Good news for those of you who get health insurance from your employer (or for you employers who provide health insurance for your workers): if current trends continue, the cost of insurance will increase by 166% over the next ten years – to $28,530 per employee. Imagine that. Assuming a 40-hr work week, that’s $13.72 an hour – almost twice the federal minimum wage. And that’s without getting paid anything to cover the co-pays (never mind food and rent). How sustainable is that? Not very, I don’t think.

Forty percent of employers surveyed said they are likely to increase the amount their workers pay out of pocket for doctor visits. Almost as many said they are likely to raise annual deductibles and the amount workers pay for prescription drugs.

Nine percent said they plan to tighten eligibility for health benefits; 8 percent said they plan to drop coverage entirely. Forty-one percent of employers said they are “somewhat” or “very” likely to increase the amount employees pay in premiums….

If only there was, oh, I dunno, some sort of “medicare for all” thingy that could keep costs down while providing health care for everybody and easing the financial burden on employers and employees alike. Hmmm. Nope, that aint gonna happen.

But, if you’re the idealistic type who’d like to try and put pressure on your congresscritters, fell free to give it the old college try. Call your representative to find out where he/she stands on single payer and Rep. Weiner’s amendment. Find your critter here.

Is calling too much effort? Send an email asking for support for the Weiner amendment. It kinda implies that you’re a medical student, but what the hell. Just tell ’em you’re standing up for Weiner, because Weiner stands up for you. Or maybe that you’d like to stick it to the tea baggers with Weiner. Or perhaps tell ’em that, while Republican Weiners are out “hiking the Appalachian Trail,” our Weiner is fighting for Single Payer health care.

Locally, the people have spoken, and it’ll be the woman vs. the really boring Armenian guy (who looks like he’d make a great spokesman for Polygrip®) squaring off in the Syracuse mayoral race in November. Whereas Syracuse is a pretty solid Democratic stronghold, things look good for Syracuse having its first female mayor. But the boring Armenian guy won big in a pretty major upset yesterday, so I wouldn’t count him out.

Well, I see by the old clock on the wall (and there really is a clock on the wall; it’s a bird clock we got as a wedding present that chirps with a different bird song on the hour. Well, it used to, anyway. It hasn’t actually done that in quite a few years; I think it needs a battery or something) that it’s time to head out for the day. Wednesday? Well, it aint Friday, but it’ll have to do.