This is the worst time of year for anyone who works in insurance.
When the ACA was upheld, groups were given the option to renew in
December to keep their plans. So a *ton* of groups moved to December.
Awesome. Nothing said "Happy Holidays" quite like being insanely busy
and crying over spreadsheets (technically I only cried once this year...
My story and I'm sticking to it!). It's like tax season for
accountants.
Honestly, if I never see another spreadsheet again in my life, it will
be too soon. Spoiler alert: I will see one in than 12 hours.
They seem so easy.
Look at a quote and add numbers.
But somehow it isn't.
The formatting is off. Then the numbers don't round. And how did I miss
that all the copays are after the deductible?! Did I spell deductible
right? How many times can I look at a word before I forget how to spell
it? I literally don't know if I'm spelling Silver correctly. Does that
say Silver or Sliver? Sliver plan sounds cooler anyway! I had to Google
how to get an ampersand in the header (FYI, you put two of them in a row
and Excel only shows one). WHY IS THIS TAB DEFAULTED TO BE 8 PAGES
WIDE??
Also, I am generally in favor of the ACA. But individual rates make my
eyes bleed. Groups under fifty (who didn't grandmother) have a rate for
each age. It isn't too bad usually, but when the group is getting close
to fifty, it is insane. This number limit doesn't include dependents by
the way (although you only pay for 3 children under 20). So you can have
a group with thirty employees but end up with seventy rates. I have
literally had someone give me a correction and not be able to see what
is wrong even when it is written down for me! 632 looks just like 682
when you're on chart number 45 of the season.
I probably would have completely lost my damn mind if it wasn't for the
people I worked with. It's so nice to have people you trust being able
to help. And the fact that everyone asks if you need anything before
they leave and it isn't just a weird courtesy is awesome. Plus, it's
nice to have people who understand what is going on. I love Caleb, but I
think his eyes glaze over when I complain about hard v soft mandatory
generic. Which is 100% understandable.
We made it to the other side though. Everyone is still speaking to each
other. During my sabbatical I missed last busy season, so I wasn't
*quite* prepared for how it was going to turn out. I'll be ready for
next busy season!
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
One year later...
Can I be both proud of and mad at voters at the same time?
Like, great job this year! Danica Roem beat Bob Marshall! Bill Peduto was re-elected! Outside of America, Australia's gay marriage survey by mail seems to be on the right side of history. Hate was generally defeated.
Where the fuck was this last year?
A year ago today, I was dealing with what seemed to be literally impossible. A racist, homophobic, misogynistic demagogue was elected to the highest office in the land. With zero experience. A woman with years of experience and goddamn human decency lost. I was on my sabbatical so at least I was able to deal with it with whiskey.
It's like everyone suffered from some temporary insanity. There is an entire Twitter account dedicated to showing tweets before and after the election. There are liberals who didn't vote because they wanted Bernie. I don't have great words to describe how I feel about that, but they aren't nice.
American Horror Story: Cult has been doing such a phenomenal job of capturing what happened and unfortunately where we might be headed. Starting with some of our newly introduced characters voting for Jill Stein or not voting at all (I don't even know which is worse) to showing how easy it is for a situation to escalate beyond what you can control, it's like real life. I have relived the 2016 election and the aftermath so many times this season. I both love and hate it. I have to watch in slow motion the destruction of the American voting system.
While I'm proud that we started to bring our country back, I'm disgusted that we let it get there in the first place. In order to survive until the next Presidential election (maximum 3 more year), we need to take the advice of the great RuPaul:
Like, great job this year! Danica Roem beat Bob Marshall! Bill Peduto was re-elected! Outside of America, Australia's gay marriage survey by mail seems to be on the right side of history. Hate was generally defeated.
Where the fuck was this last year?
A year ago today, I was dealing with what seemed to be literally impossible. A racist, homophobic, misogynistic demagogue was elected to the highest office in the land. With zero experience. A woman with years of experience and goddamn human decency lost. I was on my sabbatical so at least I was able to deal with it with whiskey.
It's like everyone suffered from some temporary insanity. There is an entire Twitter account dedicated to showing tweets before and after the election. There are liberals who didn't vote because they wanted Bernie. I don't have great words to describe how I feel about that, but they aren't nice.
American Horror Story: Cult has been doing such a phenomenal job of capturing what happened and unfortunately where we might be headed. Starting with some of our newly introduced characters voting for Jill Stein or not voting at all (I don't even know which is worse) to showing how easy it is for a situation to escalate beyond what you can control, it's like real life. I have relived the 2016 election and the aftermath so many times this season. I both love and hate it. I have to watch in slow motion the destruction of the American voting system.
While I'm proud that we started to bring our country back, I'm disgusted that we let it get there in the first place. In order to survive until the next Presidential election (maximum 3 more year), we need to take the advice of the great RuPaul:
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