Business (as usual!)

[merimask]

Well, yesterday certainly was exciting in a geeky cyber artist kind of way.  Final count after my day of being featured on DeviantArt:  over 2,700 hits on my gallery, and over 4,800 hits on the Fire Dragon that was the featured Daily Deviation.   Just to put that into perspective; since I opened the site (November 20th I think) I'd only recieved 291 hits on my gallery in total, until yesterday.  Wow!  My Etsy shop experienced a boost in hits exactly like the kind I get when I buy a showcase...so not bad at all!

I ran out of black dye over the weekend...what to do?  I know; make BLUE things.


This one was a special request, so it was going to be blue anyway...

Both up in Etsy, naturally.

I am doing an awful lot of dragon masks lately.  I just keep getting requests for them...it's not my fault!  It seems very few mask artists make dragon masks, too, so I have cornered the market there.

Not complaining...I really like making dragons anyway.  I just figured I'd better explain myself, since you guys are probably sick of seeing dragons!

In other news; not much going on.  I'm very very worried about our health insurance.  Greg's employer is raising the rates by over $200 a month for our health coverage.  That means over $400 a month out of Greg's paycheck, just for insurance.  Greg is making noises about dropping it, but getting health insurance on your own is an extremely expensive proposition.   I'm afraid we might not have a policy in a month.  Scary...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Health Insurance is scary, and expensive. We were uninsured for the better part of 4 years because of issues with his employers insurance--too complicated to go into here. We tried to get insurance on our own, but even going in with "group" insurance programs (such as offered to members of some professional organizations we belong to) insurance would cost us easily $1000 a month for the two of us--for insurance as individuals, the monthly rates were considerably higher. When Obama said in the debates that basic, adequate insurance coverage for the average American was about $1200, he wasn't exaggerating. It's very, very expensive to be privately insured. And we haven't any major health problems to raise our premiums.

The good news is that if Obama manages to pass his proposed plan, these rates may go down in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, though it's very expensive.

We are insured again, as of this fall. We're paying a lot of money for it--$300 a month for the two of us--and it's gouged a huge hole in our monthly budget, and I don't think the coverage is the best, but it's a HUGE relief to have that coverage again. Because it's really stressful to be constantly worried that something would happen, needing hospitalization or even surgery, without any way to pay for it. And I'm no longer terrified that something would show up that would then be a "pre-existing condition" when we did finally get insurance again, which would either disqualify us from coverage or make it so expensive we couldn't afford it.

[kls-eloise.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's about what insurance is costing me - and I'm thrilled to have it. But you remember the decade that I was uninsured, so you understand.

You should always make blue things, not just when you run out of black dye.

[golden-meliades.livejournal.com]

You'd better come be Canadian if you get sick. When I was diagnosed, I found out my meds would cost $15,000 a year, which is of course NOT a price I can pay. So we're like 'um, how do we pay for this?' and the answer turned out to be pretty simple...we signed me up for Trillium, which is drug coverage for cases like this. (It's a provincial program.) It's free. They calculate your income and pick up what they feel you can't handle. In my case, I had to pay a deductible 3 or 4 times a year. So MY cost ended up being $475 per year or something like that.

And of course, basic health care is free. Regular visits to the family doc and so on, that is. And when I had my tumour removed, that didn't cost us anything.

I always forget other people have to PAY for that stuff! Geez, I'm happy to be Canadian. I always automatically assume that if someone NEEDS something for their basic health, they will of course be able to get it without any cost, as it's been that way my whole life and now I totally take it for granted since I never really thought about it being any other way.

[tricia612.livejournal.com]

Even working for the government doesn't guarantee low insurance premiums. A few years ago, the high option family for my insurance was almost 700 for the employee's share. Don't know how families afforded it. Had high option for myself for the longest and paid dearly. Knocked it down to standard and it's tolerable. Still have to get a separate dental/optical plan but even with that it's cheaper than the high option. You choices suck with some things (eye stuff especially) but I don't dare change. Been with them almost 25 years (my job and on dad's plan during college. Makes my head hurt to look at new plans and try to figure out what, if any, would be better.

Try to keep what you have.