Should We Laugh or Cry?

Did you see this one in the papers the other day? I'll bet it could be true, too.

Mailmen - Part 2

Just wanted to tell you a little of the other side of this story.

I did call the Post Master yesterday to report what happened.`He's a very nice young man. We've met before. He apologized, of course, on behalf of whoever caused the problem, and then explained a bit of his own problem.

There is a freeze on hiring here, and he is down to seven people to deliver our mail throughout the township. He has no idea who will be replacing Gary at the end of the year, and is as concerned as we are. Whenever one of the mail people is out sick or on vacation, he tries to have others of his staff double up, but that is not always possible. He often has to have someone from another town do the route. They are not familiar with the area, and usually unhappy about the extra duty. He himself was out on Saturday, so didn't know who had been assigned to our route that day, but he promised to find out who it was and have a chat with him. I know that he will do that. But if it is someone from Wildwood, or Avalon or Sea Isle City, I can't imagine they will take it to heart.

It seems to me that Postal workers are much like so many other types of workers today - not taking much pride in their work, and just getting through it as quickly as possible and collecting their pay checks. Now, when I was a girl.....

Seriously, we really did take pride in what we did, and really earned our pay. I think it's sad that so many today don't seem to take any satisfaction from a job well done. Am I just an old fogey, or do you agree?

Mailmen

Guess I'm just in a complaining mood lately. I'm turning into a grouchy old woman.

We have had the most wonderful mailman on our route for quite a while. Gary is always happy and smiling, and nothing is ever too much trouble for him. Unfortunately for us, he is retiring at the end of the year. Meantime, he is using up some of his vacation time. He was off last Saturday.

I didn't see the mail truck come on Saturday, so I don't know which man was substituting for him. I do know that none of them are particularly wonderful. I did see the little yellow marker up, so I knew the mail was in the box. But I wasn't feeling all that well, so decided to leave it there. Rita would bring it in to me when she came over on Sunday.

Kitty called me from California in the afternoon. She said she had mailed me a box, Priority Mail. I should have received it by now. I asked if it would fit in the mailbox, and she said oh, no, it was too big for that, so I told her no, it hadn't come yet. The more I thought about it, the more suspicious I became. Gary would have brought a big box up to the door, but would the substitute do that? I decided it was worthwhile to make the trip out to the street.

The box was there. It was just about as big as my mailbox, and he must have hammered it in with his fist. I really didn't know how I was going to pry it out. I struggled with it for quite a while, and finally did manage to work it out. Then of course there was my regular mail which had been stuffed in first, all crumpled up in the back. I'm very glad there were no photos in one of the envelopes. They would have been destroyed for sure. By the time I had managed to get at all of this and got back into the house, I had one terrific angina attack.

Can't begin to tell you how much we are going to miss Gary when he leaves. I just hope whoever the substitute was on Saturday is NOT the one who takes over his route.

But the contents of the box more than made up for it. There was wonderful organic California fruit and veggies, chocolate-pomegranate clusters that were out of this world, and a poem and a note from Kit.

The Donut Hole

Well, it happened. I hit the "donut hole". It really surprised me, since I had just received a statement from my Rx insurance company, telling me I had quite a bit more money to spend on prescriptions before I got to that donut hole. I went to the drugstore to pick up my nitro Rx, which normally costs me a co-pay of $24. When I asked for it, they told me it would cost $153.34 this time. Well, I didn't have that much money with me of course, so could not pick it up.

Went home and called the insurance company. "Oh yes. You've hit the donut hole." When I checked their statement, it had been dated Oct.26. Since that date, I had picked up a couple of more prescriptions. Of course, I had never been given a list of what my prescriptions actually cost the insurance company either, so had no way of judging when I got close to the infamous donut hole. In fact, I went back and read the statement, and it said very clearly that the amount I was supposed to be going by was the out-of-pocket money I spent. Silly me. I believed what I had read.

So I asked the woman on the other end of the line if that meant that for the remainder of the year I would have to pay full price for all of my prescriptions (while continuing to pay the monthly premium). She assured me that yes, that's what it means. Well, by my figures, that means I will have to come up with another $413.48. And Christmas is coming. And I live on Social Security, basically.

I still have a terrible time wrapping my mind around the fact that the insurance companies are permitted to charge whatever they will, plus some pretty high co-pays, varying widely depending on the medication, then simply stop covering anything after you've reached a certain amount. What is really laughable is that they assure you that the period in which they do not cover anything is "only until" you've then reached another amount, when they will start reimbursing you in part for the rest of the year. How can people who have next to nothing to begin with reach that amount at all? We can't afford to buy most of our meds, so we will never reach the next mysterious level. I would so much rather pay more each month, and remain covered for the year.

I have only been covered by this insurance since April. Had I started at the normal time - January 1st - I would have hit the donut hole by April! For that matter, it would have been sooner if they had been permitting me to use the diabetes medication my doctor prescribed. They denied that, and I have been fortunate enough to have doctors who have given me samples of it all this time, since June. (The generic form is NOT the same.)

Well, as of January 1, 2010, I will be using Aetna instead of this company. I am quite sure it will be better. Just a little better financially. Much, much better in that they seem to be far more efficient and definitely more informative and willing to answer questions. I will still reach the donut hole long before the year is up. How I will handle that, I have no idea.

Medicare Rx is the worst thing that has happened to seniors in many years. The AARP pushed hard for it. Sure they did. They are not much more than one big insurance company themselves. I know - they are supposed to be non-profit and only looking out for our interest. Tell me another fairy story! However - AARP is now endorsing H.R. 3961 and H.R. 3962. Passage of these bills would mean closing the donut hole and lowering prescription costs. Why are they now in favor of the change? I don't know. Maybe they have seen what it is doing to us and have realized their mistake. Whatever their reasoning, I am grateful for it. My own Republican representative is against these bills. Mr. LoBiondo claims government interference will be disastrous. Well, Mr. LoBiondo, isn't it the government backing your own super terrific medical coverage? If you were facing what we are facing I am sure you would be a lot more agreeable to passage of these bills. They are far from perfect, but they are certainly better than this. At least they head us in the right direction.

Good lord! How trite that sounds! I can't think straight this morning.
Please forgive the scattered thinking and really bad writing in this post. I guess I'm still too upset by the whole problem to collect my thoughts.
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In answer to a couple of comments, I do use Walgreen's Pharmacy, and think they are great. But the pharmacy does not set the co-pay - the insurance company does. And even for those with low co-pay arrangements, that does not alter the rate at which the donut hole is reached.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Thank you Drowsy Monkey for hosting Mellow Yellow Monday for us.

This week it's back to signs in our town. The first one is on Ferry Road in North Cape May.


Next is one of many in our area, showing our visitors where to find the camp grounds.


And last, one of a great many in our area, cautioning motorists. It must have been very foggy the day I took this picture,so I had to darken it.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadow Shot Sunday is brought to us by Tracy, at Hey Harriet. Thank you, Tracy. We're so happy you're there for us.

I see that the Virginia Creeper has pushed its way up from under the back deck again. I see it every time I walk out there, and always tell myself I must get rid of it, but either I have my hands full at the time, or I'm on my way to an appointment and can't stop. I really must do that soon.