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What Happens When Insurance Plan Is Discontinued?

Question: I just received correspondence from my insurance company informing me of my 2024 insurance is discontinuing and won’t be offered in 2025. What should I do?. Answer: Happy Insurance Season! It is September 30th and your plan is required to inform you what it is doing for 2025. We have been talking about how 2025 changes to prescription drug coverage will impact insurance offerings and we are seeing some significant changes for 2025. There are more plans than normal not being offered in 2025. There are also significant premiums increases for many products. There are other ...

The Importance Of Patience In Therapy

Clara (name changed for confidentiality) had been a client years ago. She presented a remarkable story. She was a married woman with a loving husband and one boy and one girl. She lived a long distance away and came to appointments when the children were in school. She was employed part-time in a grocery store. Her devotion to her children was displayed, also in her job. Her hard work took notice, yet she couldn’t justify any longer work hours. Being home prior to the bus arrival was not a source of debate. She had a story to tell and desperately did not want to burden Allen, her ...

October Is National Cheese Month

I recently discovered that October is National Cheese Month. I must admit I do like cheese. There are so many kinds of cheese that it is impossible to list them all. In my refrigerator now I have mozzarella, pepper jack cheese, American cheese, sharp cheese, and dill Havarti. I use them all differently. When I make grilled cheese, I like American cheese with a couple small slices of pepper jack. I put a little mustard on the bread as well. When I make macaroni and cheese, I like to mix my cheeses to get the best flavor. There are cheeses made from cow’s milk, goat’s milk, and the ...

Being On Trump’s Mailing List

I just received my fourth mailing from former President Trump asking for money. This one included a certificate hoping I would join him in a new “Lyin’ Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden Target List.” This list would be “my badge of courage and honor” which I could frame, if I want to, and hang in a prominent place in my home. Of course, the name “Trump” is at the top of this list since he says that these two Democrats hate him, and “they hate you, too.” “The Radicals, Socialists, Communists, and Globalists around them—are out to get me because I am fighting ...

Finding The Better Angels Of Our Nature

With civil war looming, Abraham Lincoln invoked the “better angels of our nature” in his first inaugural address. Lincoln, a Republican, wouldn’t recognize his party today. The GOP has moved so far to the right that it’s off the map, in some dark, dystopian country where angels fear to tread. A country that could become synonymous with the United States if we don’t stand up in overwhelming numbers and say, “NO. We refuse to live in such a country.” Whatever our party affiliation or political persuasion, when we lose touch with our better angels, we’re wide open to ...

CHAUTAUQUA—An organization annually invites a speaker to Chautauqua Institution. Chautauqua doesn’t select the speaker. The organization does. It’s legally separate from Chautauqua, and its principal location isn’t in Chautauqua. Following the 2023 speaker, this column reviewed the organization’s Chautauqua speakers over the years and observed that if a liberal spoke in 2024, the share of the organization’s Chautauqua speakers who have been liberals would rise to 90 percent. Having liberals speak is fine. But 90 percent? Balance, though not required, would serve not ...