Saturday, March 1, 2014
There's a 1997 Norwegian movie called Insomnia that comes to mind as I write this. It is about a Swedish detective named Engstrom who has had to exile himself to Norway for having sex with a witness in one of his investigations. Assigned to an investigation in a village north of the Arctic Circle during the summer, when the sun never sets, the constant daylight is a metaphor for relentless exposure --of Engstrom's past, of his "foreign-ness" in Norway, of the facts in a murder investigation. The idea that constant daylight in summer is anything but delectable also turns up in White NIghts, Taylor Hackford's 1985 film about a tap dancer and a ballet dancer (Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov, respectively) trapped in the Soviet Union. The French, use the term to describe a sleepless night, which is what I am having.
The deep freeze has not kept me inside, thanks to Beauregard, although most of my friends seem to have been knocked for a loop by it. No one's keen to go out, many of my neighbors laid low with a cold or a flu, everyone complaining of how dry their skins are from the heat sent up through the pipes of their apartments. In fact, complaining has become an Olympic sport among "adults" this winter. I exclude from the definition many college students in the area, who are running in the parks wearing shorts, despite the -5 degree temperatures (with the wind chill factored in).
When I am not out with Beauregard, I am trying to figure out what health care plan I will enroll in once the COBRA I currently have runs out May 31. If Bill had lived one more year, I would have had health care coverage at a reasonable price for life; on his death I got three years of coverage at double the price we had been paying, a COBRA few who lose their spouses get for so long, even at $600 a month. Nevertheless, I'm five years away from Medicare, so for the next five years, I have to avail myself of the offerings made available by the Affordable Care Act .
The plans available comparable to the coverage I have now will cost $1000/month, a $400 increase, without factoring in that the plans allow no out-of-network reimbursement. I will lose all my present doctors, because the reimbursement rates are too low to be attractive to them. As I evaluate the plans, consulting with brokers for the plans, "navigators" (non-broker consultants), and friends who are familiar with a few of them, I am discovering that neither dentistry nor vision care will be covered in any fashion. Also, companies can charge a deductible for medications and a deductible for medical care, meaning that reaching a cap on one, doesn't stop co-pays on the other. It all adds up to an increase in my health insurance costs of at least $5,000 up front, before figuring my required contributions should I actually need medical care.
In effect, the combination of New York State and New York City taxes, increased health care costs and the increasing cost of living in New York City generally, is pushing me out of the City.
Of course, my situation isn't terrible: many are much more strained. However, the cost of the financial platform I need to live here keeps rising, while my income stays fixed. The result is that in the future, I will be more and more pressed financially. Many New Yorkers in a similar position opt to stay and reduce their lifestyle, replacing the full-price tickets they used to buy with discount ones; or go only to free concerts, going out much less frequently, curtailing restaurant, hair care, vacation and other expenses. They trawl the thrift shops the way they once did sample sales or department stores. I do.
There's a carapace I see I'm starting to develop in consequence of my new situation. I don't want to spend time in theatre crowds, even for a performance I would have given my eye teeth for once: it takes too much energy. I'd rather spend time in the park with Beau, or reading when I don't have to attend to financial matters. The time spent that way gives me the chance to plan my escape. When I'm in the park, no matter how frigid the temperatures I'm reminded of nature's beauty and that there are places elsewhere in the fifty states where I could live and start life anew.
And maybe sleep better, too.
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