Thursday, April 10, 2008

Have you heard...

Here's some stuff you may want to know. (Or at least stuff I think you should know.)

The Death of Magknits

Magknits is no more. All that's left of the site is a letter of explanation from the editor. Apparently, the merger with Yarn Forward didn't go so well.

The most disappointing thing is that the patterns aren't archived. The designers retain the rights to the patterns, so it's going to be up to them to distribute them. Hopefully Ravelry will help.

The Moving of Zen String

I had fun bragging about Zen String being Austin-based. It was even my "something local" for the Knitters Scavenger Hunt Swap. But Angelina up and went to Oregon. At least she's still selling her stuff.

The Expansion of the Mental Health Parity Bill

I'll probably have more details later, but right now my brain is too tired.

Basically, I know my health insurance limits mental health coverage to 30 doctor visits a year, 30 days in the hospital and 30 doctor visits while in the hospital. Look at your health insurance. I bet it has similar restrictions. I can't find these type of restrictions the treatment of any other type of disease. There is no pre-set limit on hospitalizations for diabetics, or doctor visits for doctor visits for people with arthritis. This bill would make these restrictions illegal.

Here is the news from the New York Times.

Here is information about the original Mental Health Parity Act.

Here is how you can show your support.

2 comments:

SpinalCat said...

Too bad about Magknits. One of these days I was going to submit to them, I swear! I have a stupid pattern that's been sitting around for a while, but I wasn't happy cause the gauge was a little looser that I wanted (swatch lied). I dug the prototype out the other day and it had holes. I finally had an excuse to rip it out! So now I've got like 6 or 7 WIP.

Right before I moved, I was seriously burning through my therapy visits. I knew I was about to switch to a different insurance company, so it wasn't such a big deal for me, but it's so stupid! My old insurance was so annoying that it seriously discouraged me from getting treatment for long stretches of time. And my new doctor sent me a letter saying my new insurance company hasn't been paying her and she doesn't know why! AARGH!

Anonymous said...

Ever need physical therapy? How about trying to get a relative into hospice? In-home nursing? NICU? It's not just mental health care. And, heaven forbid you need more than $1 million or whatever the lifetime limit is.

Had to review new insurance plans yesterday... it's on my mind, too. Sadly, I think that things are going to get worse before they improve.