It’s open enrollment time for health insurance again, and millions of people who don’t get coverage through their jobs are looking for plans. But the array of choices can be dizzying, and cheapest isn’t necessarily best. To avoid surprise medical bills, be sure you understand what your health plan does and doesn’t cover.
That’s the advice of sadder but wiser Sam Bloechl, a 31-year-old landscaper in the Chicago area who bought an individual health plan from an insurance broker in 2016. Bloechl thought he was buying an Affordable Care Act plan, but that turned out not to be the case.
Instead, he’d signed up for a short-term plan the broker touted that charged lower monthly premiums. But it didn’t cover the $800,000 in medical bills Bloechl was charged when he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma weeks later.
For too many of us, 2020 has been a year of grief and loss. And, as anyone who has survived a loved one’s death will tell you, the holiday season can make these feelings even more intense.
Tracy K. Smith, U.S. poet laureate and host of the podcast The Slowdown, urges us all to “make space for the longing” for the people we miss amid this year’s celebrations.
After her father died, for example, Smith found solace in baking his favorite cake. "Let's make space for the traditions that our parents fostered,” she decided with her family. “Let's make space for the foods that we ate together."
Upset by the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich., Colorado teen Gitanjali Rao developed a mobile device that checks water for toxic lead.
That innovation recently led Time magazine to give the 15-year-old its first “Kid of the Year” award.
But her latest project is at least as award-worthy: a phone and Web tool called Kindly that helps teens check their language for bullying before they hit send.
“As a teenager, I know teenagers tend to lash out sometimes,” Rao tells Time. Her app “gives you the chance to rethink what you're saying."
Hey, how are you coping and finding joy this winter? Please reply to this note with your stories and best tricks to finding calm and connection when you’re frazzled or lonely.Later this month in Shots we'll share some of what we learn.
Many thanks from your guest Shots editor, April Fulton
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