Health Care, or #*&*#**@*!

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We're looking for new health insurance.

Why?

We got a letter from our health insurance company this week informing us that because of rising medical costs, our premiums are going to go up nearly $200 a month. This is after two years in which we submitted the following claims:

• $200-some-odd for a visit to a community care facility to get an enormous sliver removed from under the fingernail of our youngest son. Claim denied because we hadn't paid any of our deductible.

I'm sorry if you were waiting for a longer list. That's it. Two years, one denied claim, and because costs are going up, up, up, we're now being asked, starting at the end of June, to pay more for health insurance than we are currently paying for our home mortgage. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that situation?

It's malarkey, this so-called private market for health insurance. And though our letter made grandiose promises about what Obamacare regulations is doing to the health care industry, all I'm seeing is that our premiums are going up on a product we can't use because our deductibles are so high we'd only hit them in a given year if we were all involved in a horrible traffic accident. And then our rates would go up.

A few weeks ago Michelle jokingly said she'd like to see the church offer members a health insurance plan, and I joked back, "You know, I'd pay an extra 10 percent in tithing to see that happen." Now though it's still a farfetched idea, it sure sounds a lot more attractive. Maybe I'll send that on down the line to Salt Lake City . . .