I'm watching The McLaughlin Group again (I know, why?). They recently had a brief discussion on the stats that being unemployed makes women 30-some percent and men 70-some percent more likely to die. They couldn't believe it. How could unemployment possibly be a terminal disease? Maybe it's depression? I dunno, on to the next topic.

Um, no, it's about access to health care, dummies.

You pundits are so far removed from the reality of non-wealthy Americans that you're going to bash Obama for the health care bill because he should have been focusing on employment, and then totally miss the fact that the two are fucking related. It's a goddamn motherfucking safety net, assholes.

Meanwhile, I'm sick. And with the sorry state of my health insurance, my only options for medical care at the moment are 1.) Drive 7 hours to Pittsburgh, 2.) Pay a $2,500 deductible at an emergency room, or 3.) Do an "eVisit." I chose the latter. 40 minutes after trying to describe my headache on an online form, I got an email saying the doctor was calling in a prescription for cough syrup with codeine. For my ear infection. I won't bore you with all the awful details. The long story short is that I drove my fevered, delirious, nightgown-wearing ass to CVS and finally got some antibiotics.

And I'm one of the lucky ones.

My COBRA runs out in January. What then?

Of course, I'm fairly likely to be a 40 year old dependent of my parents then, as I have yet to find a job. Oh, and I don't have to worry about the debt ceiling affecting my Unemployment, because as of today, I've exhausted my benefits anyway. Yippee! The actual good news is that maybe since I filled out my claim today, I might get tossed into the process for another Federal extension before the government implodes. I do have another job interview tomorrow, but it's for a part time thing, so at best it will delay my becoming penniless rather than prevent it.