Sandra we agree you have it rough. Life can be like that sometimes. My husband still works at 67 to assure we can keep our grand children off of welfare. My insurance covers a lot but I still have much to pay out of pocket. We had to shop around to find what would work the best for us. I have a different company and policy than my husband does. I am assuming , so I could be wrong, that your DH drives a Big Rig? There are some careers that make it necessary for the employee to cover their taxes and insurances themselves. Most small businesses are this way and I do not know a sales person, waitress/waiter or hairdresser that has decent insurance unless they are lucky enough to have a spouse working for a company that offers benefits. Most people who work 40 hours a week barely cover the bare bones basics.
Two of my grandkids have zero insurance, I am in the process of getting them decent coverage, and this week I spent 88.00 to get my grandson's eyes examined. No glasses, no scripts just the examination. I just dropped my scripts off from my pain management doctor and they will be a big chunk of change but what is covered would be unpayable. (even so I opted to have them file my migraine meds and hopefully I can adjust what I am doing and get relief a different way.) In my home One daughter had kidney stone surgery 3 days before I had the nasal sugery 
to remove the cancerous cyst. They also fixed my diviated spetum and girl, talking about nose pain ( I feel Ya!!) It has been a month and I am still struggling to breathe. Things have come out of my nose that I am sure I saw on Alien!! I go tomorrow to have him suction yeck out again and then in two weeks hopefully it will be all over. In the mean time the roof of my mouth is nerve damaged from the breathing tubes used while they operated on my nose. A common side effect, eventually it will self repair in 90% of cases. But I don't have to deal with the dog's gas and am losing weight because food tastes only "so so" making me less than hungry. Worst part is our wine tasting club is lost on me, I can not smell the bouquet of the wines so they all are pretty much the same 
all of this cost close to 12,000.00 and they are fussing about paying for the 1/2 hour on the diviated septum as this is often called a "nose job", I liked my nose, but it was causing such head aches it needed repair and if I knew how rough I would feel while healing I would have thought twice about having him do it.
In our home we have a saying "It is what it Is" don't blame the goverment or your parents, dont blame the moon or the sun... just figure out the problem and fix it if it is fixable.
My husband's lost job was one of over 400 in a small community, both white and blue collar. Most had been working for some time for this company and had mortgages and car payments, they could not go back to shrimping or farming to pay the bills. So many had to sell and move. We had saved enough and invested very carefully allowing us to stay where our girls had grown up and our grandkids had been born. We did not go for a big turn over in our investments just insured the start up funds and decided to cut back and live off of the interest from the investment. We never touch principle. This means we had to cut back hard on our life style. We have not been out of country in 5 years. Bob and I traveled all over the world when money was not a problem. We vacationed for weeks and months at a time and went to New Zealand twice , Australia, France and Andora, Hawaii was never a long weekend trip it was always 3 weeks to two months. The shortest trip was France and that was nearly 2 weeks. We would play tennis and golf, see sights and tour farms and vineyards. Souvineers were shipped home and always made it there before we did. We budgeted and did a ton of research before we went any where and then lived it up together making memories that would last forever. We never planned a trip thinking this is the last time we can travel, but we lived them as if it was.
Since his job was outsourced and the company received a huge tax break for doing so, we have had to limit our travels to the USA. We still get out and about, taking kids with us when possible and almost always traveling because of dog shows or events. We stay at Motel 6 not the Radisson and we learned not to grump about it. We are out and having fun that is the point right? The quality is different but we are still out . What is more important? The Goverment was directly responsible for the company making the choice to outsource. If I spent the last few years and the rest of my life blaming them until I could not enjoy today who is then at fault?
I think attitude is 99% of making life work. You can bemoan the expense of your insurance OR you can realize you do have some help. If you had to pay 100% of your scripts and doctor's visits wouldn't that be devastating?? I know ours would be!! I would be lucky to go to Wal Mart once a month let alone a dog show. It is a glass half empty-half full thing. It is what it is.
As far as giving money to people I do not want to give money to , again I sooo hear you!! I hate it that I am helping to pay for wars all over the world that earn us the hate and disrespect of the world. I hate it that a foul wind blows and our country is the first to step up to help and yet the first to be spit on when that nation wants to complain about how unfair the world is. I donate heavily to the local shelters, to our church, to food banks and clothes closets. When I was lucky enough to get a new car I sold my old one for a token amount ( 500.00) to a woman who was thrilled to have it. Could have traded it in or sold it for more but I had thought about this for a very long time. The woman who bought it works hard and needed a car to help her out. My old car was in great shape and a small wagon. I see it in town and it is clean and well cared for. I helped someone and hopefully she will help someone some how....
My grand daughter was not able to go to Pre-K because her name was not that of a minority. It blew my mind, she is in speech therapy and such a sweet child but the placement was to go to children of migrant workers most of whom are not citizens. The school sympathised but it was up to me to pay for her continued speech therapy as there are no programs for her . Her cousins who live in my home and have the same speech problem were admited, their last name is Rivera. Hers is Hicks. This is not right, it isn't even close. But It is what it Is....
We can rail against the money we pay as part of our privalege for living in a country that is far better than most of the world or we can count our lucky stars we do have this blessing. I am not thrilled with the expenditures of the goverment. But I do not blame a specific party, that would be silly. After all we have had the Republican party for the last 8 years, surely if it was fixable by any one party it would have been ? At least there would have been some kind of change?? With your DH's age the opportunity to go on medicare will be a great thing for him ! Had the McCain won the election he was planning to TAX medicare. Would that have been okay with you? Sure wasn't okay with us. We all worked hard with the promise of medicare as part of our "old Age" , now the plan was changing yet again?? Hmmmm. I know I was always upset that medicare paid for viagra but medicaid for lower income people would not pay for birth control again HMMMMM? that seemed really tweaked.
Rather than handing out guilt on a platter , it would be awesome for our country to find a way to promote NOT having sex, kids or easy credit In a positive way. These are things which can change a life and not always for the better. Telling people to not have sex is silly, it is like telling a Ridgeback that cookie is just fine sitting there and you do not need it.
There are a million reasons to resent the world today. But you know If I only live 9 more years , to the age of 60, that is only 3265 days. My oldest Alabama Grandson is 9 his life has been amazing! He barely survived his birth being a teeny tiny preemie. We could have rejected him because she was unmarried or because he was bi racial and woul dnever know his father. Instead we looked into his eyes and knew he was a great gift. We covered the cost of his very expensive birth and WOW... There is every chance the next 3265 days of my life could be amazing too....even had my candidate lost I refuse to spend them feeling sorry that I do not have a bigger break, that I can not live like we used to or that life is over because there is a price to be paid for living in a Great Country.
Knowing people who are barely getting by yet wake up each morning with plans, hopes and dreams and knowing folks who have more money than God and still groan every day because "something or someone" has disapointed them yet again I think I will CHOOSE to be happy as often as I can. Life is what it is. The wealthy friends I have sort of lost their right to grump, since they obviously take more pleasure in complaining then in living. Karma is a Bit*h.... what we put into the world will indicate what we get out of it. My choice is to not regret putting humor, love and a sense of irony. If I can't fix it to my satisfaction then I need to adjust my perception of what the reality is... Not every one is out to use abuse or get you.....
Bonita of Bwana
