Signs

Before the husband became self employed, we had insurance through the company where he worked. Those days are gone and now we are among the masses that worry about insuring ourselves against a catastrophic occasion which is usually a hospitalization.

For a little over 500.00 per month for both of us, we have just that. Catastrophic insurance. That covers inpatient or outpatient surgeries and once a year physicals. Any other doctor's visits are picked up by us.

Today I went shopping. I started calling the imagining centers here to inquire as to the cost of an U/S of the abdomen and a Hida Scan with e/f. I thought this was highly unusual until I made the first call. The imaging centers and hospitals have a whole department within their  insurance department that deals with these calls. This tells me I'm not the only one shopping now for costs for medical tests.

They are busy. At some places, I had to leave my name and number and the test I was inquiring about and they promised to get back to me with the costs! If I had the right number, I could probably order a kidney or a lung? In other countries this is not as uncommon as one might think.

As we were driving back from the casino last evening on the four lane highway, another sign of our economy was blatant. The  median strip had grass grown up to four feet in height. Where are those workers that mow those median strips? They must be waiting in line at the unemployment office along with those employees that use to patrol our public parks and national parks to keep them maintained.

I remember time spent in Mexico. The parks there were weed ridden, no trash receptacles  and uncared for. A public park was not a safe place to be.

Signs of our times and not good signs either.