We're early voting tomorrow, because we won't be here on election day. I'm looking stuff over again. There is no worry about Democrats sweeping the races in Hawaii. In Ohio, Kay of Kay's Thinking Cap is working hard for Obama, and the Democrats there are doing great work.
We just signed our revised Medicare coverage, and we find our rates have gone down substantially! We had two options: one that covered glasses and dental, but we are satisfied with what we have now, so we chose the cheaper of the plans. If they offered coverage for hearing aids, we'd take it, but they only cover tests.
We have the Kaiser plan , which received a five star (highest) rating from Medicare. I think it's better than HMSA, the other big plan available in Hawaii, because they have the means to keep costs down in ways that don't injure patients. We also are entitled to the services of Group Health, when we are in Seattle.
With HMSA docs can overbill and often do. There is no incentive for that at Kaiser, where the docs are on salary. I have been quite pleased with my Kaiser care, and they did a fine job for my mother in law over many years. She lived to be 97, and she never had serious complaints about Kaiser.
So to end on a fashion note: Check out this spiffy little doggie in Aguas Calientes, Peru.
We have an advantage plan also that is with the same clinic where we have gone since we moved to the farm. So far so good with it. Our prescription costs are quite low but it's one of those things you never know about the future.
I will be sooooooooo glad when this election is over. We voted also as Oregon does vote by mail for everyone and we just sent off our ballots.
Posted by: Rain Trueax | October 22, 2012 at 11:41 AM
Rain: I loved vote by mail when I lived in Oregon. I'm not going to be happy if Romney wins this election!
Posted by: Hattie | October 22, 2012 at 11:47 AM
It's going to be very depressing for sure if he wins :( I don't know what Americans are thinking that this is even close
Posted by: Rain Trueax | October 22, 2012 at 11:56 AM
Rain: It's not close here in Hawaii, but we are, on average, more liberal than most places in the U.S.
Posted by: Hattie | October 22, 2012 at 12:10 PM
Oregon is also Obama's as well as the west coast (left coast according to some). Romney has the south and some of the Midwest. but what is going on with New Hampshire???
Posted by: Rain Trueax | October 22, 2012 at 12:52 PM
White flight, maybe? Just speculating.
Posted by: Hattie | October 22, 2012 at 02:22 PM
Romney has the south and some of the Midwest. but what is going on with New Hampshire???
Posted by: Rain Trueax | October 22, 2012 at 12:52 PM
White flight, maybe? Just speculating.
Posted by: Hattie | October 22, 2012 at 02:22 PM
===
Is New Hampshire going more for Obama or Romney?
Posted by: Brandon | October 22, 2012 at 11:40 PM
And maybe a bad economy?
Posted by: Hattie | October 23, 2012 at 08:42 AM
Hattie--Lately, I've thought a lot about how liberal Hawaii is. My conclusion is we are LIBERAL but not PROGESSIVE, a distinction with a difference in my mind. For example, very conservative retired military will often have mixed race families and no problems with blacks in their thinking. That's liberal. However, the super ferry got soundly defeated. That's UNPROGESSIVE. I guess it's all a matter of opinion, but an island state without a boat system seems very odd to me.
Posted by: Henry Hank Chapin | October 23, 2012 at 12:56 PM
Things like ferry boat service need to be properly handled. Superferry was a boondoggle and we didn't get the service after all that money spent. Totally Lingle's fault.
Posted by: Hattie | October 23, 2012 at 02:37 PM
That's what I'm saying, although we disagree. People in Hawaii don't want any building or progress at all. Lapses in the process are used as an excuse and people are happy to do so. H-3, rail, the super ferry, Kakaako development, UH-West Oahu---all have met opposition. The very fact of Statehood is now being reinterpreted by some as a big mistake. God forbid you should find a buried body if you're building a house: you'll be set back 2 or 3 years before being able to continue.
I think my distinction stands. We in Hawaii are liberal but not progessive. As my favorite modern poet, e. e. cummings, wrote "progress is a comfortable disease...." It's a basically Romantic take on nature that prevails. Hawaiian culture is Romantic at bottom. I'm not gung ho for progress defined as massive building development, but a ferry would seem to be obviously a benefit. Seattle anyone? And I would like a train in Honolulu for the future, but I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by: Henry Hank Chapin | October 23, 2012 at 03:49 PM
There is so little left on Oahu though. And it's unique.
Posted by: Hattie | October 23, 2012 at 04:41 PM
I don't understand Rain Treaux's question. Is she saying that state is leaning toward Obama or Romney? And by "white flight", do you mean that whites are leaving New Hampshire en masse?
(Did you get the article I e-mailed?)
Posted by: Brandon | October 23, 2012 at 07:58 PM
Brandon: I've been bad about checking my e-mail. I'll take a look at it. I mean nh is the kind of place urban whites move to to find what they imagine to be a simpler way of life only to confront unemployment and other hardships which they might blame on Obama and the Democrats. Just a guess. Of course places like that also have a lot of home grown poverty too. A bad economy could really damage Obama in a place like that without a large urban population. Just speculating. I'm going to look some of this stuff up.
Posted by: Hattie | October 23, 2012 at 08:19 PM
Latest polls show turnaround on nh with 8 pt lead for obama. Only 4 electoral votes but significant.
Posted by: Hattie | October 23, 2012 at 08:33 PM