Here’s my anecdote. I have Kaiser through my employer and pay about $200 a month for the best plan offered. I pay $10 for a 30 day supply of generic medication. Video/phone visits are free. I recently had to get lab work done twice and paid $90 combined for both, but I was able to just drop by whenever was convenient for me and was in and out in 10 mins. I had a mental health crisis last year and went through weeks of intensive outpatient group therapy plus months of ACT/DBT therapy all for free. My individual therapist is covered and I pay nothing. I recently had a physical exam, it was covered. Now I do have an autoimmune disorder that I do feel a bit neglected a bit by them, but I could advocate for myself more.

So from a non major life threatening emergency perspective, I feel pretty satisfied with my insurance.

Thanks, I appreciate that, but all that was 20 years ago.

I never went home much after that because it wasn’t home anymore. Then I came out and things deteriorated even more. I wasn’t allowed to tell my siblings (I’m the oldest) and I wasn’t allowed to be alone with them. Nowadays I don’t talk to my dad and I text my mom Merry Christmas once a year.

Was going to write about an ex, but I think I’ll talk about my parents. I went away to college, first year, first semester. Winter break come around and I’m planning on coming home to spend christmas with my family for a week or two, stay in my bedroom, etc. I arrive home for the first time since the beginning of the semester, and … my bedroom is gone. My parents remodeled the house while I was away and they extended the living room by knocking out my bedroom. They never even asked me about it, told me anything, I just found out I have no place to come back to once I walked through the front door. That sort of brazen rejection as a teenager… it fucked me up.

Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics. My mom had the radio on in the car always, and I remember this song being played all the time when it came out. Heavily influenced my musical tastes.