote on FB at the time:

In May 2013, my left lung collapsed. It is a "spontaneous pneumothorax," and for those w/o risk factors (smoking, injury), it happens to tall, skinny guys. My pulmanologist called me the "poster boy" for it.

They fixed it, but warned I was at risk of it happening again. When it happened again here in DC during the wee hours of June 28, it was much worse. Re-inflating it was even harder, and I needed major chest surgery later in the day (they removed part of the lung, and basically glued the rest of it to the inside of my chest cavity, so it can't happen again*, thank goodness). Recovery is slow and painful.

I also can't fly for several more weeks (pressure difference danger), so after I'm discharged and recovered enough (more time) at friends' here in Maryland, I have to be driven back to Tucson. Adventure!

Other than the "This goes to 11" pain (Or: why I'm basically a painist) and huge cost, the obvious worst thing is being away from Anne and EK.

[Update: I arrived home July 15, just in time for EK's 20th birthday. It was, by far, the longest Anne and I have been apart in 22 years.
*Update 2018 - it did happen again! :-0   ]

The upside is I have more true friends within 6 miles of this hospital than anywhere else in the world. Thanks so much to everyone in the DC area who supported me, especially Bhavya, who took care of me. And Paul and Josh for trying to kill me with laughter. And my Mom and Sister who drove me back to Tucson.

Not that I needed it, but this again reminds me why, we, the fortunate ones, should do the best we can to avoid dogma and just focus on reducing suffering. I so admire everyone who has been a part of this work -- thank you.

Understand anger - your situation is not everyone's

One of the consequences of being terminated after my accident is that Anne and I have been thrown onto the tender mercies of Healthcare.gov's Marketplace.

As you know, Obamacare saved my life after what was done to us in 2014. So I am infinitely grateful it exists.

We started our application for last year a few weeks ago. Every email we get says this:

Did you know that 4 out of 5 who enroll in a health plan through HealthCare.gov can find a plan for $10 or less per month

This is not the reality for me and Anne. 

Here is a recommended silver policy, which costs over $1,100 a month after tax credits. It has a $9,100 deductible for each person and doesn't pay anything until you have met that deductible:

To be clear, this means that they pay out nothing at all until we pay them nearly $14,000 for the year, and then also each pay $9,100 out of pocket!

Just think about that. How is that even insurance? Let alone silver level?

I do blame the Democrats ... from 50 years ago. Nixon would have agreed to an Obamacare-like plan back then, but Democrats wouldn't agree because they thought they could get more, given Dick's precarious position.

But of course, we know that it is the Republicans that are to blame. At their core, they only care about making rich people richer (and persecuting minorities and repressing women).

Of course, there shouldn't be health insurance companies at all. Ultimately, they only exist as parasites on the system. If we had any sense at all, we would have Medicare for All. But I don't see how we can get there, at least in the United States.

In good news, my mouth / teeth reconstruction finished on November 14, after ~22 months! Only two more visits to the dentist and the 5-figure out-of-pocket expensive journey is finally over!

Song: The Cranberries' "Linger." And some pictures to counter the darkness of this post:

 

Ellen's Fax to John McCain

To Senator McCain and Staff,

I'm writing to express my strong opposition to any repeal, partial repeal, or defunding of the Affordable Care Act. 

Obamacare is the reason my father is alive today. After losing his job and subsequently the insurance provided by his employer, both of my parents were able to buy health insurance, health insurance they would not otherwise have been able to get, as both have 'preexisting conditions'. When my dad started experiencing chest pains, having insurance gave him the confidence to go to the emergency room knowing that it would not bankrupt his family. My dad freely admits that if he had not had insurance, he would likely have waited to see if the pain went away - waiting that would have killed him, as the tension pneumothorax pushed his heart to the wrong side of his chest. 

Much can - and should - be said about the high financial cost of repealing the ACA, about the number of people who will lose insurance, about the many successes of the ACA in cutting the number of uninsured and reducing health coverage costs for low income families, but here's the most important truth: repealing the ACA will kill people. 

I trust that the Senator will take this into consideration when planning his votes, and I hope to see a statement from the Senator opposing a reckless repeal of the ACA soon. 

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Ellen Green

Tucson, AZ 85750

PS. I'm sure you'll all be hearing a lot about Russia over the next few days, but I would just like to say that I'm very proud of the Senator for his cosponsorship of sanctions against Russia. Their efforts to interfere in our elections are deplorable and I applaud the Senator's legislation.

Idealism Kills

In 2008, Democrats had the biggest landslide imaginable. They had, for a while 60 seats in the Senate. 

Even with all that, they barely passed Obamacare. I watched the votes live, on pins and needles. 

If Dems had demanded more, they certainly would have lost. And I would be dead.

It isn't, of course, all about me. Countless people are dead now and more will die unnecessarily in the future because people voted for Jill Stein in PA, MI, and WI in 2016. Same for Nader in Florida in 2000.

In a center-right country, with the Electoral College and the unrepresentative Senate, realism is the only thing that makes progress. Realism saves lives. Idealism kills.

Retirement Accounts Reconsidered

Dire Straits - "Money for Nothing"

Naive, yes, but: Cat!

In the financial chapter of Losing My Religions, I talked about when you should contribute to a Roth IRA vs a traditional IRA. Since then, I have learned some more things. Key lesson at the very end, though.

First, the difference: 

For a traditional IRA, you put in what is considered "pre-tax" money. That is, your contributions in a year are subtracted from your taxable income. When you take the money out, it is taxed.

A Roth is just the opposite - you put in income that has already been taxed, and when you withdraw it in retirement, it is not taxed.

The two considerations are the rate of taxes and the total amount of taxes paid.

If you are in a higher tax bracket now than you'll be in retirement, contributing to a traditional IRA will save a higher percentage of your money. Say, for instance, you are in the 27% tax bracket; $1,000 contributed now will save you $27 now, and it will be taxed at, say, 22% or 15% when you withdraw it in retirement.

See comments for why these paragraphs are wrong:

But if you are 30 years old and put $1,000 into retirement investments, that $1,000 should be something like $8,000 when you withdraw it in retirement. Even if you are at a much lower tax rate, you will pay more total taxes on that money if it is put into a traditional IRA.

So my advice now:

The further you are from retirement, the more time your money will have to grow, and thus a Roth IRA is the better deal.

If you are close to retirement and at the height of your earning power (and thus the highest tax bracket), a traditional IRA might be the better deal.

If you are on Obamacare and trying to maximize your subsidy by minimizing your income, a traditional IRA might be more attractive.

However!

A health savings account (HSA) gives you the best of both worlds.

With an HSA, you put in pre-tax dollars (lowering your current taxable income) and when you pull the money out to pay for medical expenses, it is not taxed - not the original contribution and not the growth.

And not just medical expenses in retirement. If you keep track, you can use non-taxed dollars to pay for your bandaids bought today.

And if you don't use the money for medical expenses, an HSA just works like a normal IRA.  

Here are a series of videos about HSAs, with this one being the best.

Wish I had known all this 35 years ago!

If you found this post useful, please share it. Thanks so much!

The Racism Is Strong in This One

Modern Republican priorities. Summary:

• Cut Medicare spending $845 billion. (One small bright spot in this budget is that it shelves the GOP’s more unpopular goal of privatizing Medicare, so these cuts would be to provider reimbursements, which is why hospitals are so upset.)
• Cut food stamps $220 billion.
• Cut student loans $207 billion.
• Cut Medicaid by $1.5 trillion—fully eviscerating the program.
• Repeal Obamacare.
• Another $1 trillion regressive tax cut.

Racism and prejudice are the only explanations for how Republicans are elected even as they continually vote to hurt the vast majority of people. We would rather slash Medicare and science than let "the other" have any opportunity or benefit.

We are too stupid to live.

Political Realism and Honesty

The above $13 aspirin is from my latest adventure at the local hospital.

The obvious reaction is that our medical system is messed up. And that is honestly true. But honesty does not drive policy. We live in a gerrymandered world where the government of the United States is subject to the Electoral College, an overweighting of empty white states, and the influence of big money.

Our medical system has literally saved my life several times. But on one of those occasions, I would have died if not for Obamacare.

Obama was a political realist. Instead of insisting on the best option, he pushed through the absolute best he could get -- down to the very last vote. (Yes, Joe Lieberman is effing evil.)

Is this sad? Do I wish it was otherwise? Of course. But this is the world we live in. It is a world with real consequences for real people.

I have heard "we have to smash the system" literally for decades. Uncounted individuals have suffered and died because people voted third party instead of for Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead and in the ground today because of this "my way or the highway" attitude. The Supreme Court is lost for a generation, as is much of the federal judiciary, and people will suffer and die because of this. Carbon emissions are getting worse, not better, and global hunger is actually going up after decades of progress. And any concept of caring beyond our tribe is circle is further away.

All this and much more because enough well-off white Americans decided they needed to "send a message" by voting for Nader and Stein.

All that matters now is defeating Trump and the Republicans. I honestly don't care what your positions are. If there is a 0.01% greater chance that candidate A will win compared to a vegan atheist scientist who shares all my positions and promises to end all my health problems, I will support candidate A. Because I am not the center of the universe.

If you want to say anything matters beyond winning Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona -- well, I just don't want to hear it. I have heard more than enough of destructive self-centered blather from well-off white folks in my life.

Email Forwarded by My Dad: The Upsides

Picture for #15, to show he, too, has a white beard. 

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but it looks like Trump is actually making America great again. Just look at the progress made since the election:
1. Unprecedented levels of ongoing civic engagement.
2. Millions of Americans now know who their state and federal representatives are without having to google....
3. Millions of Americans are exercising more. They're holding signs and marching every week.
4. Alec Baldwin is great again. Everyone's forgotten he's kind of a jerk.
5. The Postal Service is enjoying the influx cash due to stamps purchased by millions of people for letter and postcard campaigns.
6. Likewise, the pharmaceutical industry is enjoying record growth in sales of anti-depressants.
7. Millions of Americans now know how to call their elected officials and know exactly what to say to be effective.
8. Footage of town hall meetings is now entertaining.
9. Tens of millions of people are now correctly spelling words like emoluments, narcissist, fascist, misogynist, holocaust and cognitive dissonance.
10. Everyone knows more about the rise of Hitler than they did last year.
11. Everyone knows more about legislation, branches of power and how checks and balances work.
12. Marginalized groups are experiencing a surge in white allies.
13. White people in record numbers have just learned that racism is not dead. (See #6)
14. White people in record numbers also finally understand that Obamacare IS the Affordable Care Act.
15. Stephen Colbert's "Late Night" finally gained the elusive #1 spot in late night talk shows, and Seth Meyers is finding his footing as today's Jon Stewart.
16. "Mike Pence" has donated millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood since Nov. 9th.
17. Melissa FREAKING McCarthy.
18. Travel ban protesters put $24 million into ACLU coffers in just 48 hours, enabling them to hire 200 more attorneys. Lawyers are now heroes.
19. As people seek veracity in their news sources, respected news outlets are happily reporting a substantial increase in subscriptions, a boon to a struggling industry vital to our democracy.
20. Live streaming court cases and congressional sessions are now as popular as the Kardashians.
21. Massive cleanup of Facebook friend lists.
22. People are reading classic literature again. Sales of George Orwell's "1984" increased by 10,000% after the inauguration. (Yes, that is true. 10,000%. 9th grade Lit teachers all over the country are now rock stars.)
23. More than ever before, Americans are aware that education is important. Like, super important.
24. Now, more than anytime in history, everyone believes that anyone can be President. Seriously, anyone." -

Two-and-a-half quick political bits (sorry)

Is it morning in America, or mourning in America?

1. Any Democrat would have won in 2008.

No Democrat other than Biden would have beat Tangerine Palpatine in 2020.

This is not to say the Obamas aren't great*. Just that Joe will never fully get the respect or credit he deserves.

2. I hear social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is still criticizing liberals for "failing to take conservative values seriously," even though his thesis has been disproven for years now. 

Donald Trump has zero values. Not any conservative values, not any liberal values. He doesn't believe in any god (other than himself). He can't even fake knowing the bible and uses it to fleece his followers. He is an anti-family man. He is a convicted criminal and a con. He literally badmouths veterans and the United States. He loves dictators and disdains democracy. (Much longer, more detailed analysis.)

Trump has the support of 40+% of the United States because humans are tribal. It has nothing to do with values. It isn't liberals' fault. It isn't because Colbert mocks TFG or because Stephen King is "mean" on Twitter.

Trump is the head of one team. He took over the party by explicitly preaching hatred and fear. That is all it is. 

The reason Haidt remains popular is that many, if not most, liberals will fall all over themselves to seem 'fair' and badmouth 'both sides.' 

Trump is right that he could kill someone and not lose support. Many liberals wouldn't support Joe because he is old. Values have nothing to do with it. 

2.5. From Matt Y:

“When we fight, we win” was one of the key catchphrases of the convention. But I’m often reminded of Frederick the Great’s dictum that “to defend everything is to defend nothing.” When Democrats genuinely fight to win, they choose their battles. When Democrats try to advance on all fronts simultaneously, they actually aren’t fighting at all, they are flailing.

* Sadly, there is no honest way to get past the fact that MAGA is Barack's primary political legacy.

And "Obamacare" would never have passed w/o Joe working Congress. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

He has quite a sense of humor.

Last month, a young, relatively new animal advocate thanked me for Losing My Religions: “It was like a personalized lesson. Sharing your mistakes saved me from having to make them all myself.”

Well, I hope so. But who knows?

The “Good news, bad news, who knows?” fable (below) could very well be the story of my life. Most of the things I was most sure about in life turned out to be 180 degrees wrong. 

Just a few examples, in chronological order:

1991: When Diane dumped me, I was sure it was The Worst Thing Ever. Turned out to be the best thing possible, given that a year later, I hit the cosmic lottery and became the luckiest collection of atoms that ever existed.

2000: (This one is really convoluted.) G.W. Bush being made president was surely the worst possible outcome. But without that, there was no war (wait for it), no economic collapse (wait for it), no Obama and no Democratic super-majority, and thus no Affordable Care Act. Without Obamacare, I would probably have died in 2014. 

(I know that doesn’t offset the many, many Iraqis who died because of W. And everything else horrible that happened in those eight years (“Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over;” annotations.) I’m just talking about myself.)

2014: This seemed like it was surely The Worst Thing Ever: The coup that ousted me and Anne from the organization we co-founded 20+ years before. Nope – it was the best possible thing that could have happened to my professional life, as my day-to-day efforts stopped having a net-negative impact in the world. (If you have read Losing, you know the details.) The same could be said of 2021.

2020: Nothing could have been more important than Biden winning, right? But in retrospect, it would have been better if Joe had lost. The previous incarnation of Tangerine Palpatine’s administration had at least a few moderating elements, the courts' rulings were somewhat followed, and the Dems controlled the Senate. Now, even worse [!] people run the government. There is no rule of law, no checks or balance at all.

I should have listened:

Once upon a time, a farmer had a valuable horse run away.

“Bad News!” said the people.

“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.

Later, the horse returned to the farm with many wild horses accompanying it.

“Good News!” said the people.

“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.

Some time after that, the farmer’s son fell and broke his leg while trying to train one of the wild horses.

“Bad News!” said the people.

“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.

Soon after, the army came through town conscripting all able-bodied young men, and the farmer’s son was passed over.

“Good News!” said the people.

“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer. 

From Reannon

There is, of course, loads to say and much horror and grief to deal with. One quick reminder: More people voted for Hillary. In the past seven presidential elections, Democrats have gotten the most votes in six. No other party had ever done that before in the history of the U.S. Donald J Trump is absolutely right about the Electoral College.

Below is a post from my friend Reannon (shared with permission). The damage already done to this country, by validating and elevating hatred and prejudice and assault, is beyond measure. But we have to stand up. We have to.

"I've seen several of my left-leaning friends saying that they hope that Trump's presidency is a "success"; indeed, Hillary said the same thing yesterday. If by "success" you mean, "I hope he doesn't bring any more shame to our nation and the office of the President than he already has and doesn't completely jack things up," then I'm with you.

"But, I don't wish him political success. I don't wish him success in implementing any of his plans. I wish him nothing but trouble. I hope that he will continue to bleed staff and will never find his organizational footing -- just like he did during the campaign -- because he is an ineffective manager. I hope Congressional Republicans who he has insulted and demeaned for 18 months will stand in his way as much as possible. I hope that Congressional Democrats will filibuster and sit-in and protest every chance they can. I hope the ACLU sues him whenever he threatens our Constitution. I hope Americans continue to protest and push back and organize. I hope we give him nothing but heartburn and difficulty and stress.

"To hope for anything less is to want him to be successful in building a ridiculous wall that will bankrupt our nation; in deporting millions of hardworking immigrants who do the jobs that American citizens *refuse* to do and who need a path to citizenship; in implementing tired economic plans that were proven ineffective long ago; in gutting Obamacare and leaving millions of Americans without health insurance; in ignoring the dire threats of global warming; and in cultivating a culture of fear, racism, sexism, and violence against the "other." I hope he is the least successful president in the history of our republic."

Vegans are right to hate me.

2023 Update: Much more in Losing My Religions; specifically, the chapter "The End of Veganism."

Thousands of vegans have attacked me (examples in the comments here). I was fired from multiple jobs. I was banned from an animal rights conference after having been elected to their "hall of fame." 

And you know what? They were factually correct. I don't promote veganism. I ignore fish, dairy, animal testing, fur, etc. I advocate working with big companies, including meat companies. 

So I understand why so many vegans hate me and what I advocate. 

But we have limited time and resources. What we choose to do is a statement of what we value. There is a lot of unnecessary and preventable cruelty in the world. Why spend your time attacking me?

You can cite all the facts about how right veganism is, and document how wrong I am, but what good does that do in the real world? How is that the best use of your time? How will it help bend the arc of history toward justice? How will it change even one mind?

The same is exactly true for politics. If we spend our limited time attacking the better of our real-world choices, we are hurting our best chance for any progress. We are also actively enabling truly cruel and terrible and hate-filled people.

I realize that people have tied their sense of self-worth to being vegan. I understand that people have tied their ego to the purity of their political vision. But as much as they like to think otherwise, the real world has never been changed by purists. Purists make things worse.

This really matters. Hundreds of thousands of people died because people slagged on Al Gore and voted for Ralph Nader. Over a hundred thousand people have died unnecessarily so far from Covid in the United States because people slagged on Hillary Clinton and voted for Jill Stein. (And, of course, the "Green" party in the United States completely undermined any chance the U.S. would do anything about climate change in a timely fashion.)

Personally, Obamacare literally saved my life. Anyone who slags on Biden, Harris, or other Democrats during an election is actively increasing the likelihood that more people (like me) will die unnecessarily. 

Pragmatic realists are what move history forward. It does not help to attack better for failing to be best. Exposing evil and asking for realistic change makes things better.