When I hear people worried that the Government is going to get between them and their doctor, I suggest they take a good look at the decisions being made about their health care dollars now.

My insurance tells me which doctors and hospitals I can go to, which drugs I can order, which orthopedic apparatus I can use should I sprain or break something. If I wanted psychological counseling, my insurance tells me how much of that is allowable. Seriously. Not my doctor, my therapist or the government. In my case, it’s Aetna that determines what is best for my well-being.

My insurance insists that I pay EXTRA for the birth control medicine that DOESN’T make me break out, because it’s BRAND NAME MEDICINE. That’s Aetna getting between me and my doctor. Why should it cost more for me to use the medicine that works better?

My husband decided to work for himself a couple of years ago. His former company offered him a COBRA plan. At $600+ per month! How is that reasonable? In the 90s I took advantage of the COBRA deal at less than $100 per month, and it was very helpful between jobs. But at over $600 per month, he was better off paying full price for prescriptions and hoping he didn’t break any bones until we came up with another solution.

I suggest that some government regulation of the health care industry is needed.

1. Prescription coverage should be simplified. Why can’t all drugs have one price? Why are there lists A and B? I remember my grandmother had a rainbow of pills to take, and I am rapidly catching up to her at 38 years old. This stuff gets confusing. There’s no reason for it, though. Why should I pay $1 for antibiotics and $60 for brand-name birth control? Even it out and pay $25 for each.
2. No one can be rejected for coverage. Even if we don’t reach the standard of requiring health care for everyone, we absolutely cannot reject people for pre-existing conditions. These are the people that need coverage most, and should be given credit for getting coverage.
3. COBRA has to be brought down to earth. $600 is not a reasonable monthly payment for insurance. And it’s not near what the estimates were for individually purchased insurance. So why was COBRA that high? We cannot expect a person who is leaving a job to pay such a high amount for insurance.
4. Dental and vision need to be included. These are medical benefits. Treatments for your eyes and teeth cost real money. Neglecting these parts of your body is just as dangerous as neglecting your knee or your finger, if not more so. Putting this insurance into a separate category is simply a joke.

We do need more, but these changes will put us well on our way.

The President has once again spelled out his thoughts on Why We Need Health Care Reform, in The New York Times Op Ed page, and I agree. I hope you’ll read his thoughts and chime in. And call your Senator and Representative.

UPDATE: Here’s the White House point of view, at WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck.

Miraculously, I was able to text Twitter updates for much of the morning, so Mom and Dad could keep tabs on us from Pennsylvania. That was nice.

We took photos to fill in the blanks. Luckily we set our sights on the back of the Mall, after following updates on television and the innovative project http://twitter.com/carfreejan20.

I’m grateful we followed the advice we heard and used all the technology available to get updates.

It was discouraging on the way home to meet a father and his daughter from Illinois that ended up watching the ceremony on a TV in Starbucks, and to hear from purple ticket holders that weren’t granted admittance.

That was some launch party! What a great time. It was nice to see the front yard of the nation used for music and celebration again. And it was a surprise to see the Obamas and Bidens in attendance. I certainly hope that our new neighbors come by often.

Obama visited The Washington Post today, and it stirred up two city blocks and untold numbers of office workers, who quickly got word of who was in the area. The Post’s neighbors are accustomed to VIPs darting in and out of the building. Condoleeza Rice was here earlier this week and no one batted an eye. But they had to lock down the block for Obama, and everyone knew what that meant. So people just poured out of their offices waiting for him to appear. And the POTUS-elect strolled through the newsroom shaking hands. No one got any work done.

I wrote a while back about how disappointing the Inauguration can be for Washingtonians.
The Inauguration: Welcome to the District of Clusterfu@%

The sad thing is, every time I get more excited, something happens to let me down. There are now nearly 100 balls scheduled, starting on the Saturday before the Inauguration. Yes. A full three nights before the actual Inaugural ceremony, there will be balls. Washington will have more balls than a stud farm.

I was very excited to get my Inaugural ball invitation. Wow! Then I got a second. And a third. Now Obama has sent a couple of invitations that rely on essay contests. What is this, a college application? Then I got two more invitations to “Grassroots” balls, thrown by Obama’s fund-raising crews. Aren’t those the folks that should get the invitations to the official balls?

When you get down to brass tacks, the event itself, the Inauguration, will be the MAIN EVENT. And that’s going to be in the cold morning, likely accented by a harsh wintry mix. That’s what the weather man calls it when it’s raining and snowing at the same time. If you want to witness the Main Event, then you have to wait through some prayers and speeches and put up with a few million of your fellow citizens stepping on your muddy toes.

BUT – you will feel what it is like to be one of the huddled masses yearning to breathe free! You will hear, with your own ears, thanks to the hard work of some very talented sound engineers, (including my own dear brother-in-law), a real historic event. One of the largest feats of sound engineering ever.

I mean, the first African-American to take the oath of office to become President of the United States.

And as you pass out in a hotel lobby, waiting in line for hot chocolate at the Starbucks counter, you will be glad you came to Washington. Please tip your barista. She had to figure out how to get to work early.

I have faith in our President-elect. Really, I do. I trust him, and his new administration, and I sort of trust the Presidential Inaugural Committee, but I’ve been in Washington for a long time, and I’m starting to feel the same old familiar doormat feeling. Welcome to your Nation’s Capital! Ouch! That’s my toe! And hey, stop crowding the Metro, I need that to get to work!

• Inaugural planners have announced that the entire Mall will be open for spectators to be within history-making distance of Senators Obama and Biden as they take their oaths of office on January 20, 2009.
• There are already dozens of Inaugural Balls and Galas planned for Tuesday and Monday night to celebrate the event.
• Aretha Franklin is playing at the Kennedy Center, and if that’s not enough to create a mob of divas, she’s playing for FREE.
• Diva alert #2: Oprah is landing at the Kennedy Center during Inaugural week, too.
• In the highly annoying category, D.C. bars will be open until 5 a.m., so as I head home from work, they will party on. And perhaps as I get up for work, they will be heading home.
• Meanwhile, Metro will be running at peak capacity, with many escalators turned off, for 15 hours. Tell me there won’t be an “incident” that causes a delay. I dare you.

All of this fun, and at my office, Inauguration Day is NOT a holiday. I had been thinking about taking the day off to celebrate the Obamanon, but what to do? Camp out for a good seat on the parade route? Fight the crowds to be one of the million on the Mall? So I can see our proud brown dot on the white marble staircase? When I see all these tourists (I know, you are Americans, too) littering our fair city, staring at Metro maps and wearing fanny packs, I don’t know if I want to be trampled, or frozen, into the American ice sculpture. I could see and hear it all better from the TV at work, and get paid doing it.

But there’s the next dilemma. If I try to get to my downtown DC office to get paid watching the Inauguration on TV, I STILL have to go through all the crowds and hassle. I won’t be able to drive to work, because I work a short distance from the parade route. Roads will be closed. Chances are garages will be full. I will still have to ride the subway to work with the elated Inaugural masses and probably give directions all the way. (Because Washingtonians are friendly like that.)

Some readers may laugh at my quandry. At least I don’t have to pay for a hotel in the area, if I could find one.

It’s just that the rest of the year, we hear the motorcade coming, we pause in our travels, and if it’s the President – Washingtonians know how to tell – we glance at each other and nod, “Hm, he must just be back from Kyoto.” We know how to deal with Presidents in D.C.

But this one, grand, celebratory day, the REST of the country is invited to come by and make a big fuss of things. It would be so much simpler if it was a nice, quiet tea party somewhere in Georgetown, but we did ask for Change, didn’t we?

I’m thinking that somebody sent out too many invitations for our little garden party, but luckily I’m not in charge of baking the cupcakes or ordering the folding chairs. Change is good, but scary. And I’m a bit scared that some flowerbeds may get trampled.

So, America, if you’re visiting your Nation’s Capital for the Inauguration, welcome to Washington. Please consider your hosts. Wipe your feet before you come in. Try not to litter. Ask for directions. We really are glad you came. Really.

Really, no one in Washington knows quite how to handle this.

Keep in mind that Washington, D.C. is largely Democratic. It has been for, well, forever. This place was known as Chocolate City at one time. And true Washingtonians do still lovingly call it that at times. It’s a liberal town.

According to the 2006 census figures, Washington has about 581,530 residents. About 20% are under 18, less than 13% are 65 and over. And less than 39% are white. Over 56% are black, the rest being Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, etc. It’s a young and colorful town.

And we’re pretty middle class. In 2004 the median household income in Washington D.C. was reported at $46,211/year, which is really hard for me to believe, because my rent for a one bedroom apartment was at least $1,500/month, and that $46k only works out to about $3,850/month.

Washington is a strange place, because D.C. is the Nation’s Capital, but not everyone’s life focuses on the business of the government. We all support the government in a way, but when you’re working at a restaurant or a theater or a school, you don’t think of yourself as a government contractor. And then there are all of the non-profits that are based here, doing good work, and it is beneficial to be headquartered close to the seat of power, but they are certainly not working FOR the government. So we end up with all these special interest groups, artisans, chefs, teachers, waiters and entertainers mulling about this city that was founded only for the sake of running our government. How strange!

Stranger still, we odd fellows have come to love this town, to own it, and we feel we’ve earned a dedication to it more than the politicians that come and go, at the whim of their electorate.

George W. Bush was not at all like us. But this Obama, we feel like he is like us. There are Kenyan sons dancing in nightclubs in Adams Morgan. There are Kenyan fathers driving taxi cabs. And there are young couples like Michelle and Barack at Howard University. And at Georgetown Law School. And doing community organizing in Anacostia.

Some of us Washingtonians were beginning to wonder if there were enough people like us out there in the rest of the country any more to send us a President that understands the city he is sent to live in. Or would we only be happy in the perimeter world of ethnic restaurants, NGOs and grad school programs?

Well, it has happened! America is finally as young and colorful as its capital. We can’t wait to welcome Obama and his family to their new home.