Bills

I wrote to this a little in my last post but I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of uncertainty today. It could just be the sheer exhaustion I'm feeling or it could be that the exhaustion lets in these little cracks--who knows. Regardless, I need to sit down and crunch some numbers regarding bills to pay from the road.

The phone bill is the obvious one. We have Sprint so coverage is alright until you get out west.

http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?

There is a lot of roaming area so we will have to be careful about that. AT&T was the worst for random charges on our cell bill but Sprint has been surprisingly straight forward; however, it would be nice not to send our phone bill skyrocketing in charges over the course of this trip. The coverage wanes significantly as you hit the northwest and Oregon is a huge swath of "No Coverage".

Car insurance is cheap enough that it shouldn't be a problem, either. This is simply deciding to pay forward a bit or continue on monthly payments. It might be better to simply make one payment that covers us for a while.


The health insurance is another matter. I can buy into plans as an adjunct and one of the schools offers a decent PPO--which would be ideal since we have no idea where we will be. However, the $250/month for two of us might be more difficult. You can purchase COBRA from the University where we are employed that last up to six months after you leave your position. You pay out of pocket for this and the services are limited to the area. This runs around $400/person--definitely out of the price range. And, what of medical history? Although mild, I have pre-existing conditions by some insurance standards, I receive maintenance treatment (more on this later) and each of these are guaranteed to make the costs rise. Navigating the personal insurance is terrible. I feel at sea trying to figure out what is offered, how it is offered, the jargon, the necessary coverage, and so much more. And how to explain to the agencies that I really don't have a location currently since I will be on the road and uncertain where I will be after that?

These issues can't be new for the traveler. You can purchase traveler's insurance for international trips but what of domestic coverage? I suppose this gets lumped in with your personal insurance. Who has the vacation accrual to simply leave work for several months to travel, though, to keep this coverage? Teachers?

We will have to sit down and crunch some serious numbers to figure out this insurance mess.