The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

You and I wouldn't want a new rooster either.

Probably? I'd say that was an understatement! I'd DEFINITELY not want a new rooster, not ever, no, never! Isn't that a Taylor Swift line? LOL

 

[h2oratt]

Lol,

 

[getaclue]

Dd 1, and 2, and the grandkids are all coming over today to celebrate one of my granddaughter's birthdays. It looks a little overcast out. It needs to clear up, or go ahead and rain now to get it over with. Hard to have a pool party when it's raining.

My new medicine comes Monday. When the lady told me my co-pay was going to be $175.00 a month, I almost feel out of my chair. Yes, we can afford it, but not comfortably. Thoughts of having to choose between medicine, and electric started flooding my brain. Nope, can't do without electric, but where can we actually make cuts to free up that much money. I told her I'd have to wait, and get back with her on that.

She said that since I was on private insurance only, I qualified for a manufacturer discount program. She submitted everything, and yesterday, I was approved. Now my co-pay is $10.00 a month. That is good until the end of the year, and should automatically renew at the beginning of next year.

An extra $175.00 a month, just for one prescription, makes a substantial impact on the average person's budget, let alone that this has to be used in conjunction with at least one other drug, and monitored by the doctor, along with blood work on a monthly basis. Add in the cost of the co-pay for the other prescription to take with this one, the co-pay for the doctor visit, the co-pay for the lab, gas to do all the running around, and it tends to eat up the average budget.

Some of what I don't understand is, how the cost of living for so many years, would increase on an average of 7%, per year. With pay increases between 7 - 10% a year. Since the crash in 2008, the yearly cost of living has doubled, and tripled, but wages have not kept pace. I don't care what the news says, or the govt. says. I know what it costs me at the stores for things, and I can do the math.

 

[speckledhen]

Dd 1, and 2, and the grandkids are all coming over today to celebrate one of my granddaughter's birthdays. It looks a little overcast out. It needs to clear up, or go ahead and rain now to get it over with. Hard to have a pool party when it's raining.

My new medicine comes Monday. When the lady told me my co-pay was going to be $175.00 a month, I almost feel out of my chair. Yes, we can afford it, but not comfortably. Thoughts of having to choose between medicine, and electric started flooding my brain. Nope, can't do without electric, but where can we actually make cuts to free up that much money. I told her I'd have to wait, and get back with her on that.

She said that since I was on private insurance only, I qualified for a manufacturer discount program. She submitted everything, and yesterday, I was approved. Now my co-pay is $10.00 a month. That is good until the end of the year, and should automatically renew at the beginning of next year.

An extra $175.00 a month, just for one prescription, makes a substantial impact on the average person's budget, let alone that this has to be used in conjunction with at least one other drug, and monitored by the doctor, along with blood work on a monthly basis. Add in the cost of the co-pay for the other prescription to take with this one, the co-pay for the doctor visit, the co-pay for the lab, gas to do all the running around, and it tends to eat up the average budget.

Some of what I don't understand is, how the cost of living for so many years, would increase on an average of 7%, per year. With pay increases between 7 - 10% a year. Since the crash in 2008, the yearly cost of living has doubled, and tripled, but wages have not kept pace. I don't care what the news says, or the govt. says. I know what it costs me at the stores for things, and I can do the math.

Yes, they think we can't see what's happening. Maybe some checker can't make change for a $20, but dang it, I sure can and I can add 2 + 2. I'm glad your copay will be less, geez. We don't take anything our insurance won't pay for, no matter what. My husband is adamant about that and I agree.

We were talking this a.m. about what I'd do if I was left alone. Would I move to a more manageable place? Would I stay, knowing I cannot draw full social security? (did not work enough quarters). How can I manage this place alone physically? Then, we both had a thought, a possible solution.

We own the pasture lot outright. It is 1.38 ac, gently sloping with some fairly level area for a house. We thought about putting a small, elderly friendly cabin on there for me, putting a privacy fence around it and maybe a smaller barn for whatever chickens I decide I can manage to keep. We probably could borrow enough equity from this place and qualify for all of it on our current income of his military pension plus his SS. Then, I'd have a compact house close to the ground to live in and could sell this house on the 2 1/4 ac it sits on at any point in time. Because it has more sun exposure, I could easily put solar power on it, too. I may not be thrilled with the location between my current house and the bottom lot which is now owned by someone else, but with a privacy fence around it and some strategically planted leylands and other evergreens, it would be pretty private for me.

 

[speckledhen]

This is the lot I'm talking about, Lot 9A. Lot 9B and Lot 5 combined are what the current house sits on. The original owner talked the seller into adding half of lot 9 to his Lot 5 so it would be larger. The perimeter fence that divides our main property from the pasture lots sits on that border between Lot 9A and Lot 9B. I don't know if the guy is ever going to do anything with that bottom lot. He's not come back since he made our Lot 9A into pasture for us, though he left his bobcat sitting here on the power line easement road. Part of me wants to buy it back from him, LOL.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Being a type 1 diabetic, and an All are sicko, I'm well aware of how ridiculous medical costs have become. I get 3 bottles of insulin for a 3 months supply costs me 50 buck, the insurance claims it costs them 300, my other insulin I get 5 bottles for a total of 700 hundred bucks if I had to pay out of pocket. I lose my husband and his insurance and I can't afford to stay alive.

@getaclue , isn't funny how everything can become affordable if you can't pay for it but if you can pay they rake you over the coals. I'm glad they knocked the price down and I hope it helps you. The world seems set up to take advantage of the unfortunate.

 

[speckledhen]

My son is losing his medical insurance, life insurance and vacation time because some moron bought their block of restaurants in his area. And they'll be paying by check, not direct deposit now. I won't say the nationality of the new owners, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. He will be losing most all his employees, too, when the new owner takes control because they won't work for peanuts and no benefits.

Insanity, the way our medical system works. If they'd cap what drug companies and hospitals could charge so they could not price-gouge, it would go a long way toward correcting some of this mess.

Adding to what I was saying about our pasture lot above, the only thing that bugs me is that it is a narrow lot. If the guy would sell me back the other lot, it would solve that whole thing and I'd be all over building there, I think. This is a good, centrally-located area, very close to both NC and TN.


ETA: a 2nd thing that bugs me about the 2nd house on the pasture lot plan is I can't afford to keep both indefinitely. Can I be happy living next to my own house we've sweated and slaved to make it into something while someone else reaps the benefits of it? I'm not too sure about that.

 

[getaclue]

Cynthia, our insurance IS paying for it. The co-pay is that much. The out-of-pocket cost per month for that medication is $1,165.00. It's brand new. There is nothing comparable out yet, nor is there a generic yet. In 78% of the patients it was tested on, it doubled their cancer inactivity time, up to 2 years for the type of cancer I have. There's nothing else currently on the market that even comes close.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Do you have any relatives that you'd LOVE to live next door too? Maybe someone in the family could take the current house?

 

[speckledhen]

Do you have any relatives that you'd LOVE to live next door too? Maybe someone in the family could take the current house?

I'm not sure I'd want to live next to any relatives, LOL. My younger son might when he comes back to the U.S. in about a year or so, but he may get a job across the country and make it not feasible to buy it then. I don't know if anyone would want a vacation home in our family, or if anyone could afford one.