Kinda Ironic

So, I am a May baby. Which means basically nothing, but since my birthday is coming up it means I had to renew my vehicle registration and this year I had to renew my driver’s license as well. I find it funny that I had to pay $62 dollars for a piece of paper and sticker whereas the plastic card that is a driver’s license is only $18.

Why are registration feels so expensive compared to license fees? Although, I guess I shouldn’t complain as my grandfather (another May baby) owed $128 for his renewal. Gotta love make, model, weight class, and year produced which causes the amount you owe to change from person to person, vehicle to vehicle.

Human Vultures

As I get older, it becomes increasingly clear that death, or the prospect thereof, turns humans into vultures. Now, not every person faced with the death of a loved one (or relative) turns into a money-grubbing, back-stabbing, hoarder and thief, but it seems to be a more common occurrence.

When my great grandmother was moved from her house to a nursing home, certain children swooped in on the empty house and began removing valuables without their siblings (or mother’s for that matter) consent or permission. Valuable things went missing, no one would admit that they were the ones who actually took it. Finger pointing and blame went all over and it just became ridiculous.

Even more ridiculous was trying to divide the property after my great grandmother’s death. Certain daughters believed they were entitled to more regardless of the constructs of the will.

Having heard and seen other families go through the same (or worse) inheritance struggles has only cemented into my mind the belief that death brings out the worst in people. What I find really amusing is when children start yelling at their parents for wasting away “their” (the kids’ not the parents’) money. How is it the children’s money when it is the parents’? Simply put, inheritance. As parents age, many children begin contemplating inheritance and what they can expect when their parents kick the proverbial bucket. It is disgusting.

But, I suppose the children who are straightforward and openly take stuff and start claiming their parents’ property is at least more honest than the underhand ones who sneak and steal. Recently, a neighbor’s wife was hospitalized with cancer. Her children don’t even visit her, but they go to her house and take her stuff. One child even steals money out of her purse. The father put his foot down and said they can’t take it, but what do they care? They come in and take it anyways. Besides, their dad is 85, he’ll be dead soon, too, so why does he need the stuff.

One son-in-law actually said that to his face. Unbelievable. As if having his wife of 50+ years in the hospital dying of cancer isn’t enough, he is faced with ignorance and greed from his children who should be giving their love and support.

Inheritance. Whatever. It is money for nothing. It doesn’t rightfully belong to anybody but the originators. I can understand getting back that which you have gifted to the deceased, but to go in willy-nilly and claim everything of value in sight is just plain, old-fashioned greed in any book.

My grandparents are doing their best to divide up the assets and to give back gifts before they die in order to help stop silly things like this from happening. But you never really know what will happen after you die and how the people around you will react.

Unfortunately, every family seems to have a vulture of some kind lurking in their midst, making an unhappy event even worse.

A Financial Quandry

Why is that institutions and programs that are supposed to be giving you money, always try to find ways to get out of it? Examples: Insurance Companies, Unemployment, and Medicare (which, technically, falls under insurance).

Oh, let’s start with unemployment. Besides the fact that money for unemployment is scarce due to the higher levels, especially in Michigan, they are really bad at getting money to people. Sometimes, even though a person is perfectly eligible to receive unemployment, they have to wait three to six months, sometimes longer, just to receive the biweekly unemployment they deserve, which in this economy is definitely a bad thing.

But that isn’t the bone I have to pick with unemployment.

It has been ingrained in all of us (or at least people who know anything about unemployment) that if you are a student (student here meaning college student) then you are unable to collect unemployment benefits even if you work full time while also going to school (full time or otherwise). This is actually not true. A student can collect unemployment (as long as they have proof of working full time and attending school – which really isn’t all that hard to get).

The problem is unemployment does not tell you this. There is nothing that is easily accessible on their website that gives you this information. A friend of mine applied for unemployment even though he was a student and unemployment sent him a letter rejecting his application and then they turned around, accepted it, and started to give him money, which they later claimed he owed them back + interest because he was a student.

Truthfully, a rather gross error on their part. But the kicker is that there is a waiver you need to fill out when submitting your application that applies solely to students that allows you to legally collect unemployment. However, like I said, nothing of this is actually mentioned on the website, or if it is, it’s buried so deep you will probably never find it. Of course, why would unemployment tell you this? They don’t want to give you money if they don’t have to.

Needless to say the matter went to court and my friend won and can legally collect unemployment. The whole process was drawn out over quite a few months and now he has to apply for an extension for his unemployment as his work still has not called him back yet.

Now, Medicare. All things considered, we pay an ungodly amount in taxes every year for Medicare and Social Security. (When you have to pay in taxes at the end of the year, it’s those two things above which kill you, not state or federal.) However, Medicare is getting more reluctant to pay. My grandmother was in the hospital in June and then again in September of last year. It took until just a few months ago this year before Humana and the hospital finally got Medicare to cough up the money they were supposed to pay from the beginning. And now, Medicare is trying to put into effect that they will not repay for repeat visits and treatments. Meaning if you have to go into the hospital more than once for the same thing, then you are essentially screwed.

For a service that is supposed to help the elderly, especially at a time when it is hardest for them to afford health insurance, Medicare isn’t really all that good. But, I am told that it is really hit and miss. Some people get care and help right away while others are shoved onto a shelf and left to dust.

I have no real hopes that Obama or the government can really do anything to reform health care because even the federal institutions are getting more and more reluctant to help anyone, not to mention, even with all the money paid into these programs vis-a-vis taxes, there is still shortages and a growing national debt.

Health Care

America. Land of the the free, home of the brave - where the elderly and poor cannot afford health care. Due to the rising costs, many employers are also cutting down health care/insurance packages. Who can afford to go to regular doctors appointments, let alone pay for all of the medications or treatments that may be needed?

In an age where people are drowning in students loans, the health care quagmire makes things infinitely worse. Doctor and hospital bills quickly escalate to the amount of a full four years or more of college - in only a matter of months. How tragic. Even worse is the fact that many insurances won't cover as much as they once did.

My grandmother was recently in the hospital, both visits lasted a little over a week. She is on social security. She is supposed to be covered by Medicare but they won't pay a dime to help because she also has Humana (apparently good for prescriptions). Her first stay resulted in over $30,000 in medical bills owed to the hospital. For a week and a half stay! We have not received the results of her second visit, but hopefully, since she was there a little less, the bill won't be as bad. But now we hit a quandary. She has to have this heart medication. She just does or her heart will have a greater chance on giving out. Well, fine and dandy. Thing is, we can't afford the medication. She is rapidly approaching the donought hole in her insurance with Medicare probably not stepping in at all.

What a great age for Americans to live in. Health care seems to be in decline (as most cannot afford it) and the elderly especially are having to make the choice to either put all of their money towards the prescriptions they need to live or to buy food. Yet there are so many Americans afraid of allowing a law to pass that would get better health care for those who need and can't afford it. How is it that Canada can basically cover its people's expenses and help them out and we cannot do so?

America is a great country, so can't we do a little more to keep its people healthy? Or do we leave them with the choice of needed medication but no food or food but not the medicine they need to survive?

Unbreakable

    No one likes to be reminded how human they are . . . or how human someone else is that they love.  Interesting is it not, that children find their parents infallible?  We put them on pedestals and make them our heroes, but what do we know?  We forget that they are just flesh and blood not Wonder Woman and the Man of Steel.

     I know that my grandfather is just a man, but it's hard to remember someone so strong being so weak at times.  I know that he is not like Superman.  I have seen him hurt and in the hospital before, but it is one of the oddest sights to see.  I hated seeing him connected to machinery, bandaged up, in pain.  But he is only human.  He makes mistakes, he gets hurt, he bleeds.

     I found out two days ago that my grandfather was involved in an accident.  Somehow he fell off our lawnmower and ended up getting run over by the trailer that was attached to it.  He was banged and bruised up after that.  Who wouldn't be?  Grandmother went in to the doctor's.  I don't know if it was only to get a handicap sticker for her vehicle or if she was taking grandpa in because of the accident, but for whatever reason, they were at the doctor's and found out that grandpa had busted ribs.

     One of the body parts your really don't want bruised, cracked, or broken.  I hear ribs are painful to heal and they are very dangerous because broken ribs could puncture lungs.  When I heard that he was injured like that the first thing that came to my mind is that it wasn't possible and then reason took over and said that he is seventy years-old.  The older a person gets the harder it gets for them to heal.  There actually comes a time when older people aren't able to mend broke bones.  It's scary.

     I don't want anything to happen to him.  He is my grandfather, he's like a mighty oak that refuses to bow down to the wind.  Yes, children, even adults get irrational about loved ones.  We want to believe that they are invincible, but the truth is, they never are.