Insurance?! Jesus, Shepherd of Judea which one should I choose?

With the new laws taking effect regarding health care this can be very confusing to say the least. It will soon come to pass that if you do not have health insurance coverage, either by choice or your employer doesn't offer it, you will have to start paying the government for it.

With all the options out there you will have to choose from.

HMO, PPO, Open Access, Coinsurance, Deductibles....arrgghhhh! It can be very confusing.

Deductibles: These are paid EVERY year by the patient and vary on individual and family coverage. The higher the deductible usually the lower the premium. Kinda like care insurance.

Coinsurance: Most in network (in network means your doctor participates with that insurance company) coinsurances are 80/20. Meaning the insurance company pays 80% of the allowable amount and you are responsible for 20% of the allowable amount. Some are 90/10 and some are even 100%.

Copays: These is a fee you pay most times for only seeing the physician. This does not include the procedures which are usually thrown in under your deductible.

Now lets look at the options on the types of coverage.

HMO - (Health Maintenance Organization) This is usually your lowest paying premium that you can get.

If you choose this type of insurance my best advice would be make certain that your favorite Primary Care Physician takes that insurance and is a HMO provider for that insurance BEFORE you sign up for it.  Because if they are not you will have to say good bye to your Primary Care Physician.  Having this type of plan you will be seeing your Primary Care Physician for EVERYTHING. They become what is known as the GATEKEEPER. And no it you are not the KEYMASTER, this is not Ghostbusters.
If you have an ear ache you have to see your Primary Care Physician instead of going to your Ear, Nose and Throat specialist.  If you are having a sharp pain in your toe due to a possible fracture because your sweetie dropped a industrial size can of peas on your foot at Costco you are going to the Primary Care Physician instead of the Orthopaedic specialist. If at that time your Primary Care Physician decides that he/she can't help you and you do need to see a specialist for something he/she will write you a referral to see a specialist. No referral?! No specialist. You are at the mercy of the Primary Care Physician.
And if you do not hurry up and chose a Primary Care Physician they will chose one for you.

Open Access HMO - Open access simply is a higher up version of HMO. You don't necessarily need a referral to see a specialist. However if you do see a specialist under this plan WITHOUT a referral you will be paying A LOT more $$$$$ to do so.  With the referral for the Primary Care Physician you will only pay for a copay.

PPO - (Preferred Provider Organization) This is the creme de la creme of insurances. Also the most expensive premiums.
This gives you access to any provider at any time without a referral.

Most of all I cannot stress to you the importance of KNOWING your policy! If you have questions...ask!

And if you have any personal questions please contact me at witchwayz@gmail.com, on twitter at witchwayz or on facebook.  Or just leave a comment.

Who said stuffy people can't be fun?!

If I am not listening to podcasts, audio books or doing a red light district vlog cast I am listening to NPR radio in my car. I enjoy the segments and it is one of the many places I get information and sparks ideas in my brain like a flint spark to a bon fire. Grant it...some of the people on this radio station I always imagined to be stuffy and pompous in person.  However this video has be thinking twice...lol 

Enjoy!

How is the Divine revealed to us?

I wasn't going to get all religious and philosophical on everyone however this is a question I get quite a bit from other acquaintance when they find out I am a Pagan.

The best article I found that puts it into terms that are quite easy to understand is here at this site (Click here for the article)

"How is the Divine reveled to us?" in Abrahamic religion the Divine is revealed largely through a set of prophetic scriptures. But seeing as most paganisms don't have, and never had, much of that, they might have a set of traditional tales, those tales, might have been reinterpreted by a set of poets from tribe to tribe, portion of the world to portion of the world.

That was the passage from the article that is usually the basis for every religious discussion I have, usually amongst my Christian friends.

How do I know what the Divine is and that it even exists?
I am sure the generic answer is your faith. Which is the most popular answer I get from all religious discussions.
I see the Divine in every sense.
When I wake up...
I see the light and the rays carrying tiny dust particles through the air.
I hear the birds sing.
I feel the warmth of my covers.
I smell the coffee from my automatic coffee maker.
I taste the salt off my partners skin as I kiss him while he sleeps.

I see the beauty in all things and people, I also see the destruction to all that beauty in an environmental disaster and self destruction in drugs and alcohol.

I hear the message of the Divine in a symphony of music and a child's cry for attention. I also hear tragedies and perils that befall so many of rage and bigotry.

I feel the closeness of the Divine when I get a chill from a feather floating lightly across my skin, I feel it's rage when I don't respect it and get burned by the sun.

I smell it's existence when I get a whiff of fresh baked bread and it whisks me back to my grandmothers kitchen. Yet I am reminded when I smell death all around me that this plane is only one part of my journey.

I can taste the mixture of ingredients that Gaia gives willingly and brings my taste buds to life, I also can taste the blood from my tongue when I bite it to hard to keep me from screaming at someone's blissful ignorance.

In short I am just one single proof of the Divine's existence and so are you. And everyone and thing on this planet and not just this Universe but the several that are out there. The Divine's power is limitless and flows through us freely. I just choose to recognize it as a gift and plan on using that gift to its fullest ability. And by my never ending search of imagination and knowledge it unlocks more mysteries that are kept from those ignorant enough to follow blindly without asking their own questions.

That is how I know the Divine exists. 


Do you agree? How would you explain it? If you don't agree what are your viewpoints? Leave a comment or email me at witchwayz@gmail.com.


Blessed Be )o(

Dummies for Dummies (Thanks Jarred!)

I read a news article the other day (click here to read article) , and then the topic, strangely enough, came up in conversation with a friend on twitter. So the Universe was letting me know that this was something I just had to Blog about.
At this time I would also like to point out that I know NONE of my readers would EVER fall for things like this.
Frankly, it really SHOCKS me that a lot of people still do though.

It is called Phishing.

(fish´ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail or phone call to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail or caller directs the user to visit a web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords, credit card, social security and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.

I mean it is obvious that people still do fall for these emails and calls or you wouldn't hear about them anymore. It is still, however,  very much a problem or they wouldn't make websites like http://www.hoax-slayer.com/ and even worldwide with http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/ . So the ignorance doesn't just stop in the United States folks.

I wanted to do my part to help these people. So I flew straight to my SPAM mail and picked out a few letters. I figured I would give a few HOW TO tips to spot these Phish's and fry ya up some yummy explanations.

#1 THE EMAIL ADDRESS FROM THE SENDER.

If they are to damn cheap to pay for legitimate email address they do not have all this money they state they want to give to you. Ohhh and along that same line of thought, if you see that the website they sent you to is powered by Go Daddy.com at the bottom...it probably isn't all that legit either. 

#2 If you don't remember getting an email about being the recipient to an inheritance or multi-million-dollar business proposal it is probably because ....YA DIDN'T!

Either that or you were so gawd damn stoned out of your fucking mind you thought it was a dream. I can almost 100% guarantee you that  that just isn't the case. They also like to use the term My Dear Friend and God comes up in the mix quite a bit. Who the fuck are these people anyway and IF THE WERE MY DEAR FRIENDS they would know that I am a Pagan... at least have the decency to say God AND Goddess! Geez!

#3 It came to your spam box for a reason

Most things that are sent to spam are done so for a reason. This is due to the fact that you are NOT, I repeat NOT, the only one they sent this to! But how did they get my email address then? you ask... well let me let you in on a little secret. When you go to websites and sign up for things ... whether it is a FREE EMAIL SITE, TWITTER, MYSPACE, FACEBOOK, just about ANYTHING, they have your email address. 

The fine print that everyone agrees to and they don't bother to read, usually gives that company the right to sell that information to other companies. Who in turn sells it the general public at a price. 

It's called Leads. It is all part of Marketing. And unless you live in the stone ages and you do not have a computer nor ever been on one your information is out there.... for anyone... for a price.

Now... my friend Jarred brought up a very good point. (Which btw he has an EXCELLENT blog I posted on the side under Blogs Worth Reading, called The Musings of a Confused Man) If people are still falling for these feebleminded emails and phone calls. Think what us imaginative, brilliant,  and creative people could do.  Man! These people should be singing praises that we have morals. 


I'm just sayin...


Let me know what you think by commenting or emailing me at witchwayz@gmail.com . If you would like for me to subscribe to your blog or podcast give me a shout and I'll check it out! :) Ciao Bella ya'll!


On a totally different, side, personal note. My favorite Talk DJ is back on the air and I could not be happier.  Well I could be happier if he was closer but still! Just posting this link for posterity.

Every wonder why deer freeze in headlights?

I grew up in the Midwest. Rural town Midwest. Where deer hits are one of the top 5 causes of automobile accidents per capita. I have totaled two cars hitting deers and both of them stopped dead in their tracks and just looked at me. Stupid deer. 

Of course each time I did it I bawled more for them and trying to will them to live then for the fact I was going to be without a car for awhile.

Now I have always been the kind of person that if anything remotely traumatic happens to be I have to wait a couple of days for the shock to wear off before I can really talk openly about it with anyone. Always been that way, probably always will. Okay this happened a couple of days ago so now I'm telling anyone who remotely cares.

Here is the scenario...
I go to work, park in the parking lot, decide to walk over to the whole sale food place to pick up a couple things before I start work.
Now you have to cross a very busy intersection known as State Rd 123 in order to get to this place. 4 lanes of cars in an extremely small town called Vienna.
Imagine Mayberry meets downtown Chicago traffic...you get the idea.
Not to worry though. There is a stop light in the middle of the nowhere for pedestrians to cross. The reason I say in the middle of nowhere is because it is halfway through the block. There used to be an old railway station that they ripped up and made a trail out of for bikers, walkers and all those other healthy peeps.
Anyhoo, I cross the street get my stuff and coming back. I press the button to cross the intersection and there is a bicyclist on the other side waiting.
We get the right away.

I start to walk in the street and turn to the left to see a woman in a Jeep Grand Cherokee on her cell phone yacking away, still coming....not stopping... no brakes... You see why I chose that picture up there? That is EXACTLY how I felt. KARMA! What a Bitch!!!!
As you can see I'm still here typing.. she missed by inches. Here is the weird thing though. I know why those stupid deer don't move! Strangely enough it is an almost calming feeling...you can't believe it is about to happen...it really isn't frozen by fear but more of acceptance.
"This is it...this is my time and how it is going to happen".  It is almost like your Divine self knows that this is it and you shouldn't be afraid...just accept it. Very weird.