We don’t leave this island very often. I haven’t slept a night away this year but we are going to the states next week. We are going to a concert at the St. Michelle winery. It’s a gorgeous venue with hot air balloons drifting behind the stage during the concert.

Family will come and take care of the dog and the house so we don’t have to go through any shut down process.

Last week we went in to Westland insurance to renew our truck insurance and while we were there asked about emergency medical insurance. Oh, says she “you should get it on line at Costco, great prices” We thought that was very kind of her seeing as I am sure she must be on commission.

This morning, I found my credit card, plugged in my lap top and sat down to get us some well priced travel insurance from Costco on line. First question on the form asked me our ages. I type 64 and 62. Their response, “We see you are over 60 so we would like to ask you some health related questions”. Things seemed to go well enough for the first four questions but then they asked “have either of you ever had an organ transplant?” “Why yes one of us has” I proudly typed. They responded surprisingly quickly, “thank you for your application but unfortunately you do not qualify for emergency medical insurance.” The form closed.

hmm.. so then I tried Sunlife who have provided our extended health insurance for thirty five years, I thought they would love to sell us emergency medical insurance. For the Sunlife on line application form I had to answer questions for us, two at a time… Again, they asked our ages and also expressed that they would like to know more about our health situation since we were over 60. The first four questions went well but when they asked the now dreaded organ transplant question, E’s form disappeared and he was no longer an applicant.. whoosh.. His options were just gone…. The form closed

hmm.. so then I tried BCAA. We aren’t members any more but we were once. Surely that must count for something. I continued to fill in the form once the obligatory age question was answered. When they wanted to know details of our pre existing conditions asking if either of us has had an organ transplant, I was ready for them and already looking for the Blue Cross website. When you think about it, it’s kind of odd that they would include that question cause how often would anyone ever answer yes.

I answered yes. This time though, E’s form didn’t disappear and there was no passive aggressive thanks but no thanks response. Instead, the running total for the cost for his insurance jumped from $47.00 to $84.00. But they didn’t say no. My costs went up when I admitted to a propensity for kidney stones but that’s okay, they do come up suddenly and it could happen that I get stones when we are away. The likelihood however, that E is going to suddenly need a heart transplant during our four day stay is less so.

We are insured but goodness it’s no wonder we don’t travel very often. I can’t imagine what it would cost us to

winter in Hawaii