Maine's Top Ten

The top ten reasons I love living in Maine . . .


10. The trees turn yellow and red just for me.

9. Speaking of trees, there are HUNDREDS of trees in my yard. In St. George, I remember being so proud of my 9 trees (and I still am). But it just can't compete . . .

8. Health care rocks. My babies get what they need when they need it. The medical professionals here are top in their field.

7. The closest fast food restaurant is 45 minutes away. Of course, this is also a negative when I'm really hungry.

6. I don't live in a neighborhood. In fact, you can't even see my neighbors. That's why I like to parade through the house nude.

5. The bus picks my kids up at my house, and returns them there. Luckily the bus driver hasn't yet gotten a glimpse of me nude.

4. My in-laws are .2 miles away. Ryan and I have actually gotten to go out on dates without having to take out a loan to pay the babysitter! Rog and GQ only charge us five bucks and hour instead of the usual ten!

3. Just kidding about the five bucks. Another in-law bonus is that Rog and GQ come to all of Ethan's soccer games. Ethan pretty much has his own fan club.

2. The ocean. Is right down the street.

1. I'm surrounded here by american history that goes back 400 years. It quite awesome when you think about it.

Thinking About Health Care

I just read a post on a blog that I enjoy reading, called "People Do Things". I really respect the author and enjoy her writings immensely.

But she recently came to a conclusion I disagree with. Recently, her best friend from High School committed suicide. The author blames the high cost of anti-depressants and doctors, and ultimately a lack of universal health care for her friend's death.

In my experience, that's not how it's been. Ryan and I have had a six figure income, and a no-figure income (like right now!). There were several months during our high income days that we purposely chose not to have health insurance. And now that we have no money, we have excellent health insurance provided by the state of Maine.

But that is our choice. Universal health care would not be a choice, it would be forced upon us. You see, in Massachusetts, YOU HAVE TO BUY HEALTHCARE THAT IS GOVERNMENT APPROVED WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT. I thought we would move to Boston and automatically get free health care. Nope. If you make more than poverty (but still middle class) you have to buy insurance. Not the kind you want, not the kind you need, but the kind the govt. of Mass. thinks you need.

That is frustrating.

And what's with the business of expensive depression medication? Most anti-depressants are cheap, as in $4 a month cheap. Once my depression meds were $125 a month. My options were a) to pay it, because $125 a month is a small price for LIVING; or b) get a different kind of medicine. There are always other options when it comes to anti-depressants.

But say you need a medicine that IS expensive. Like a thousand bucks a pop. There are still options. That happened to a 32 year old friend of mine right here in Maine. Guess what? The government paid for it. And I'm okay with that! I'm okay with the government stepping in when people apply for the aid.

But to force all of us? No way. It makes me think of Canada's health care system. Some Canadians who have money don't do their own system. They come here! It doesn't strike me as the best system. It strikes me as a system that works (like ours), but a non-ideal system without options. And I want options. I have seen both my children in extreme situations, where they have come within an hour of death (Ethan's dehydration), and I wasn't turned away for lack of insurance.

To cold, callous me, it seems like the blog author's friend committed suicide because she didn't have anyone around to show her her options.

I don't know what the answer is, but it's got to lie somewhere in the middle.