True stories of social injustice from my files, and
to bee or not to bee

One thousand two hundred thirty-five dollars per month for health insurance for a family of three, Mom, Dad, and Son. Dad is 46 in excellent shape, Son is 17, athletic and the picture of health, Mom's cancer no longer in remission, but being treated and improving.
The father was laid off of his job with an oil company, because of a slowdown in production. Dad's only choice to keep his family insured was to continue his former employer's group health plan under the Federal Right of Continuation, AKA COBRA, because $875 per month was the best deal for adequate coverage.
At the end of 18 months, his COBRA privilege ran out and the human resources department of his former employer told him his only option for continued health insurance was a "conversion health insurance policy" with lesser coverage and at a premium increases of 40%. This family is now faced with paying nearly $15,000 per year for mediocre health insurance.
Three thousand three hundred thirty-seven dollars and forty-eight cents per quarter, ($1,112.49 per month) for a 64-year-old lady who has been continuously insured with same company for 11 years. She will be 65 next month and qualify for Medicare. Her prescription drug bills amount to $10,000 per year and MEDICARE DOES NOT PROVIDE BENEFITS TO PAY FOR PRESCIPTION DRUGS UNLESS YOU ARE HOSPITALIZED!
A married young father with an eight-year-old son who was born with what he described to me as crossed arteries and a consequential irregular heartbeat is worried sick. His son is insured under the CHIPS plan, which is funded by our State and he is thankful for that. The child is checked at a major hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas every six months and his condition is stable, but the prognosis is a huge question mark that could end up ruining this young family's financial health and putting them in the poorhouse!
Here's the catch: This hardworking young father and his employed wife slowly scraped up enough money by saving little by little and purchased a one year $1,000 CD from a local bank. In order to qualify for the CHIPS plan the parents' level of assets cannot exceed a certain benchmark amount. The relatively meager CD will preclude them from continuing the CHIPS insurance for their child who was born with crossed artery defect.
I told the worried young man to cancel the damn CD, buy a bank money order and put it in a safe place. He was worried about the interest loss and disappointed that he had to give up the CD, about which he and his wife were so proud.
I did my best to wipe the smirk off of my face thinking about the pennies of interest lost in the cancelled CD when compared to the thousands of dollars in potential medical expenses he was facing.

Last week I asked my BW (beautiful wife), a former school teacher, why a spelling bee creates such an avid interest and catapults the national winners into bigtime TV shows like Today On NBC and Good Morning America, among other accolades. She told me that it helps children learn and appreciate the importance of correct spelling.
Correct spelling leads to a greater comprehension of the English language that leads to good communication skills.
I couldn't help but to accept Jo-Ann's reasoning as logical and meaningful until I read the newspaper and watched a television report showing a finalist who failed to continue in his quest for Spelling Bee Champion when he spelled an African word incorrectly. The winner took the trophy with a word that I was not able to find in my Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Our Laredo representative at the National Spelling Bee, who, I dare say, is probably a pretty darn good speller, said the words were hard and she could barely pronounce some of them.
Sameer Soleja, the Bee spokesman and organizer, who described the initial spelling test to qualify for the big enchilada, believes its more fun to ask the kids how to spell words like seguidilla, a Spanish word that describes a Spanish dance. I'll bet that even aficionados of el baile Español can't spell the Bee word. Sounds more like something you eat in a Mexican restaurant. How about words to live by such as farinaceous (starchy food), or lycanthrope (werewolf).
Here is a sentence Mr. Sameer Soleja, undoubtedly born in Schenectady, New York with a degree in Linguistics from Austin College in North Texas, would appreciate: "I was enjoying my farinaceous meal at the Café Baombi when suddenly a lycanthrope attacked and ate a couple dancing the seguidilla. All I could think of was to grab my quesadilla and hayako" (Japanese for hookin' 'em).
Baombi is African for a wandering veldt tribesman and a word the second place Bee-er spelled Boambi!
Now doesn't that just beat all?????

(Please send your insurance questions to Henri D. Kahn, c/o LareDOS, 1812 Houston St. 78040; fax 791-4737; or e-mail laredos@icsi.net.)