do you have any thoughts on company benefits
 	
 	
 		i do but uh they're pretty slanted i want you to know
 	
 	
 		i'm prepared
 	
 	
 		uh my company was bought by another company
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and the majority of us were laid off
 	
 	
 		oh okay i see where this is going
 	
 	
 		uh-huh so you know uh what i would like to see
 		well uh the really sad part of this is that i'm fifty five years old
 	
 	
 		that's not that bad
 	
 	
 		and
 		beg your pardon
 	
 	
 		that's not so sad
 	
 	
 		oh my chances of getting another job are just really slim
 	
 	
 		hm
 	
 	
 		i was a systems analyst for an oil company
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		and you know they just i mean Sprint had uh two thousand jobs open i mean i'm sorry two hundred jobs open they had two thousand applications
 		for this type of work you know it's just uh and i guess that's that's pretty far-fetched as benefits go
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		but gosh you know i saw it i was fixed for life  so uh
 	
 	
 		i think more and more people are finding that out even people with state and and uh federal jobs it it's a shock
 	
 	
 		it really is it really is
 		but uh i i think uh i guess my feelings on this are that the one of the most important benefits we currently have is our health insurance
 	
 	
 		that's true
 	
 	
 		and that if there were some way to get that to follow you from job to job
 		or so that you would not lose it if you have to leave a company
 	
 	
 		isn't there some sort of deal where you can continue your benefits for eighteen months
 	
 	
 		there is uh-huh and and that's fine but you know i'm still unemployed after about fourteen months okay
 	
 	
 		oh yeah that's worrisome
 	
 	
 		and when you switch yeah when you switch over the the premiums are really quite high
 		and additionally i've had a heart attack
 	
 	
 		um
 	
 	
 		so it's going to be really tough for me to do this so you know uh in in my very personal way i feel that insurance is just one of the most important benefits we have now
 		now with the political political situation the way it is i think that's going to change
 	
 	
 		you talking about national health
 	
 	
 		because
 		i think we're going to have to have something of that sort
 	
 	
 		um
 	
 	
 		so that will cease to be as important a benefit
 	
 	
 		i think that well i think the whole thing with this health insurance being so high is because people are
 	
 	
 		what are your feelings what what do you feel
 	
 	
 		suing left and right and just driving these costs up
 	
 	
 		well i agree with you but do you know that's that's what makes this such a tremendous benefit if you can possible get group rates
 	
 	
 		well i i have my own beef about health insurance i uh
 		i'm not a spring chicken myself quite frankly um i raised a family and
 	
 	
 		
 
 	
 	
 		now i'd like to get back into my field which is teaching and it's at a time where school budgets are so far down that they're firing experienced people
 		and also you know i'm i'm a art teacher which is a very small field out of a whole school there's two or three
 	
 	
 		oh yes
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		and you know there are two hundred apliplations for one one job uh you send in a resume and they they don't even write a letter to you to say no thanks which
 	
 	
 		yep
 		they they don't have time
 	
 	
 		yeah i suppose and um i do substitute teach and my biggest complaint is schools get a discount insurance school districts because they have so many people
 		why can't they allow their substitutes to buy into it to pay ourselves just to get the lower rate that a group would have and they won't let us
 	
 	
 		well you've you've approached it
 	
 	
 		yeah they don't let you do it
 	
 	
 		what is their thinking on it
 	
 	
 		uh um i don't know i don't know
 	
 	
 		have they said
 	
 	
 		i just i just know it's not allowed
 	
 	
 		okay have they said we cannot do this because
 	
 	
 		yeah uh no not they they didn't get that far
 	
 	
 		no because
 	
 	
 		no because we we do we don't do this
 		we don't do this and everybody thinks it's sort of a crying shame i have been divorced and i knew that uh when i was divorced i was allowed that eighteen months of insurance on my ex-husband's plan and i was allowed to pay for myself
 	
 	
 		okay
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		at their lower rate and i don't see what the school district would have to lose by letting us pay for ourselves but
 	
 	
 		is uh let's see
 		are they paying a part of the premium
 	
 	
 		well i they're paying all the premium for their full-time teachers
 	
 	
 		oh they are
 	
 	
 		yeah yeah that's part of their salary
 	
 	
 		and have you offered to come in and have you offered to come in and pay the whole premium
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		and they still won't let you
 	
 	
 		no no it's just not policy
 	
 	
 		that's crazy
 	
 	
 		yeah that just doesn't seem to make any sense
 	
 	
 		so what do you do about insurance
 	
 	
 		well i am remarried now and my husband um quit his job to try some consulting he's an engineer
 		and what he did was he joined you know if you join a group sometimes it's a little less he joined the Engineer's Society or some group like that and what he did which was actually very clever most people want to have
 	
 	
 		ah yeah
 	
 	
 		the lowest deductible and then get eighty percent of their money back and all of this my husband said why don't we take a five hundred dollar deductible
 		if we have a little you know annual checkup here or there we can pay that that's not the problem