ACA, running and ms

I am now into my second month of my new ACA platinum plan. There is still much I don’t know yet about how this will work out for me. The chief issue I have is somewhat two-fold. I have received my first rebif order under the plan. As expected I had to pay $1500 of the $4500 cost, but now my max out of pocket has been reached. According to what I have been told, the meds will be covered at 100% for the rest of the year. So my question as I approach my second order next week, is that really the case? The second concern relating to this is will this remain in place? The insurance companies will take in $3600 from me over a year and pay out over $50,000 for my meds. While I am sure they get a break from pharma that we as ordinaries don’t get, they still must be losing money on us msers. I mean they initially refuse to cover us unless the “big gum-min” stepped in and told them they had to. Who is gonna break first? The ACA, the insurance companies, big pharma? According to all the misplaced rhetoric, it better be our king dictator and his commie policies that needs to break first. What we needs is to go back to the way things were before. Yeah right. It is more than obvious that the problem is the insurance and big pharma industries and that they need to bend a bit if we are going to get through this. I was thinking the other day that I believe I will see a cure for ms in my lifetime, but I doubt I will be able to afford it.

So some details on my ACA plan. The premium is actually half of what I was paying before to be in my old state-funded high-risk pool. While my meds are not directly covered (not a single ACA plan would cover my rebif, or any other ms treatment from what I saw (again, why are we blaming Obama for this when it was a decision by the insurance companies? I guess Obama is a much easier target than insurance or pharma), they are considered a “medical need” by healthnet (my new insurance provider) and therefor fall under my max out of pocket. A quick note on my premiums, I was able to cover my wife under the same platinum plan for the same cost of covering just myself under my old plan.

Ok, the rollout was not smooth, we all know that. Damn that obama! Um, I just took a look at the website for our large insurance company and it is also not working and hasn’t for several months. If the so called holy grail of big business can’t make a healthcare site that works, how could we possibly expect healthcrae.gov or any of the state exchanges to work? Maybe we need to do healthcare through Amazon, they seem to have their act together. I had to go through a lot of hoops to get my plan set up, a large ridiculous amount of phone calls to the exchange and the insurance companies. Lots of time on hold, lots of hang ups. My insurance broker who “helped” me had the same experience. It was no fun, and went down to the wire on premium payment date (actually beyond it, but they issued an extension at the last minute.) But overall, I got coverage. It was a pain, but I got it.

Yes I lost my old plan, but I got a better one at half the cost. I am sure most people did not experience a cost reduction like I did, but it is what I got. It is funny, I have been posting this in comments on stories published on right wing websites (and “normal” sites as well). I have gotten much hate for doing this. I have been called a liar, a paid poster and a socialist all for telling the truth about my ACA experience. I was even black-balled by the National Review! What an honor!

So back to running, I ran yesterday for the first time since injuring my back a month ago. It felt great though I found it really hard to get through my five miles. But I did it pain-free! The back has felt a lot better. I still have trouble getting out of bed. It is as if I have no confidence that my back won’t “go out” when I pull myself out of bed. Several times in recent weeks I have forgotten about my back and surprised myself by just getting out of bed no problem. I am having way less issues with bending over during the day, seems the mornings are a bit rough, but way better.

My hope is to run again today. I am pretty sure I will get around to it. I have some work, but not enough to use as an excuse to NOT run. No music to play today at least publicly anyway. I did my rebif shot this morning, so I will have the boost that that often gives me. The weather is gray, but warm in the 50s. It sounds like a run day to me!

Back to it

Seems like longer than just a couple weeks since I have run, I could of sworn it was a month or so. But my journal says otherwise. The doctor says I should take off a full month, but I think that is more because he is going on vacation and won’t be back until then. Well I can’t wait, and didn’t. Off I went today. I have actually been meaning to run for a couple of days now, but I have managed to but into a bevy of excuses. Today I resolved not to let that happen.

I knew today would be slow and it was. No big deal, way more important to be out there and running safely (at least in terms of this stupid hematoma). Speaking of it seems to be mostly gone. I can still feel something under the skin but it is way smaller. I am slightly concerned that it might fill up again with running again. But I can’t not run forever can I? I am sure www.IUsedToRunwithMS.com is available, but I don’t want to find out. Plus what a boring blog, and you think this one is bad!

The run went pretty well today, I was a bit tired after four or so miles but I kept going, slow but steady until I got by usual 10k base run in. Even the hills didn’t stop me. I considered walking them, but I am happy to say I ran through them all. Now that it is done I feel pretty darn good, not exhausted at all though I bet I will sleep well tonight.

Hobble-Along Cassidy

Against my better judgment I went for a run today. To make it a worse decision I went for a long run. While I will admit this is a dumb idea for the most part, I actually felt pretty good. While I totally advocate and practice rest when injured, I also feel there can be some benefit in stressing an injury. This might be the dumbest idea ever, but I think it can help build you back up stronger than ever because while you are stressing it you are aware of it and focused on it. Like I said, maybe this is bad advice, but it seems to work for me. The other aspect of this is that it is so hard to get back to exercising after an injury. You get in the pattern of not working out and resting yourself and it is really hard to get away from the luxury! As you heal it is often hard to know when you are healed enough to return. The slightest twinge will keep you from returning for fear of re-injury. I don’t think I would apply this to things like a broken bone or anything, but soft tissue damage (as long as it isn’t too severe) seems to be ok in moderation (the key!)

So my recently rolled ankle feels ok so far after I went for 7.5 miles today. The one sore area is the outer part of my right foot which I rolled in my stupid flip flops (the devil’s shoe!) It started to get sore with about a mile and a half to go. I focused on proper and balanced foot-strike and was careful not to hit any uneven spots (actually did through the entire run.) I did have to put up with a couple people passing me which I hate! But I guess I should get used to that, I’m getting older and slower or at least I am getting no younger and no faster (that sounds better.) One person came up to me in the canyon and touched my shoulder to let me know he was there, I have a feeling my radio (though it wasn’t that loud) was keeping me from hearing him. He was nice about it and I apologized for my lack of proper attention, I need to watch that. Scared the crap out of me thoguh when he did it.

Hobble-Along Cassidy

Against my better judgment I went for a run today. To make it a worse decision I went for a long run. While I will admit this is a dumb idea for the most part, I actually felt pretty good. While I totally advocate and practice rest when injured, I also feel there can be some benefit in stressing an injury. This might be the dumbest idea ever, but I think it can help build you back up stronger than ever because while you are stressing it you are aware of it and focused on it. Like I said, maybe this is bad advice, but it seems to work for me. The other aspect of this is that it is so hard to get back to exercising after an injury. You get in the pattern of not working out and resting yourself and it is really hard to get away from the luxury! As you heal it is often hard to know when you are healed enough to return. The slightest twinge will keep you from returning for fear of re-injury. I don’t think I would apply this to things like a broken bone or anything, but soft tissue damage (as long as it isn’t too severe) seems to be ok in moderation (the key!)

So my recently rolled ankle feels ok so far after I went for 7.5 miles today. The one sore area is the outer part of my right foot which I rolled in my stupid flip flops (the devil’s shoe!) It started to get sore with about a mile and a half to go. I focused on proper and balanced foot-strike and was careful not to hit any uneven spots (actually did through the entire run.) I did have to put up with a couple people passing me which I hate! But I guess I should get used to that, I’m getting older and slower or at least I am getting no younger and no faster (that sounds better.) One person came up to me in the canyon and touched my shoulder to let me know he was there, I have a feeling my radio (though it wasn’t that loud) was keeping me from hearing him. He was nice about it and I apologized for my lack of proper attention, I need to watch that. Scared the crap out of me thoguh when he did it.