Hey, welcome to Call Me Donovan. I haven't posted or recorded anything in a while, but I thought I'd
 take some time to catch up with you and share some thoughts I have about, well, any and everything
 that comes to mind, I guess. Today is October 24, 2025. It's day 881 of alcohol retirement.
 Last week, I had the honor and pleasure of being Jason DeFilippo's guest co-host for the Grumpy
 Old Geeks podcast at GOG.show. It was a blast. His normal partner in crime, Brian Schulmeister,
 was at Disneyland in France, so Jason asked me if I would be interested in stepping in and helping
 out, and hell yeah, of course, I was interested. Lately, I haven't felt all that great. I'm not
 sure what's going on, but I'm tired all the time. Hell, by 3 p.m., I'm ready to take a nap or go to
 bed. Nothing in my diet has changed. I'm not drinking alcohol, of course, and I still get the
 same amount of sleep. I hit the sack about 10 o'clock, get up at 5 a.m. Monday through Friday.
 I sleep in a little during the weekend if you count getting up at 6 a.m. instead of 5 sleeping in.
 So, yeah, not a clue.
 Go to the doctor, you say?
 I mean, if I lived in a country that had universal health care, I probably would.
 As it stands, I live in the grand old United States of America where health care is a privilege for those that can afford it
 and something for those that can't afford it.
 Well, it's just wishful thinking.
 I've often said that if I ever get diagnosed with cancer or some other life-threatening illness,
 that would pretty much bankrupt me and my family, then I'd have a good run.
 I'd consider that the demarcation point of my life ending.
 I'd live the best way I could, enjoy what time I had left,
 but I would not put my entire family into some fucked up medical debt situation.
 I know they'd love to have me stick around.
 Well, I guess most of them would.
 I mean, that's a joke, mostly.
 And not to be a downer in this episode, but have you looked at the state of this country?
 given the question, given the question, given the question,
 the current government?
 I'm going to do the question, the question, the
 I currently pay premiums for two insurance policies, one for me and my wife and the other
 for my daughter who still lives at home.
 And for 2025, this was the breakdown for our policies.
 For my daughter, our portion of the premium was $33.42 with a subsidy of $240.23.
 For my daughter, there are no subsidies, there are no subsidies, and our portion of the premium is all of it at $36.22.
 For my wife and myself, again, no subsidies, and our portion of the premium is $1,513.98.
 For my wife and myself, again, no subsidies, and our portion of the premium is all of it at $1,513.98.
 This isn't some special silver or gold plan with low deductibles, co-pays, and the like, no, no, this is a bronze plan that has about a $16,000 or $17,000 fucking deductible.
 As my wife and I were discussing it this morning, if one of us came down with something and had extended hospital stay in a month,
 we'd have to come out of pocket $20,000 before the fucking insurance would pay anything.
 As I stated, I'm a small business owner, self-employed, and the new premiums without any subsidies will eat up about 25% of my annual income.
 That's $21,050.52 for the year.
 What a fucking joke.
 Here's a further breakdown for you math nerds.
 The overall premium increase for my daughter's policy goes from $273.65 to $368.99.
 That's an increase of 34.84%.
 However, since in 2026, we'd have to pay the new premium in its entirety, that's an increase of 1,003.95%.
 And for our main policy, that goes from a total premium of $1,114.98 to $1,513.98.
 That overall increase is up by 35.79%.
 However, without the subsidy, that means our total cost for this policy increases by 1,011.42%.
 So what does that mean for me and my family?
 Well, we won't have insurance in 2026 or moving forward if things don't change.
 There are people that shit all over universal healthcare because they've fallen for the misinformation from the way it works in other countries.
 That's not to say these aren't real issues there.
 There's always going to be issues with any system.
 You can't make everyone 100% happy all the time.
 However, when it comes down to being able to pay your bills, put foot on the table, have a roof over your head,
 just the normal aspects of having a life versus not having most of that,
 but you've got health insurance, baby, albeit shitty health insurance.
 Well, we're going to take our chances without that expense or its limited protection.
 So those are my thoughts on the matter.
 What do you think?
 If you get your health insurance through the marketplace, have you been notified of the increases?
 If so, how much were they?
 Are they as bad as ours?
 Drop me a voicemail by visiting callmedonovan.com slash voicemail on any computer or smart device that has a microphone.
 That's it for this episode.
 I hope you and yours are doing well, and we'll talk again soon.