Why I support the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare

I know there are a lot of mixed emotions out there regarding the Supreme Court's decision that the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) is constitutional. I wanted to write about why I support it, and why I think this will be a great thing for our country - not from a political perspective, but from a fiscal one. I'm also going to avoid using statistics, because any numbers I pull will seem biased to someone, so forgive the generalities.

FIRST: I am pasting in a really great "explain to me like I am a five year old" explanation of the health insurance mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act - just cause I love it
From user 10over6 at reddit.com:

Bob: Hi, insurance company. I'd like to buy some health insurance.
Insurance company: No. You had cancer when you were 3 years old, and the cancer could come back. We're not selling health insurance to you.
Bob: It's not my fault I got cancer when I was three! Besides, that was years ago!
Insurance company: If we sell insurance to you, we'll probably lose money, and we're not doing it. Bob: But I need insurance more than anyone! My cancer might come back!
Insurance company: We don't care. We're not selling you insurance.
Obama: Hey, that's totally not fair. Bob is right, he does need insurance! Sell Bob some insurance.
Insurance company: If we have to, I guess.
Mary: This is cool. Obama said the insurance company has to sell insurance to anyone who needs it.
Sam: Hey, I have an idea. I'm going to stop paying for health insurance. If I get sick, I can always go buy some insurance then. The insurance company won't be able to say no, because Obama's told them they have to sell it to anyone who needs it!
Dave: that's a great idea! I'm not paying for health insurance either, at least not until I get sick.
Insurance company: Hey! If everyone stops paying for insurance, we'll go bankrupt!
Obama: Oh come on Sam and Dave, that's not fair either.
Dave: I don't care. It saves me money.
Obama: Oh for god's sake. Sam, Dave, you have to keep paying for health insurance, and not wait until you're sick. You too, Mary and Bob.
Mary: But I'm broke! I can't buy insurance! I just don't have any money.
Obama: Mary, show me your piggy bank. Oh, wow, you really are broke. Ok, tell you what. You still have to buy insurance, but I'll help you pay 95% of the cost.
Mary: thank you.
Obama: I need an aspirin.
Insurance company: We're not paying for that aspirin.

Here is the link to "Explain Obamacare to me like I am a five year old" if you are interested. It is really helpful if you don't know what is in the law: Explain Obamacare and what it changed - Like I Am Five

And now to my own reasons why I support the Supreme Court's decision. Everyday, lots and lots of people need emergency care. Some because its actually an emergency, and some because they could not afford preventative care. Those people who couldn't afford preventative care are paid for by every taxpayer in America, because they can't afford the emergency care any more than they could afford the preventative care. Some people say that we should just turn those people away. Maybe, but logistically this isn't feasible. If hospitals did this, then no matter if you bleeding out, dying in the waiting room, they would need to verify insurance before treating you. And if they didn't, then when it came time to pay, they would pursue you to the ends of the earth to collect. The logical conclusion of this is that more people would be poverty stricken, homeless, and unhealthy - thus unable to work.

When a larger portion of the population is unable to work, they not only become a drag on our economy, but we lose production power. Our economy grows slowly, or not at all. At the end of the day, growing our economy and increasing our buying power is why we pay taxes. We pay so that the money can go to anything we deem may improve our community - police, fire, education, health care, city beautification - anything that might A) improve our ability to make goods and services, B) protect those goods and services, or C) bring more dollars in to our communities to buy our goods and services. Taking care of our work force is one way we do that. So at the end of the day, having people pay taxes that go towards taking care of our work force makes economical sense. And having those people who may need more treatment pay more taxes also makes sense (assuming ability to pay). This is what the health care mandate of the Affordable Care Act says - those who do not have health insurance (and are thus more likely to need emergency care at some point) will pay an increased tax amount, if they have the ability to pay said amount.

I also really love the way the Supreme Court made its ruling - they said the federal government cannot force states to take on such a huge burden as the increased medicare requirements (too much power to the federal government) AND that though they are upholding the Affordable Care Act's health insurance mandate, it is as a tax and not as an extension of the Commerce Clause (which, had they allowed that language in the Act, would also have given the federal government too much power.) This is, in my opinion, a win for the country in every way. The dangerous parts of the Act are neutralized and the parts that are good for our country fiscally are upheld.

I know we as a country are still hurting, and it seems stupid to pass spending bills, but here's the thing: austerity only works in the short term. If you (as an individual) are in debt, you can cut everything out of your budget to raise the money to pay your debt - health insurance, car maintenance, your college fund (or retirement fund), buying clothes to replace worn out ones, etc. All this stuff works in the short term. But long term, it catches up with you - you get caught in an emergency and you have no way to handle it because you cut all your preparedness spending.

PS - Talking about austerity in terms of how an individual spends or saves money is a really, really simplistic way to look at it, and doesn't get into the realities of economic policies and their affect on national and global markets at all, but I think its a decent way to explain my viewpoint without diving into years of economic theory and training.

In which I bounce between total excitement and being green with envy

Unsurprising to anyone who knows him even a little, Jeremy has realized that he really needs to be an actor. I am 110% for this - it makes him happy, it's unreal how good he is at it, and I think it will be huge for him as a career. A bit of history: When we met, he told me that he was an actor, and loved acting. That he had given up acting for the current moment, but probably not forever. I believe the reasons included drama, no money, less than no money, and something about how his acting career just never got off the ground. He had two theories about why this was: A) He had tried to go for dramatic/leading man roles, but he is best suited for comedy and character roles, and B) That he had a face that he needed to grow into, that would look much more camera friendly later, so he'd probably be best once he was 30 or 35. I'll add C) He was in LA, which is one of the hardest places to start an acting career, simply due to the size of the talent pool. So when he came home after filming JourneyQuest in Seattle with Fran Kranz and told me he wanted to pursue acting again, I wasn't just ok with it, I was thrilled! He was literally glowing when he came home from filming (and not just from all the energy drinks). It was as if five years of aging and "growing up" had just lifted from his face. Its amazing to see him so happy and fulfilled. And thank goodness there are ongoing projects to work on! It gets that momentum really going strong. I have been doing everything I can to support this, and keep it going, so traveling to at least a few cons and rekindling relationships was pretty high on my list for him. I was really trying to figure out how to get him to Comic-Con, since just about everyone even mildly important would be there, and then he figured it out himself! He's going with ZOE to promote everything they are working on! So yay! Super exciting! And boo...I can't go! (This is where the green-ness comes in) I am seriously, SERIOUSLY jealous. I told him the only way for me to NOT turn into the green-eyed monster was if we went to GenCon. Not sure how we're going to figure that one out, but we will. Oh we will. I will not be left behind while he has fun without me twice in one year! Jeremy is working on something that would at least help with the cost of GenCon, so here's hoping that turns out! In the meantime, I'll see what type of creative money movement we can get going to make this thing happen.

lost photos

A few days ago I pulled out my phone to show a co-worker the adorable pictures I had taken of my son, and how photogenic he is, and how great his play shot were, and everything else I could gush about (I love being a mom). When I got to the gallery in my phone, they were missing. gone. Couldn't find them anywhere! I started to panic, and then I calmed down and googled everything I could think of about lost photos, recovering deleted photos, everything. After reading a bit I felt pretty confident that so long as I didn't use my phone, I could recover these images. So I tried. And I tried again. And then I tried something different. Nope, nope and nope. I have tried for several hours at this point, digging into every nook and cranny of my phones internal and external memory with very limited success. I found Angry Birds ads, Free iPad promotions, and 17 images out of 100+ that were missing. Honestly, I know they are just pictures, and I'll take lots more and its really not that big of a deal, but Gah! Its a big deal! Its ruining my whole day. My whole week. I had such enjoyment from those photos, and now they are gone. Its really amazing how much value we can place on little things. Photos, souvenirs, old emails. I would love to say that I am over such things, but I'm not. I'm just sad. I have the memories, and plenty of other photos, but THOSE photos are gone. Boo.

Fun Creative Activities

I'm feeling pretty good right now. I've done 15 minutes of intense activity everyday so far this week, and it is awesome! Just Dance 2 at home, hula hooping, yoga at work (yoga designed as an intense workout, not the super flow relaxing yoga.) We have a room in the back that everyone keeps saying we should turn into a gym. Well, I got tired of waiting - so I just moved some tables and did 15 minutes of yoga. Now its a yoga gym. You're welcome office! For those who are also on a get fit/feel better kick I'll share some specifics. I haven't come up with a solid plan yet, other than to continue my 15 minutes a day of intense activity, but I am currently around 155 lbs (I haven't weighed myself in the last few days), and I'm going to get back to 138 where I belong. Eating better is a big part of that, and activity is a great way to keep me eating better. When I am active, I hate sugar and junk food, so that makes everything else about losing weight easy. (I know, I have great genes. I blame my parents) Being active* also helps me with sleep, and general attitude, so yay for that too! It helps that work is fairly slow right now (someone buy some frickin cream already!) so I have time to workout, and read my facebook, and in general get reconnected to my life. And also, to read the latest book for Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy Hangout book club. SciFi/Fantasy smutty books! Fab guilty pleasure, and after watching last month's discussion on youtube, I thought, "Why not?," so here I am. Reading Kushiel's Dart - not a bad book, as far as books go, but I can't get the movie Dangerous Beauty out of my head while I'm reading it. I'll post more once I'm further into the plot. * P.S. - Notice how I use the terms 'active' and 'activity' instead of 'working out'? I hate the term 'working out'. It just makes everything feel like....well, like I'm working. But 'active' is exciting, its activity, and activity is creative and fun. And I like fun creative activities.

Once again, I abandoned my blog. Not because I wanted to, or hated blogging, or anything like that. Just because, well, priorities people. I need things like food, and sleep, and a job. And right around the time I abandoned it, I moved cities (to Portland - LOVE IT!) and careers (to recruiting - not so much love there). At the time, if had asked me about recruiting, I would have had nothing but glowing, gushing, lovely things to say about it. And honestly, it does still appeal to part of me - the part that can never let things go, the part that is a perfectionist, the part that really REALLY wants to be the ballsy "career gal", and, oh yeah, the part that likes making tons of money. :P But the real me, the one that comes out whenever I'm not trying to be something else, the one that is easy going and positive and a total geek, that one did not like recruiting. At. All. So here I am, back to being an accountant. Going to school to make it "official" - apparently in accounting no degree=no pay, so a degree I shall get. And yay! Now that I'm not killing myself every minute to be a successful recruiter, I have time and energy and more than a little excitement to bring back other parts of my life, like dancing, music, gaming, maybe a con or two, and blogging. *giant smiley face* And for those who are wondering, yes, I love my new job. I work 35 hours a week, and its pretty low key at that. My boss is hysterical and super easy-going. And, because of our work schedules, I get to spend every Friday afternoon with Jeremy, sans Joshua! I cannot tell you how amazing and luxurious it feels to spend whole hours without our son. Honestly, it feels a little naughty (but little kid naughty, like you got an extra cookie and no one noticed...not that other thing you were all thinking.) I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself. I have so many passions that I have put aside to be a mom and career gal, that I'm torn which one I should pick up first. I'll write about it as much as I can (great way to work it all out), and maybe someone can help me out with ideas. Peanut Gallery suggestions so far: Irish dance (did it in college, was definitely fun), and some cool community college class (possible, but which one?!!?!?!) I'm also leaning towards a lot more swing dancing (always a first choice, but the dances start so late at night...), guitar/piano/voice (maybe I could make an awesome youtube video of my songs and gain internet fame! Or, maybe I'll just invite a lot of trolling....dangerous idea right there), hula hooping (fun activity AND gets me back into shape - side note: PNW winters are really bad for fitness. I have got to plan better next winter), crochet/crafting (definitely fun, but would it be active enough?) Well, that's about as much my brain can handle right now. Updates to come in the near-ish future. :)