A Dyke A Broad #100 Inflation Special
In which I get teary realizing that in France when a health problem comes up I have the luxury of worrying only about that, and not how monumental bills might follow. Also water chicks. And inflation.
Hello from Paris!
I’m pleased to announce I’m slowly getting over the mystery illness, even if the glands in my neck still threaten to explode whenever I bend to pick up something from the floor. Stuck in bed, I entertained myself by scrolling through endless ads for bicycles, and noticed a few days ago that a model I’d been considering yonks ago was on sale at its affordable pre-Covid price.
In short order, I staggered out, masked up, plunked down my card, then pedaled away to the Bois de Vincennes where I got an up-close look at my favorite waterfowl whose name I can never remember in English, but in French incorporates the word chicken, poule d'eau (nicheuse).
Google translate tells me it’s moorhen.
What I love is its squeaky call, and the jerky, head-nodding way it swims. Also that I can appreciate the little weirdos for free, sitting on a bench and staring, gaping too at those other astounding creatures, weekend joggers, who pant and gasp and never raise their heads from the gravel paths.
My god how prices are going up. Though we’re lucky here in France, luckier than many French people realize. While inflation overall is hovering at 5.8% here, a little over 5% for supermarket purchases, in the broader Eurozone inflation is up to 9.1% overall. For food it was 12.40 % higher in August 2022 than in 2021. Yikes.
Things are even worse in Brexitted Britain where overall inflation is near 10%, food up almost 13%. Energy prices there this winter are expected to increase almost 22%! Nevertheless, the new prime minister, Liz Truss, thinks it’s a great time to give a tax break to the wealthy. (A thinktank says richest tenth of UK households would receive £4,700 on average, and poorest tenth £2,200.) It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., August inflation was 8.3% overall. And for food, 11.4%. Biden’s recent Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes some health care provisions to lower the cost of prescription drug costs, but as far as I can tell that only helps people with Medicare, which is great for older people, but excludes around 81% of the U.S. population, so the victory seems a little partial.
The other day, after a few visits to doctors, I got positively teary realizing how good I have it now that I’m a permanent resident in France with basic health insurance and a modest supplemental plan that means when a health problem comes up I have the luxury of worrying only about my health, not the monumental bills that could arrive in the mail. Especially during an emergency or serious illness.
The French people who complain when a doctor’s visit goes up a few euros don’t know that in the U.S., even with insurance, a simple visit to an ER could easily end up costing the equivalent of a year’s rent, the value of a car, or even a house.
Once in France, when I still had only American travel insurance, I had to have an ovarian cyst removed and throughout the process was terrified that the company would pay nothing or just a little. Part of their requirement was that every aspect of the surgery had to be pre-approved or they could refuse to pay, and I made several visits to the billing department at the French hospital trying to demand an itemized list of possible expenditures.
“We’d never list a separate charge for an anesthetist. Or anesthesia. Or nurses. I don’t know how they do it in America, but do they really think a French surgeon would work alone on a patient while they’re still awake? Ridiculous! Having an anesthetist goes without saying. And a hospital bed to put you in. Are they serious?”
That was the conversation verbatim. I’m not exaggerating. They did finally cough up a couple of numbers. Meanwhile, during the last consult with the doctor pre-surgery, she asked if I had any concerns about the procedure. “No. But are you sure you can’t give me an estimate about how much it will cost?”
She was horrified. “Is that all you Americans think of? Money?” I didn’t tell her I was broke and more afraid of the bill than the outcome of the surgery. Who cared if that cyst was cancerous? There was no way I could pay back a significant bill. It crossed my mind I’d be better off dead. As it turns out, the cyst was benign, and the insurance company paid most of it. But the whole process was torture.
So while it’s true that the health care system in France is under strain, especially post-Covid, and there are vast health deserts in rural areas, it’s still a miracle to me to be in a country where health care is affordable (if you can access it) and the government meddles right and left to minimize the impact of inflation. So yes, this week I’m going to have a moment of early Thanksgiving.
In celebration of my great good fortune, and the fact that this is #100 of my A Dyke A Broad newsletter, (not counting the serialized Letters from Exile essay, and travel writing) I’d like to celebrate by drastically—and temporarily— lowering the price of the yearly subscription from $50 to $30. It’s the best deal you’re gonna get in these inflationary times. Good until 2023.
In Other News
For me, one of the most important developments this week.
Interesting Reads
Hurts so Good by Suzy Weiss has a lot of important points to make about health and young women, and if I can work up the energy I might write my own take for next week.
I love everything Victoria Smith writes including this piece, Ladette vs lioness which talks about soccer (football) and soccer fans and females…
There are times – and they’re most of the time – when I think of the feminism I espoused in my early twenties as a total disaster. All that mid-nineties raunch culture bullshit, urging you to get your tits out to own the second wave. How could I have thought it was feminism at all?
Did I really think downing pints like a man! was a feminist act? Where did I expect sleeping around like a man! to actually take me? How could I laugh along with sexist jokes on the flimsy basis that everyone knowing they were sexist made them ironic? Why, in short, was I such a total dupe?
She offers context with this quote by Margaret Atwood:
even pretending you aren't catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you're unseen, pretending you have a life of your own […] You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman.
In Racism is a big deal, Matthew Yglesias seems to be asking, What if, to fight racism, you should sometimes avoid talking about it?
Why? Because when you have “Two dueling factions of white people, the Repenters and the Repressers” anti-racism efforts sometimes backfire.
telling people about racial disparities in the criminal justice system made people less supportive of reform
One author he quotes with some skepticism suggests avoiding talking about it altogether, and being instead
a Non-Aligned person who focuses on directly addressing the underlying material inequalities.
Language seems like a weapon now, more than ever, Freddie deBoer wades into it with If You're a Living Language Type, Then You Have No Right to Dictate to Traditionalists How They Use Language
That’s it for this week.
Gruntledly yours,