Taking a Musical Break

A majority of my friends know me in the context of music (I play bass guitar and drums), and they know I live and breathe music in all its variety. So it may sound strange that I am taking a break from that. The sad truth is that I am feeling the burnout and lack of skill growth on my instruments, and feel I should step back to rest and catch up.

The break is only about my public musical engagements. For any given week when I play at any church, for instance, I expect to spend about 18 hours in preparation and delivery. That week, I may download the songs and active-listen, practice on instrument against the original recordings, attend practice or rehearsals, practice again with set modifications, do scriptural review (music spiritual basis + sermon/series notes), personal "heart prep" (so I am in the right place spiritually to lead worship), and then play during the actual services. Sometimes there is travel involved. The preparation is a little different when I'm guesting in another band, as I have to learn their set and style. I've been fortunate to participate in everything from bar gigs to charity events and studio appearances. I enjoy the musical opportunities until the burnout arrives (now an annual thing, it seems), when you feel the passion slowly dying. You need rest from it before you lose it.

So until late January or early February 2014, I'll be on a sort of break. What shall I do with the freed up time? Well, my day job has already ramped up so I need the weekends for rest and recreation. During this break, I also want to work on improving my bass guitar and drums technique, so when I emerge I will be a better musician. I am also angling to work on completing my current 3 web development projects (LeafCompass, SKIVI, and Geldzin). Technically, I'll have improved skills in PHP/Symfony2, WordPress Theming, and HTML5/JQuery. True geek.

I'll perhaps cut off my dreadlocks (kidding!) and spend more time with my wife (truth). We are in such a season of our marriage that requires more presence and availability on my part, so I want to at least redesign and rehearse a new personal workflow centered around family life. It should also afford me a path to revitalize my business STRIVE, especially what services I want to offer next year. Lots of exciting things on the horizon!

Healthcare After Obamacare

With most health insurance companies having published their rates for 2014, we now know what will change in our plan and how Obamacare really affects us. Overall, health insurance rates will rise 4-6% across the board in our plan (so said HR) because of changes in compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

For our family however, my employer will be paying $483 every pay period to cover my spouse and I under an Anthem HRA PPO plan. That is roughly $996/month, a $146 (18%) increased cost to the employer. What we personally pay increases from $115/paycheck to $125 (about 9% increase). Since the plan retains most of its features, we can say healthcare will cost us only 9% more in 2014.

The other changes I see include an increase in our out-of-pocket deductible, from $4000 to $6000/year. So the only action we'll take is to increase our emergency fund by $2000. The employer still contributes $4000 into our Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) at the beginning of the year, and how we use the plan remains unchanged. I also notice an emphasis towards expanded preventive care at 100% coverage. There are more women's services, and oddly questionable items like coverage for sex reassignment. Why that in lieu of more important services like fertility treatments? Starting in 2015, we'll be able to unbundle services from our plans; there's plenty I'd strike off right away. I also notice that our dental plan is now capped at $2500, with coverages at 90/60/80 for basic treatment/major treatment/orthodontics. Preventive dental care is always 100% covered. The prescription plan and other benefits do not change.

So I'd say come next year, we are paying a little bit more for healthcare but getting a little less service. Not bad, considering the stories we've heard about people seeing insurance costs double or tripple on the private market (about 12% of the insured). While most have blamed Obamacare for these increases, the truth is that healthcare is expensive to begin with (around $900/month for a family), and its costs rise every year.

Rather than focus on access, I think healthcare reform should have first addressed why the costs are so high (see this PBS Newshour analysis, for example). Second, decoupling insurance from employment would squarely make it a market problem, much like automobile or renters insurance work. Then would it have been appropriate to consider how people access healthcare and how it is delivered. I wouldn't even mind reviewing so-called entitlements to care that ultimately someone else pays for. So whether it is Obamacare causing the price hikes or not, there is a chronic problem in US healthcare that will continue to haunt us regardless of regulation and taxation.

Healthcare Before Obamacare

As the healthcare exchanges open and people all over the US sign up for health insurance, we begin to review our own options so that we are in a position to evaluate what these exchanges will deliver. We start with a review of what we currently have, at least until the end of the year.

We get healthcare through my employer, covering both of us for all medical, dental, vision, mental (counseling), and prescriptions. For 2013, it costs us $115/paycheck (roughly $230/month), although my employer ultimately pays about $820/month for this benefit. Our $9840 annual cost to the employer for healthcare insurance is a little higher than the national average. Health insurance is quite expensive in this country, this before the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) kick in.

Additionally, my employer pays $4000 into our Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) at the beginning of the year, leaving our out-of-pocket deductible as $4000 annually. Whatever is not used up in the HRA the previous year is rolled over into the new year, in addition to new contributions from the employer. As we use up healthcare services, we don't start paying out-of-pocket until the HRA is depleted. When this happens, we pay up to $4000 out of pocket, and thereafter insurance covers the rest 100%. So as a matter of good planning, we decided to stow away the $4000 expected deductible as part of our emergency fund.

Medical coverage is provided by Anthem BlueCross, and includes preventive care, doctor visits, emergency room, hospital and board (3 days), and prescriptions (the complete list of benefits includes over 100 items that I do not care to list here, but that have 100% coverage in-network and 60-80% out of network). Of note, the lifetime maximum amount is unlimited. Dental coverage is provided by DeltaDental up to $3000, with 100% preventive care and basic treatments, and 80% major treatments and orthodontics. The vision plan is 100% covered beyond a $20 office visit fee.

To date, we have not had to pay anything out-of-pocket towards healthcare, even after the annual physicals and dental checkups we have done, except for various prescription co-pays at about $45/month. We like our healthcare plan thus far, but will shop around if the healthcare exchanges provide something better than what our plan will offer for 2014.

Church at a Crossroads

This year will be one of the most tumultuous at our home church (Woodmen Valley Chapel) since the days of Pierced Chapel, the defunct young adult group that was summarily ended 6 years ago. It feels like the church is once again at a crossroads, flipping the page to a new chapter. The staff resignations, worship leader departures, perceived internal strife, a stagnant membership, and the  announcement last weekend by the senior pastor that he is resigning his post all amount to some uncertainty. You start hearing grumbling from ex-members about how much the church hurt them, and antagonists about everything that is wrong with the church or its doctrine. It begins to feel funky somehow.

Regardless of the politics boiling behind the scenes, the church itself is still great. They teach the Word faithfully, support missions and small groups (necessary for a church this size), have the usual ministries (youth, singles, women, men, community outreaches), and have great worship. We have had the benefit of many a renowned speaker, and seen fruit from partnerships with other local ministries. Most of all, we have grown spiritually here and taken opportunities to get involved in community and others' lives. Being involved on the worship band has definitely helped me grow as a musician, at the very least. By any generous account, there is a lot of good at the church. Or maybe I am too naive.

So how should we interpret the latest goings-on at the church? We ought to understand that Satan is always at work to dismantle the work of the church everywhere. Introducing descent and causing conflict is one of his most effective ways, taking advantage of human frailty of the leadership and members. It is perhaps time for the church to re-evaluate while they figure out a (better) way forward in light of what is happening. It ought to be transparent, disclosing the whole truth to the congregation regarding the questions that will arise. It is not time to flee the church (as many will feel like doing), or even shifting blame (as some are already doing), but to weather this thicket together. We might not know the magnitude of what is going on, but we ought to be confident that where the Spirit is, the Church will stand. For the time being, we will stay at our church and wait to see how things turn out (and especially learn the truth behind this turmoil). This is either a simple transition (people come and go in any church situation), or there is something deeper we will soon learn about.

Haiti trip

The kids were a joy. They liked touching my hair since it was different from theirs. (Below) Jeannot was my translator and guide. Pray for him as he works two jobs once as a pastor and preparing to get married this Dec. It was an honor to spend time in Haiti. It's sad to see the poverty but to realize that God is still powerfully moving in the people.