Personal Archives | Minnesota Farm Living

Health Insurance

The election is over, harvest is very close to completion and I finally feel like I can take a breath. But only a short breath because I need to make a decision on our health insurance. You see, our current individual insurance policy will not available as of January 1. BlueCross BlueShield is exiting the individual health insurance world so my family along with many, many other families have to switch to another health insurance company and plan.

Obamacare has been terrible for my family. Our premiums have skyrocketed. We make just enough income to not qualify for any premium reductions. I feel like I have been screaming about how 65% yearly premium increases are not sustainable and no one is hearing me. All of my government representatives supported and voted for Obamacare and when you talk with them about the problems of Obamacare, this is the typical response:

“Obamacare has been successful because millions now have insurance that never had it before. Only 5% of people have individual policies who are now seeing the high premium increases.”

It’s a canned response. I know because I have heard the exact same statement over and over and over.

This frustrates me to no end because I am one of the 5% and the way they minimize the problem makes me feel that I don’t matter. In my world, it’s a big problem and yet no one in the Democratic party wants to acknowledge my pain–they just want me to know about the “millions” it helped. Kind of like a “sorry, sucks to be you” attitude.

A few weeks ago, Governor Dayton finally stated Obamacare is no longer affordable. It was actually a breath of fresh air that someone in government has acknowledged what we have known all along. But now he’s backpedaling and actually asked Minnesotans to elect more Democrats so they can fix the problem. Are you kidding me? You created the problem and we are supposed to trust you to fix it?

What I am Reading

This past month I purchased a couple books. The one I have just started is “The Best Yes” by Lysa Terkeurst. I am no different than many women where we are always saying yes because we don’t want to feel guilty because we said no. From what I understand this book puts those struggles into perspective, or more specifically God’s perspective. Hopefully I can report next month with some more thoughts. Have you read this book?

What I am Learning

Recently our local social media breakfast hosted a speaker, Libbey Patton, who talked about using a content calendar. In her presentation, she talked about using Trello as a calendar scheduler. I have started using Trello and I am really liking it. My biggest struggle was the setup that made sense to me and how I work. Other than a few struggles with matching the program with the way my brain works, I am finding it helpful. I am also starting to keep track of my social media analytics using an excel spreadsheet. Up until now, I really haven’t thought about tracking any of my social media activity.

What I am Watching

I am not a huge TV fan. But I have been looking for some shows to watch on Netflix. I have started to watch, Orange is the New Black. I am only in a couple of episodes – it’s been interesting. Let me watch a few more episodes before I can decide if I want to continue watching the series. And I am not going to lie, I have been a little crazy over the election season. I am a politic junky, unfortunately. Some days I just wished I didn’t care so much. So I have been watching quite a bit of TV shows covering the elections. The last movie I went to was Sully. I recommend it. It was so nice to watch a movie that didn’t have swearing, nudity or swearing.

What I am Listening

I binge listen to podcasts. One that I have started listening to is Creating Disney Magic: Lessons in Leadership by Lee Cockerell. Lee has spent more than 40 years in the hospitality industry. I have enjoyed the episodes so far–just gives me a different perspective on leadership.

What I am Sharing

This past month, I shared a presentation on “Blogging for Business” at our local Social Media Breakfast. I shared my blogging story and passed along some important blogging business information. I try not to plan any extra activities during the month of October because we are busy harvesting crops. But I made an exception and allowed this presentation on my calendar. And . . . there was one other “sharing” I did this month. Natalie Sents of the “Why I Farm” project stopped at my farm and interviewed me. I was hoping she could have rode along with me in the tractor but it’s just been too wet here, so we sat in my gazebo and talked or maybe more like rambled. I like what Natalie is doing with the “Why I Farm” project. Good luck to Natalie to visit all 50 states!

I would love to hear what you are reading, learning, watching, listening to or sharing. Do you have any recommendations?

Health Insurance and the Election, My Thoughts