Home, Home on the Range

While I'm still struggling to get my parents' estates settled, I hope I'm making progress in easing up the process for my own children when the time comes. In the process, I'm able to transfer some of what I'm hearing to my parents' situation. I'm also learning a few new things.

Here's the biggest thing I learned this week. Homestead exemption in Florida is not just about getting a break on one's real estate taxes each year. The Homestead exemption provides protection from creditors in all sorts of situations. Like... if I go into the hospital, an assisted living or into a skilled nursing facility, no one can come after my house. My heirs will still be able to inherit the house if it's been my primary residence and I have the Homestead exemption.


Of course there are some exceptions. If I don't pay my taxes, I can lose my house. If I mortgage my house, the mortgage holder can take back the house.

But homesteading protects my spouse and our heirs.

Florida's homestead exemption providing exemption from forced sale before and at death are among the most protective in the United States.

To probate or not to probate

After finally getting my Letters Testamentary a few months ago, I set about trying to claim all my parents' probate-able assets. I quickly inquired as to the two banks with accounts outside of the trust how to go about claiming the money. Both sent me forms to submit. I did that promptly, including everything they said they required. One bank told me to expect a check within 10 business days. The other told me it would probably take about 21 days.

About a month after I first submitted the forms, on the exact same day, I got two overstuffed envelopes from each of the banks. In both envelopes were the original copies of Letters Testamentary that I'd included as well as copies of the death certificates and my letters of instruction. Only one of the envelopes contained a check. The other envelope contained more forms - and information about how to claim trust assets from their bank.

Trust assets? No way! We'd checked several times earlier in the process to verify what assets were in the trust and what assets were out of the trust. Of course, when you call the bank, they won't speak to you unless you're the administrator. Without Letters Testamentary, you're nothing! But they did confirm ownership of the accounts. And there was no mention of "trust" at all.

After ranting a few minutes upon opening an envelope with more forms and no check, I noticed that their customer support phone line was available 24-hours a day. It was after 6pm when I'd gone to check the mail that day and I thought I'd have to wait until the following business day to figure out what was going on. Naturally, there was a long wait due to "unusually high call volume," and once I was connected with a rep who took all my pertinent information, I was transferred to another rep - i the trust department. Hey, what's going on here?!

I was told that the beneficiary to the account was the trust. "So does this mean that I didn't need to put this account through probate?" "I'm not sure, but probably." "Why couldn't someone tell me that before I probated the account?" "Due to privacy, we're not able to talk to anyone who doesn't have administration papers." "I couldn't get those papers until after everything had gone through probate." The rep got my frustration over the fact that I had wasted time putting an account through the probate system that didn't need it, but I don't think he realized that I'd also lost money since you have to pay for every dollar that goes through probate.

Today, while looking through old emails for something else, I came across an email with the subject line "Possible Probate Accounts." In this email, the first trust guy - who turned out to know next to nothing - stated that this account most definitely needed to go through probate. I haven't been able to find the answer I'm really looking for online... but AAACK! This whole thing frustrates me to death.

Because of the whole "splitting the trust" issue we're having, I still don't have the proper trust documentation to claim the funds from this account yet.

I want this done - yesterday. Or the day before.

It's that time again

Not too much has been happening to post about in the past few... gee, how long has it been since I posted here? Way too long. Way too long with not a whole lot going on. When I noticed that the time was 11:37 as I sent off my final email, I decided it was time to sit down and write about the small, relatively insignificant things that have been happening.

I'm still bogged down on getting required minimum distributions set up for the two inherited IRAs. Vanguard has been easy to work with. Fidelity, not so much so. In fact, they've been horrible. Each time I phone about my inherited IRA, I wait until the end to re-ask the question regarding my mom's IRA (who exactly has inherited it and where should the funds be going), at which point I'm so frustrated - and so is the person on the other end of the phone - that we get no where.

I had one of the attorneys apply for a tax ID number for The Estate of... so was able to set up an account for all those little piddly checks to go into. And now I wait for checks to come from the accounts outside the trust. Once I got the ball rolling on this, it was fairly easy.

But REMINDER - don't go to an estate planner to help you settle an estate. Go to an attorney, preferably the attorney who set up the estate in the first place, if at all possible, and some of this, like the EIN for the estate, can be done immediately. There's no reason to wait.

Anyway... spent many weeks trying to figure out the best way to file the NY State Estate Tax Returns. Now we wait and see what NY State has to say about all this. Because I had no clue, Mom's extension was filed without payment. I can't even remember if we made the same mistake with Dad's... or if we sent money with his extension. Or after the fact. But I still have work to do finalizing his return. NY State makes this all so confusing. NY is not the best place to die.

I've been doing my own estate planning over the several months. I'm still not at the point where I feel comfortable explaining what I know... so obviously I haven't mastered the material. BUT I seem to be more conversant with my Florida attorney about pour-over wills and inherited IRAs and splitting trusts so I must have picked up some level of knowledge. An interesting fact is that the legalese in my parents' documents seems far more confusing than in my own. Is that because I know what I'm trying to direct in my own - or has the language actually gotten simpler over the past 21 years since my parents set up their estates? (As an aside, or maybe it isn't even, while speaking to the New York attorney this morning, he made a comment about how much more straightforward individual trusts (like I'll soon have) than joint trusts, which is what I'm dealing with in my parents' case.)

I've done a far bit of mourning in the past month. In the Jewish official way, I ended my nearly 17 months of being a mourner on August 2nd. That was a tough weekend. The actual anniversary of my dad's death was much easier. I spent it on the beach, a place that holds so many memories of my time on earth with my parents. I was at a beach I'd never been to before... but for the first time in a long time, I was able to feel truly happy and at peace and not anxious or stressed about what I'm doing in my job as trustee or administrator or personal representative or executrix or whatever title I'm going by. And then I came home! <sigh> I hear the sea calling me back.

The power of words

Lesson learned today: I can sit and do crossword puzzles for hours.

Other than the crossword puzzles in TV Guide growing up, I was so not a crossword puzzle solver. My mom was always surprised by this. I loved books, I loved to read, I loved play on words, I loved words. Why would I not share her passion for the New York Times crossword puzzles? I did not.

During the few weeks I was in Brooklyn while my mother was in the hospital, I'd kill time by staring at the crossword puzzle, on the verge of tears because this was Mom's puzzle that was not being completed.

The day before my mom died, with a little bit of help from my brother, I finished the Monday puzzle in the Times. Even though my mom wasn't conscious, I walked in to her hospital room, excited to share the news with her that I'd completed a puzzle. I don't know how I know it, but I know that the message was received. I could feel her say, "I told you so!" Granted, in all the many months since, I'm mostly able to finish just the Monday, maybe Tuesday puzzle on my own. Only twice have I finished a puzzle later in the week. (They get more difficult as the week progresses.) I believe my mother left me the power of words.

Maybe once I finish my Monday and Tuesday books, I'll be ready for the Wednesday book.

Tick one thing off the list

Finally, something has happened. I'm still stressing over being unable to return the money that was overpaid to my dad's account by his annuity because the checking account is blocked and without knowing the tax ID number that "nefarious" trust/estate guy may or may not know, I can't write a check - the only form of payment they will take. (When I first questioned the trust/estate guy, he told me about all the different termination dates an annuity might have. But months after months after death... into a new year... for a fellow who died approaching 87... just did not jive with me.)

My positive news is that I did claim my share both of my dad's inherited IRAs.

IRAs are cool. They don't go through probate, even though they can't be part of a trust. They seemly get inherited by the listed beneficiaries. (Of course in the case of my mom's IRA, things weren't that simple. I think I've mentioned this at least once before. Dad was her primary beneficiary. He never went through the process of inheriting her IRA so when she died, it was unclaimed and became part of her previously non-existent "estate." She should have died with no assets requiring probate, but this IRA somehow slipped through. My dad kept telling us that we had plenty of time. We're still trying to work that one out.

IRAs are also interesting. Money goes into your IRA (Individual Retirement Account) before you've paid tax on it. And it can sit there and grow and grow. If you want to take out funds prior to being 59 1/2 years old, you pay a penalty - and tax on the money withdrawn. At 59 1/2, you can take out whatever you'd like but that's the time you pay the IRS the taxes on the amount you withdraw. You can take a little, you can take all, you can take nothing. At age 70 1/2, you are forced to start making withdrawals. The IRS uses actuarial numbers to determine the number of years they think you might live... and then they require your withdrawals to equal what they believe the end of your life will be in years. The amount you are required to take out annually is called your Minimum Required Distribution. You can always take your funds more rapidly at this point, but this is the absolute minimum you can take.

Then, when you die, your beneficiary or beneficiaries get your IRA as an inherited IRA. I'm not sure if minors are required to take MRDs but people the ages of my brother and I are forced to take out MRDs... based on our ages... and if taken in these minimally small amounts, the IRA should be expected to give us something (with taxes owed) each year for the rest of our lives. Interesting concept.

My dad had two IRAs. Somehow he missed the taking the distribution on one of the accounts. I know there's a penalty involved - unless we can persuade the IRS to waive it. Seriously, Dad had a lot going on in his life those last few months... but he took it on one of the accounts. One of the investment firms led me to believe that I needed to take out Dad's final MRD as I started up my inherited IRA account. Without any real guidance from anyone but the investment firm, that's what I did. And the check came yesterday. Will I have messed things up? I have no idea. But... going forward, that IRA is clearly now my inherited IRA and going forward, things should be much more straightforward.

Some might view this as a sideways step and not a step forward at all. But with the path the administration of this estate has taken, I'm viewing this as a positive thing.

Grief continues to hit me in waves. After a grief counseling session where I was reassured that what I'm feeling is normal and after a bereavement support group meeting, I know I'm not alone and that my grief has to run its course. Everyone's journey is different. And everyone has a story.

Where I've been

Lesson learned over the past few weeks: grief can hit - and hit hard - at any moment.

I haven't really been feeling myself the past few weeks. Nearly 11 months after my mom first had her stroke, it finally hit me that she's dead. She's gone. She's not coming back. And that's been hard to deal with.

Several have asked me if I think I was in denial all those months. My answer to them has been, "No." I held it together during my mother's hospitalization and her death because that's what I needed to do to get through it. The five weeks I was in New York at that time, I did what I needed to do, I did what was needed by my (then seemingly healthy) father. I knew that once I got home, the grief over my mom's death would hit hard.

But then I never really got home. I was in the house for only a few hours before I was rushing back to New York to be with father who over the few days I hadn't been with him lost the ability to walk. The next few months were all about my dad and seeing that he got the care that he needed.

Then he was hospitalized, I injured my knee, he died and I grieved. For the loss of my dad whom I'd spent so many quality moments with over the previous five and a half months. Again, I did what needed to be done. For my dad, for the family, for 1137. I thought I did what needed to be done for me, too. In retrospect, who knows.

I arrived home not quite six months after I'd left and I wasn't the same person. Not even close. I was relieved to be home. I was emotionally glad to be home. Physically, I was in great pain. And there was a big hole in my heart. I missed my parents. I was sad.

Weeks went by. My husband wanted to know when I'd go "back to normal." How does one even begin to do that? I had and still have no idea. I was floating along. I was sad not to be able to dive into my normal routines but my knee injury really kept me grounded and close to home. I felt disconnected from the friends I'd left behind just several months before. I felt like I didn't quite belong anywhere. My evening ritual of calling my mom left a gaping hole in my routine. That's when I most missed my mom. But she could have been on a cruise. She could have been anywhere. I missed her in the moment but it hadn't yet hit me that she was never coming back.

We went back to Brooklyn in October. I realized that I missed my parents a whole lot less while staying in their house, even if they weren't there. I made plans to be away for the few days before Thanksgiving, the few days that my parents would have normally been spending with us in Florida. I was sad. The holiday tradition wasn't there and I felt that loss.

I was home for a few weeks more and then it was time to go back up to Brooklyn. It felt odd celebrating latkes in my parents' house without them. Frying latkes in their frying pan on their stove. Lighting their menorah. Similar to how it was in October, I realized that I missed them a whole lot less while staying in their house.

When did I first realize that my mom wasn't coming back? It hit me like a ton of bricks when a question came up about my high school reunion. (The backstory to this is that my mom and I went to the same high school. She was president of the alumni association for the school for nearly 40 years. She had some helpers but she ran it almost singlehandedly with the help of my dad - who went to another high school.) A few questions had come up about the organizational aspects of planning a reunion. My first thought was that I wished I'd paid closer attention to my mom telling me tales about other classes planning their reunions. At that moment I really wished I could pick up the phone and talk to my mom. She had the answers to every single question my committee and I had. Off the top of her head. Requiring no thinking. Wait. Mom isn't a phone call away. Mom isn't here. Mom is dead.

And that's when it started. The littlest things made me cry. The process of settling the estate which was godawful to begin with became a mountain I couldn't climb. A cutting remark made by my daughter made me fall apart rather than simply angering me. I wasn't able to deal with any of life's setbacks. I don't know about your life, but my life has many setbacks. On a daily basis. My husband, who was still waiting for me to "return to normal" had no idea what to do with me. He didn't understand my kind of grief and why it appeared (to him) out of nowhere.

I learned that I need help. Today I am off to my first session with a grief counselor.

Deeply personal lessons learned

It might seem like I haven't learned too much about trusts and estates in the past week. Which is probably true. But it's more because my head is ready to explode with all the little things I'm figuring out that still need to be learned and/or ironed out. Just when I think I have a handle on something, like... handling the claims forms for death benefits from the Teachers' Retirement System, I learn that there's a glitch. In this case it's a glitch that's come up before. Because my dad never filed a claim for Mom's benefit, because "we have time," it's become a much larger and involved process than it should be. I'm a sequential kind of gal. I need to do things in order. I like a list. I like to check things off on my list. And with the simultaneous settling of two estates, that just doesn't seem possible.

I'm trying to come to terms with the mess that my dad left me. Us. Me as executor and trustee. Me.  I'm learning about many of the mistakes he made in his estate planning... and praying that I don't make the same mistakes. This is very difficult for me to do. My dad was a rock for me most of my growing up years. But he was human, no infallible and many mistakes were made. Many of which I hope not to mistake when I start my own estate planning.

I started quaking in my boots last night, watching The State of the Union Address, as President Obama talked about changing tax rules for inheritance. If you have someone plan out a trust for you to maximize the benefits that your beneficiaries will get, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, make sure that you review the current tax laws each year to see what changes need to be made to your trusts. While you're alive, they are revocable - and easily amended. Keep things current. Huge lesson learned.

Another lesson that I learned during the months I spent in New York. It is so important to have a hobby to clear your mind. It's also really nice to have a hobby that you can do on your own, something solitary, that can be shared with other people. Just two months before I got that "fatal" phone call from my dad, telling me that my mom had a stroke, I signed up for a photo challenge. You can see the details at Fat Mum Slim. It's a personal challenge, not a competition. I've really noticed that my photos have improved a lot since signing up for the challenge. I now take at least one photo per day from a prompt. And because I need to think before I photograph, I've become more thoughtful. And I've noticed things around me that I would not have otherwise seen. It was something fun to share with my family as we sat vigil by my mother's bedside. It gave me an excuse to go for a walk while sitting by my father's hospital bed. And once my father was in the nursing home, it gave us a chance to share adventures together on the days he was up for it. When he wasn't up for going out, he'd give me ideas on what to photograph and then we might make the selection for what I'd share with the group together. Which is the second great thing about this hobby. I can take the photos on my own (solitary hobby) but I have not one but several places to share my hobby and to keep me connected with others. I post my daily picture each day to my Facebook wall, to the FMS PAD group on Facebook and with the hashtag #fmsphotoaday on Instagram. Photo a Day was a lifesaver while up in New York and now it's a great thing for me to turn to when I don't feel like dealing with the ickier side of life.

Now to clear my head and get back to my camera...

What's important?

My dad's original password book

In the old days, when someone died, you'd go through his or her paperwork and find much of what you need to know. In the digital age, that isn't the case.

I was reminded of this while reading the AARP newsletter today. They were discussing why it's important for parents to fill in their adult children on their finances, their record keeping, where things are located. It's also really important to know where they've written down all their passwords to bank websites, insurance company websites and the like since much of that kind of business, if your parents are anything like mine, is conducted online. The passwords give you a brief window (before institutions learn of deaths and certain accounts are frozen) into the financial records of your parents.

We were lucky in that not only did we have my dad's original "little red book" (as well as my mom's "little red book" (she was not as diligent in keeping her records up to date), but my brother had the opportunity to sit with my dad to create a new password book that was more easily decipherable than his original one. (Even luckier still, over the months that my dad was in the nursing home, my brother had the chance to sit down with our dad and get all his assets entered into Quicken. So once my father had passed away, we didn't have to go searching for things. It was all consolidated in one place. Not many people are that lucky.)

The lesson here is actually something to be learned going forward. You may think that you're going to remember all your passwords to every website you access for all times. Maybe you will. But maybe someday you won't be there and your adult child might need to access some of your accounts. The lesson I was reminded of today is that I really need to make more of an effort to write down all my passwords to all my accounts... and to keep these records up-to-date. At some point, someone might need them. 

Another lesson I'm reminded of in one way or another nearly every day is how blessed I was to be able to spend the final months of my dad's life with him. He was in a nursing home so I consider myself more of his advocate than his caregiver. But I was there nearly every day for the last five and a half months of his life. We got closer than we ever were, close as father/daughter, close as two adults. For that, I will be forever grateful.

More questions than answers

I've learned it's impossible to add photos to my blog from my iPad without using a Google app. I'm not interested so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see the great photos I had in store for today.

Last night, as I plugged my phone in to charge, lucky me. It was 11:37! I had no idea. Is this now a sign that my parents are looking out for me?






I spent a few hours today reading my estate book and taking notes. I ended up with more questions than lessons learned.

Of the few books I've borrowed from the library, this is the one I seem to like best
and would be most likely to recommend. So far...

However, I learned what per stirpes means. It means that each branch of a family is to receive an equal share of an estate. I've heard that term before. That's the situation we're in. My brother's bloodline (that consists of just my brother) and my bloodline which is me... and my three adult children. There's also something called per capita. Since it didn't apply to us, I didn't take notes. I think that means each beneficiary gets an equal amount. I'm not 100% sure so don't take my word about that.

I also learned that securities can be distributed in kind unequally with cash used to equalize the distributions. The important thing is having it all in writing. That was something I wondered about yesterday.

Today I went to the first funeral I've attended since my dad's funeral. Tomorrow is funeral #2. I want to know when 2015 starts to get better. When?

Help made this job go quicker

Thanks to my husband who helped me calculate date of death values - and alternate valuations this afternoon. I've (re)learned that he can be a really nice guy. Together, it took the two of us about four hours. For stocks, you need to calculate the value by averaging the high and low price for the date of death. You do this for the actual date of death and six months later. For mutual funds, there's nothing to calculate. You look for the sale price in historical data. We used yahoo finance to calculate our prices.

Because I'm doing this for both my parents (who shared most of their assets), it was double the work. Sort of. I had to calculate for the date of my mother's death, the date of my father's death and then my mother's alternate valuation. It's too soon to calculate my dad's alternate valuation because he hasn't been gone six months yet. That just means in another few weeks, I'll have to do it all over again.

Another thing I (re)learned today, and something I've already shared here, is that I can see what I've learned and haven't learned by trying to explain something to someone else. Today I tried to explain to my brother all that I thought I learned from an attorney I met with in New York in December. I took my notes from that day that I hadn't looked at since that day. And then I typed them up all up in an email to my brother. I was happily surprised at how few times I had to write "at least I think that's what he meant" or "I think that's what he said."

One thing that I learned from the attorney is what it means to settle an estate. How do I know if the estate is settled? He explained that the estate is settled when the assets are all collected, the estate taxes are paid and that we get a closing letter from both the IRS and from New York State saying that no more taxes are due. At that point, there needs to be a formal or informal accounting of what we have spent and what's left. The beneficiaries give me a receipt and release once I give them their assets. That releases me from further obligation.

The question came up when I met with the attorney about how to split stocks amongst 5 different people. He said that the cleanest way is to liquidate everything right before distribution. Then it can be easily divided. Leaving stocks to distribute "in kind" (as stocks) gets messy with fractional amounts of shares. I do wonder, though, about the tax consequences of liquidating everything before distribution. We will acquire the cost basis of the date of death valuation of Dad, but again, really need to look at the tax consequences of doing so as we get closer to this point. Right now, it seems like a long way off.

Something else I learned from this attorney is that because Dad never inherited Mom's IRA and it's gone into her estate, it's technically no longer an IRA and it's simply stocks (that will probably need to be liquidated) to distribute out of her estate. This will be the only asset to pass directly from Mom to her beneficiaries (my brother and I). So no inherited IRA from Mom. This is not exactly what I learned from the institution where Mom held her IRA (and that I shared with you earlier last month).

I already have the things I'd like to learn about tomorrow on my "to do" list. I had hoped to file the paperwork to get my dad's death benefit from his union but I learned that can't do that without the paperwork that says that I'm the executor of the estate and that won't happen until the attorney I've hired for probate has done his thing.

Instead, I'll learn about setting up inherited IRAs from two different institutions. And I plan to learn about transferring stock from Computershare... and where it actually has to get transferred to. That, to me right now, is a big mystery.

And now back to reading my executor and trustee book! Lots more to learn.

Happy freaking New Year!

Main lesson that I learned while I was away: An iPad isn't a computer. I thought it would be easy enough to blog on the iPad. WRONG! I tried to blog on the iPad just going to the blogger website. Difficult. Then I tried downloading two different apps, neither one of which worked the way I hoped it would.

Okay, that means if I want to blog while I'm away, I need to do one of the following: I need to bring along my Mac Book with me, wherever I go, or I need to write some blogs before heading out of town and use the really cool "schedule" feature that blogger has to get my blogs posted on some sort of schedule. I wasn't happy sitting down to write tonight seeing that my last post was on December 18th. Once I have regular readers, I can't leave them in the lurch, hungering for more, the way I did this trip.

Yes, we spent time at 1137, where there is a computer. But I was so busy doing what I needed to do, who had time to sit down and blog? Not me.

While up there, I was reminded that I miss my parents so much less when I'm in their space than when I'm home in my own space. Tonight I literally had a pang of pain at the time when I normally would have picked up the phone to call my mom. Ouch. I wonder when that will go away for longer and longer stretches. Right now, I'm good for only a couple of days before it hits.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Why is today's post called "Happy freaking New Year"? Well... 2015 is not off to a happy start. What did I learn today? I learned that even though you think you're doing everything right, things can turn out wrong.

I went to bed last night at 11:37pm hoping that would give me an edge on a good night's sleep. Wrong. I had trouble sleeping but had to get up early to make it to the doctor's office this morning to have a procedure done. I had wanted it done in mid-December, but there was an insurance mandate that said I couldn't have the procedure done until December 19th, the day I flew out of Florida at 6:25 in the morning. I had to wait until I was back home to have it done. Okay, annoying. I truly am trying to learn patience.

After my rotten night's sleep, while it was still basically dark and foggy outside, I woke up, got ready and headed to the doctor's appointment. The office opened half hour prior to my appointment and I really did wonder why there were no other patients there when I arrived. The receptionist greeted me, asked me if I had new insurance (I said no), and then asked for my insurance card so she could verify my coverage. I went back, got weighed, had my vitals taken and was escorted to the procedure room. They even measured out the lidocaine they were going to give me. A few minutes later, the door opened. Rather than the doctor, it was one of the office staff, come to tell me that my insurance was inactive. Was I interested in doing the procedure as private pay? I was stunned. Our insurance was new, it was actually better than what we hoped to get - and now they were denying me? I needed to come home and check on the status of our plan with my husband who is the subscriber.

Long story short... the cost of our premium went up just over 50% from December 2014 to January 2015. Over 50%. And they call this AFFORDABLE? I don't think so. Worse still, this increase came with no warning. Since we would have had to shop and purchase a new plan for January 1, 2015 by December 15, 2014, wouldn't it have been nice to find out that our premium went up so much prior to December 15th? Oh yes, we did get a letter... today, when our held mail from December 19th on got delivered. On December 15th, we were still blissfully unaware that if we didn't do something (other than schedule the payment for our then current premium) we wouldn't have insurance today. Lesson learned.

The real bugger of all this is that there is no one to complain to. The insurance company doesn't care. Our agent, who does seem to care, had his hands tied. He said he's dealt with this a couple of times over the past few weeks. The only response he's gotten from the insurance company is that they've sent out multiple notifications advising subscribers of the rate increases. Really? The letter we got today was simply a bill for the higher amount. There was no explanation as to why our premium was going up over 50%. How can that even be legal?

Instead of working on get values for my parents' stock portfolios today, which had been the plan, I was trying to get myself health insurance again. As I was dealing with my parents' illnesses, I knew that the insurance they had was golden. Today was just a reinforcement of how great their insurance was, how lucky they were, and how the rest of us will suffer until the health care system in this country is improved. Happy freaking new year!