Catching Up
Special Enrollment Ends August 15th, COVID Burden Sharing, Drawing Down the Moon, and finding new uses for summer produce.
Catching Up
I haven’t had a chance to draft up a newsletter in quite some time. While the elapsed time has brought both joys and trials, I couldn’t let another week pass without another newsletter going out. The real drain has been recovering from a foot injury which required a minor surgery. I struggled to find motivation to put together the newsletter during my recovery process. Yesterday, my stitches were removed and I’m ready to get back into my routines!
Sepia Isn’t Just an IG Filter
Sepia. The warming filter we’ve seen enhance photographs of all kinds. Beautiful cityscapes of places like Paris, portraits that capture the dusty of the dusty towns that sustained the gold rush, and boomerangs of a cheers before a night out. Let’s face it, the sepia tone is also how American’s depict Mexico in film. Jokes about a photo-filter aside there’s another reason to be talking about sepia right now. S.E.P.I.A. if you will, can also be a nice pneumonic device to remember that the Special Enrollment Period Is Available!
In normal circumstances, most individuals can enroll in health insurance plans between November 1st and January 31st. If you miss the enrollment period you would need a qualifying life event to be eligible to enroll in a plan outside of that timeframe. Due to COVID legislation, there is a special enrollment period that has allowed anyone to enroll in a plan outside of the normal enrollment period. Many of you reading this are insured, but that doesn’t mean you should stop reading here.
Right now there are roughly 29 million people in the United States without health insurance. For perspective, 29 million people is more than the populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Austin combined. There is a high likelihood that someone you know is uninsured. If you were to tell that person in your life to enroll, they’d likely be concerned they can’t afford the insurance. The reality is there are millions who are forgoing free health insurance by not enrolling.
How many? Roughly 13.3 million of the 29 million uninsured have access to a free health insurance plan. That’s right. FREE. Another 5 million are eligible for financial support to cover a portion of the premiums. While in the past those 5 million may have found prices to be too high, recent legislation passed entirely by democrats has helped to further reduce those health care premiums to be more affordable.
One major change that is not well-known, is that anyone who has received unemployment benefits at any point in 2021 is likely to receive a free silver level plan through the end of the year. This year has been hard for so many. For those that have already felt the financial burden of 2020 and 2021, having health insurance is critical to your financial stability.
In one interview with Portland’s KBPS, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Cynthia Cox explains, “If you get hit by a bus or have COVID and need hospitalization, [having insurance] is the difference between a $7,000 debt or $50,000 in debt. It can be the difference between you keeping your car or not or keeping your house or not. That’s a big difference.”
Those who did some quick math, caught that 18 Million individuals that can get these free or discounted health plans is less than the 29 million uninsured. That would be a result of states that have not expanded Medicaid.
If you are uninsured, I implore you to go to Healthcare.gov before August 15th to enroll in a health care plan. If you know someone who is uninsured share this newsletter with them. They can get stared at healthcare.gov. Sepia filters are great for adding a tint of warmth and a calming presence to a photo, but the S.E.P.I.A. acronym can maybe bring warmth and a calming presence to those who are currently uninsured.
Shifting the Burden of our Current COVID Predicament
I came across this video clip of a CNN Interview with Juliette Kayyem who talks about shifting a burden to the unvaccinated. This instantly hit home with me as I thought about the burden carried by those who are vaccinated by now and those who are not. The vaccinated have done their part. They’ve gotten protection to help prevent being hospitalized, mitigate the likelihood they pass on the virus to someone else, and acted responsibly to their community. Yet, while doing the right thing they are still burdened with the possibility of someone unvaccinated sitting next to them on an airplane, at a restaurant, or a movie theater. What are the unvaccinated burdened with?
I don’t see many people wearing masks anymore, but no-one’s first thought when they see someone in a mask is, “That person isn’t vaccinated and they’re doing the right thing by wearing a mask.” The unvaccinated are still going to large gatherings and events. They are grocery shopping, running errands, interacting with others, and soon they’ll be sending their kids to school with other unvaccinated kids, who will bring the virus to their families. At a certain point, as Juliette explains, the burden needs to be shifted to the unvaccinated.
I wholeheartedly agree with Juliette’s position on air-travel at a minimum. Beyond that I would like to see state and local governments implement vaccine mandates for indoor events, indoor dining, and public transportation. In addition, stronger enforcement of mask wearing by unvaccinated individuals indoors. Lastly, applications for event permits should require the event organizer to validate vaccination status of event participants and assume liability for any cases traced back to an unvaccinated individual at the event. Lastly, those who are unvaccinated and purport to be vaccinated need to be fined.
I wish I could recall who stated it, but someone on twitter framed this argument really well. Personal freedoms are a benefit that is critical to our identity as Americans. The benefit of having a collective of personal decisions is that our society benefits from the totality of the decisions each individual makes. Those that are unvaccinated want to benefit from the outcomes of our society but want none of the responsibility. If thinking about the unvaccinated needing to be burdened is foreign, think about the situation as who is responsible for the current spike in cases and to what end should they be accountable?
FIND A VACCINE NEAR YOU: https://www.vaccines.gov/search/
Another way to think about shifting the burden is in how we’ve changed indoor smoking laws to reduce impact of second-hand smoke, reduce adolescent smoking, and better promote public health. Until those laws were passed, the burden was carried by non-smoking restaurant patrons. By widely shifting the burden to smokers, other patrons were more protected and better public health outcomes followed. This situation is not much different.
Draw Down the Moon
When Foxing released their album Nearer My God in 2018, I was floored. The album was an exceptional artistic experience. The texture, layers, fluctuation in pace, filtered through an album that at times exhibited a soothing feeling of peace and unbridled chaos. Ian Cohen wrote an exceptional album review of Nearer My God in Pitchfork Magazine that does the album more service than I could hope to. Cohen explains the album as, “big, beautiful, and audacious, an artful leap toward creating the new sound of rafter-shaking indie rock.”
Following up such an exceptional album is not an easy task, yet Foxing is set to deliver another successful album with today’s release of Draw Down the Moon.
Most of the tracks have been released from the album through the band’s Patreon page. The release of each track required the completion of an e-puzzle or brain teaser if you will. These tests were dubbed “rituals” and completion of each ritual would unlock the track in advance of its public release. This type of artistic and creative expansion of the music itself only adds to the anticipation of the album’s release.
Foxing builds upon the successes of Nearer My God by creating an enveloping experience. One that reflects the harsh reality that the song’s try to present. In the track “Go Down Together”, the content focuses on the weights of crushing financial debt and the way that impacts relationships. The song starts with a deep throbbing tone. The sound almost emulating that ominous feeling that comes with yet another bill that can’t be paid, a gas tank that can’t be filled, or thinking about asking a friend to spot you for a meal. The song tries to suggest the potential for a communal overcoming of the crisis but acknowledges the impending failure of that effort. At each step of that experience, the tones and keys change to reflect the varying emotions
The title track is unpredictable. A cacophony of organized chaos that twists and turns. The sonic equivalent of sitting in the passenger seat of a car running from the police. The groovy smooth pop-feel that starts the song is broken up by voice modification technology and then compounded with BeatLine strumming of a guitar that supplement the throbbing bass, only to come to a complete stop for an impressive vocal crescendo that collapses into a scrappy plea, only to accelerate with more texture and tenacity. The pedal hits the floor through the end of the track before the tires go flat and the car comes to a halt. This type of thrilling experience is what makes the music Foxing produces so special.
There is something exceptional about music that is so expansive it begs to be explored. That with every listen a new element is discovered. A new cave to be surveyed, a new river to be rafted, and a new moon to be gazed upon. Foxing does what they do best with Drawn Down the Moon producing one of the best albums released this year.
Summer produce recipes
I haven’t been cooking much. As much as I love cooking, doing so on a broken or stitched foot is not a pleasant experience. In the few attempts Autumn and I explored the past month or so two stood out.
The first is a Milk Street recipe that makes a pasta sauce out of corn run through a cheese grater. I was skeptical at first, but our CSA share contained corn and tomatoes which this recipe relies heavily on. I was really impressed with the flavor profile. The balance in flavors homogenized nicely to create a smooth, creamy and rich sauce that plays with the fresh herbs and tomatoes pleasantly. The recipe was incredibly easy. Two thoughts on the recipe if you decide to try it. First, be patient while the sauce thickens. It took longer than I expected but waiting for the sauce to come together is critical. Second, I would add the fresh cracked pepper to taste instead of adding the pepper to the sauce. I personally could have gone with 3x the amount of cracked black pepper, but I could see that not being pleasant for everyone. Adding the pepper after also preserves the color of the sauce. (Note: the recipe can also be found on youtube, without needing a Milk Street subscription.)
The second recipe we tried was a fish fragrant eggplant dish. This recipe is my new favorite way to eat eggplant! There are two keys to the recipe. We did all the portioning and prep-work in advance since the recipe comes together so quickly. Fish fragrant is really a misnomer. Autumn is anti-all seafood and she really enjoyed it. We did use all the specified ingredients to make this dish and served it with white rice, though it could be served with anything. Great option for using summer eggplant.
Thank you to everyone for continuing to read! Hope you and your families are having a fun safe summer!