Health care dilemma

Who can resist the siren call of the internets. I make web pages and I cannot resist. The great blessing of the Internet: it looks like work.

Its call is really powerful because I'm in a different office filling in for a co-worker. Fortunately, I memorized all my favorite URLs and passwords. I can access others via links to ones that I know.

The situation with the co-worker has caused me to reconsider my health care plan. That and other incidents. Getting a diagnosis is bit of a Herculean task. My problem is relatively minor and irritating, a rash that appears on my arms and legs from time to time, but my co-worker's is quite serious and it took a long time to get the diagnosis.

Health care plan enrollment occurs in July and we get the literature in May. This will give us time to look at how we actually use medical services and see if there is an option that would better suit our needs.

I hope the election of Barack Obama will put to rest McCain's proposal to tax health benefits as income. With my health benefits added to income I end up in a higher tax bracket.

Considering the large amount that me and my employer pay for health insurance for me and Walter (about $10,000 per year combined) I think I deserve more than 15 minutes of my doctor's time and a test to see what the hell this rash really is. After paying $50, twice, plus time for stronger hydro cortisone cream, I wonder what the hell all that money that comes out of my paycheck and my employer pays, pays for?

I wonder if my family doctor just kind of lazy or overworked. A few years ago, I did receive some testing for something by a substitute doctor, it turned out to be nothing serious but now there is a good baseline for my heart in my medical records. My regular doctor said he would not have preformed the tests based on my description of my symptoms. This really concerned me after reading about how heart attacks behave differently in women and that younger women in particular have trouble convincing doctors to run the tests or consider a heart attack.

I guess I should be grateful for what I have but screw that attitude - crap is crap regardless of what others don't have.