alexist

When I read "original art" I thought "from galleries" (it is a privilege meme!) But later, after reading someone else's answers, I thought "DUH!" My mother used to be an artist (she has a BFA) and we had a bunch of her paintings and drawings at home. Funny how I didn't think of that as "original art". i blame context!

Although I like Obama in some ways, I'm not supporting him for president at the moment--because he fails on one of my most important policy issues, health care. He's not committed to universal health care (forcing everyone to buy into the system in some way) and hasn't, as far as I know, proposed a way for more people to get it, other than universal children's insurance.

There's a lot of good things about the US health care system (it tends to get a universally negative portrayal in the UK, a la Sicko) but the insurance market, especially for people not covered through their jobs, is a mess. I was looking into buying individual insurance to cover us until Neil gets a job. If we go uncovered for more than 60 days, it has implications for pre-existing conditions.

New York is a funny state. The individual insurance market is tightly regulated. All plans have to offer 2 options (basically, HMO is more restrictive, POS you can see anyone you like) at a uniform rate based on your area of residence. They cannot reject you for any reason other than not living in the service area (e.g. Nassau-Suffolk is one area). These are the only options available on the free insurance market. It's fair and transparent, but it's insanely expensive: http://www.ins.state.ny.us/hmorates/html/hmonassa.htm

(Don't be fooled by HIP's cheap rate--it's terrible insurance!)

If you're low enough income you can get insurance through HealthyNY, but we don't qualify--max of $3,667/mo for a family of 3, and it will be complicated because we're coming from abroad.

I was told to look into incorporating and getting small business insurance, but I seem to remember that when my parents looked into that they needed a certain number of employees. Of course if my parents want to change to self-insuring through my dad's business we could go through them, but I can't ask them to do that.

It's just crazy. And that's only the individual market. Most people get it through their employers. Cheaper, but you're stuck with whatever your employer wants to make available, which is neither fair nor efficient. I think that insurance should be decoupled from employment. Make employers contribute to the cost, sure; that's done everywhere. But it would be fairer to both individuals and companies, since as it stands companies that are good to their employees are put at a disadvantage over companies (like Wal-Mart) which aren't.