Curtis Bowman

What the Affordable Care Act Has Done for Me - #7

Today, much to my surprise, I received another in a series of rebates of my monthly health care premiums. The Affordable Care Act governs what is known as the Medical Loss Ratio, which I discussed in some of those earlier posts. The MLR is the source of my rebates.

Anyway, I was surprised by my latest check because I had already gotten a check earlier this year. I wasn't expecting a second one.

Unfortunately, the amount was basically trivial, only $7.60, but money is money, so I'm glad to get it.

Over the years my rebates have amounted to $2362.28. That's not much, given the magnitude of my total payments, but it's been welcome nonetheless.

Thanks again, Obama!

What the Affordable Care Act Has Done for Me - #6

This post is the sixth in a series in which I record how I have benefitted from the Affordable Care Act. These posts tell the story of how the Medical Loss Ratio in the ACA has given me a bit of a rebate from time to time.

The good news in 2022 is that I have once again received a rebate. This time I got a check for $175.93, raising the sum total of my rebates to $2354.68.

Unfortunately, I'm currently paying $893 a month for my individual policy from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and that amount will jump to $981 a month in 2023. Consequently, my latest rebate doesn't do me much good, but, as the old saying goes, it's better than a kick in the teeth, especially since I don't have any dental benefits.

Thanks again, Obama!

What the Affordable Care Act Has Done for Me - #5

In four previous posts I recorded how I had benefitted from the Medical Loss Ratio rule in the Affordable Care Act. Through 2020 I had received checks for a total of $1343.01.

In 2021 I received two more checks from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. The first was a rebate of $141.25 on my premium payments in 2018. The second was a rebate of $694.49 on my premium payments in 2020. The checks arrived in May and August, respectively, but I've been slow to blog about them. I apologize for the delay.

I still pay a ridiculous amount of money for my individual policy. In 2021 my monthly premium was $805, and it's scheduled to go up to $893 in 2022, which means that I'll break the $10,000 threshold next year.

Consequently, I appreciate the rebates. They aren't huge sums of money, but every little bit helps. I've received a grand total of $2178.75 since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010.

Thanks again, Obama! 

J.G. Fichte and the Atheism Dispute (1798–1800)

In 2010 Yolanda Estes and I published a book of translations and commentary devoted to Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the Atheism Dispute of 1798-1800. We had landed the book with Ashgate Publishing, who brought out an initial print run in hardback that sold a few hundred copies. I don't really know how many. No one ever gave me any sales figures.

A few years ago Ashgate was acquired by Routledge, who continued to sell the original hardback edition. Yolanda and I were happy about this, of course, but we knew that the hardback was too expensive for most people. Fortunately, though, at the end of 2020 the book was finally made available in paperback. 

This is great news. Yolanda and I put a lot of work into the book, and I've long feared that my translations would never really be read by many people because of the prohibitive expense of the hardback edition. But now the book is available at a much more reasonable price.

You can go to this page to buy the book in three formats: hardback, paperback, and as an ebook.

I'll Try Again

I managed to post to my blog only twice in 2020. I started the year fairly well, even as the pandemic took off, because I was able to resume significant work on my Wagner translation after losing most of 2019 to surgery to remove my right adrenal gland.

But as the pandemic wore on, I realized that I needed to update my legal situation. One of my relatives died at the end of May 2020, and she had long been a beneficiary in my will. (She didn't die from the virus, fortunately, just during the pandemic from unrelated causes.) After her death I started to feel exposed to the possibility of sudden legal catastrophe as a consequence of possible medical catastrophe.

It all sounds ominous and unsettling, but all I really needed to do was to get a new will. I went to work on that in July. At the same time I also decided to take care of various other legal, financial, and household matters. Consequently, I spent the rest of the year dealing with those things. I managed to work on Wagner from time to time, but it really wasn't until the end of December that I resumed translating on a full-time basis. So that's where I am right now, that is, I'm working on Wagner several days a week.

I'm hoping that I can also do some blogging in 2021. I've expressed such a hope repeatedly in the past, but this time I might have more success than before. We'll see.

What the Affordable Care Act Has Done for Me - #4

In three previous posts I recorded how I had benefitted from the Medical Loss Ratio rule in the Affordable Care Act. Through 2019 I had received checks for a total of $629.77.

Well, dear readers, the good news keeps coming!

Today I opened a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas to discover a check for $713.24. That's more than my three previous checks combined! My four checks make for a grand total of $1343.01.

Given that my current monthly premium is $766, this year's rebate doesn't really amount to all that much, but it's welcome nonetheless.

Thanks again, Obama!

I Should Post Something, Shouldn't I?

I was recently billed for the annual fee for this blog. That made me realize that I hadn't posted anything in nearly eight months. So I figured that I should post something to let people know that I'm still alive.

I've already mentioned that I had my right adrenal gland removed at the end of July 2019. Everything related to my procedure went well, and so by late 2019 I was once again getting over another round of surgery. Unfortunately, my insomnia was still giving me problems. It wasn't as bad as it had been, but it was still an issue.

Whenever I can't sleep properly, I manage to do most of what I normally do, but, as you can easily imagine, it becomes harder to concentrate on my scholarship. My Wagner project, however, is so demanding that I can't really work on it at all when my insomnia becomes especially acute.

In late October I went back to my primary care physician for my annual physical. She suggested a different medication, and, much to my surprise, it has proved to work remarkably well. It made a difference as soon as I took it, even on the first night. So ever since then I've been sleeping ten hours almost every night. I'm confident that I've never slept so well for so long as an adult (and probably not even as a child).

Because nothing else has changed about my sleep schedule, I still fall asleep absurdly late. And now that I'm sleeping for so long, I get up absurdly late in the day, usually in the mid-afternoon. Although I'm much more rested, nonetheless it feels strange to be so out of sync with the rest of the world. But at least I'm now rested enough to resume daily work on my scholarly projects.

Which means that have I good news! I'm back to work on my Wagner translation! Woo-hoo!

Because I lost most of last year to dealing with my surgery, I didn't have much of a feel for my previous efforts when I looked at the manuscript again a few weeks ago. I gave the situation some thought and decided that the best thing to do was to revise my work from beginning to end.

So that's what I'm doing now, re-reading everything, revising here and there, and trying to settle some of the outstanding issues that have dogged my progress. The work is going well, I'm happy to say.

It just goes to show that a decent night's sleep really can make a big difference.

What the Affordable Care Act Has Done for Me - #3

In two previous posts I mentioned how I had benefitted from the Medical Loss Ratio rule in the Affordable Care Act. In 2012 and 2013, respectively, I received checks for $357.56 and $75.95.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas did not give me another rebate until this year, when I received a check for $196.76. That means that so far I've received a total of $629.77.

Thanks, Obama!

I'll Have the Usual, Doctor

I've had enough surgeries in the past twelve years that they've almost become routine. But, of course, they never really become routine, because every surgery is a ghastly experience. After all, surgery is basically just a sophisticated way to sew human flesh.

Anyway, my right adrenal gland was removed on July 30. I spent one night in the hospital and came home the following evening. I'm now recovering from four incisions on the right side of my abdomen.

I'll post more when I feel up to doing so.

I Just Updated My Academic Autobiography

As promised, I just updated my academic autobiography. The new material covers the past thirteen months or so.

To summarize the main developments, I've been making good progress on my Wagner translation, but, unfortunately, I'll soon have to have another surgery, which will delay my work for who knows how long.

Robert Kuttner on the Political Success and Economic Failure of Neoliberalism

Robert Kuttner tells the depressing tale of neoliberalism's political success (for the world's elites) and economic failure (for everyone else).

I've always regarded neoliberalism as obvious plutocratic drivel, so that it managed to find any measure of favor among genuinely serious people of any political persuasion has never ceased to amaze me.

Then Again, Maybe I Can't Get This Thing Going Again

More than a year ago I optimistically posted that it seemed that I would soon be able to resume more regular blogging. Well, this is only my third post since then. So, obviously, I haven't been able to get this thing going again, at least not yet.

I'm in the process of updating my academic autobiography. Once that is done, I'll give some thought to explaining where my scholarly work is leading me these days. But I probably won't post anything on that subject until August.

Adam Serwer on the Illiberal Right's Turn Against Democracy

It's good to see that more journalists are acknowledging the illiberal views of contemporary conservatism as it continues to turn against democracy.

Here's an excellent article on the subject by Adam Serwer.

Miranda Carter Compares Donald Trump to Kaiser Wilhelm II

It hadn't ever occurred to me to think of Donald Trump in terms of Kaiser Wilhelm II, but Miranda Carter makes some telling comparisons in this grimly amusing article.

Maybe I Can Get This Thing Going Again

I just revised my academic autobiography. I had last added to it in October 2015, but now it includes the past two and half years. So it's completely up to date.

You'll see that I've continued to have health issues. Nothing life threatening, I'm happy to say, but persistent enough to have slowed me down considerably. I've been feeling better recently, so maybe I can return to more regular blogging.

I'll mostly concentrate on my reading and writing, rather trying to comment on politics as I used to do. I don't have the time or energy to keep up with all the political chaos out there right now. It's best to leave that to other people.