6 ms·

Help Us Help Molly Holzschlag

146 points by cheeaun 13y ago

cheeaun 13y ago
For those wondering if this is legit, Molly herself has confirmed it on Twitter https://twitter.com/mollydotcom/status/398090908496691200 https://twitter.com/mollydotcom/status/398090908496691200
zdw 13y ago
Having met Molly at a CSS WG meeting last year, she's an amazingly enthusiastic (maybe too enthusiastic) contributor to the W3C. The fairy godmother comment is pretty spot on - she's plays the part of the consensus builder and conscience to various disparate technical parties.
diydsp 13y ago
Just out of curiosity, is this the kind of thing the Affordable Care Act would be expected to help?
- chrisrhoden 13y ago
  It's one of the things disability benefits and disability insurance are supposed to help.
- lftl 13y ago
  Not in any huge way that I see. She was on employer provided insurance, which won't undergo any huge changes that would change her situation. After the FMLA time period (where her employer could keep her on their insurance without her paying extra), she's now on COBRA which is basically an additional period where you can pay the full cost of your employer's plan to the insurance company directly, and extend your coverage by 18-36 months. The only difference under the ACA is that if she became unemployed during the annual open enrollment window, then she would be able to immediately jump to individual insurance rather than using COBRA. Depending on her income level, she might be eligible for a subsidy if she made the change. So depending on income, her state's insurance market, and when she gets sick she might be able to get insurance for less than $1000/mo she's paying in COBRA premiums.
  - anactualmd 13y ago
    My understanding is that Cobra becomes available after termination. Therefore, she's already unemployed.
    - free652 13y ago
      Kinda. My GF can get a cobra during an unpaid leave. So my GF is expecting a baby in December, so for the 6 months she has discounted healthcare and then if she doesn't come back. She gets unpaid leave and Cobra. Technically she wont be terminated, but she will have Cobra.
    - lftl 13y ago
      COBRA is available immediately once you're unemployed (left voluntarily or most of the time if you're fired), and it will still be the only short-term option for someone in Molly's position under the ACA. If you become unemployed and ill, you'll still need COBRA to cover you until you can get on an individual plan which will be available at the start of the next calendar year.
  - raelshark 13y ago
    My understanding is that she wouldn't be able to jump to individual insurance given her health status until pre-existing condition coverage kicks in this January.
rtb 13y ago
(As a brit) I don't understand this: "Molly was employed at the small NPO Knowbility as the Open Web Evangelist. Knowbility was able to put her on Family and Medical Leave which allowed Molly to retain her health insurance coverage. The FMLA time period has ended and the only coverage available now is through COBRA." So she had health insurance, but now that she's ill and has to stop work, it is stopping? If health insurance doesn't help you when you are sick, when does it help you? Thank god (and the Labour party) for the NHS.
- throwmeaway2525 13y ago
  We don't understand it, either. The fund is growing--good to see that!
- chrisrhoden 13y ago
  The standard in the US is that this is a different type of insurance (disability insurance) and it's often sold in parallel with life insurance. Disability benefits can also (often) become available in this situation, meaning that this is one of the only situations in which the fed will actually give you money (most other benefits are paid out by the state). Not saying that this is a good situation, just clearing up some misconceptions.
  - slowmover 13y ago
    Specifically, there are both short-term and long-term disability insurances. Both pay some percentage of your base pay (often 60%-80%, or even 100% for short-term) at the time of the qualifying event. Short-term kicks in first, but eventually runs out and the long-term insurance kicks in. Long-term insurance often covers the individual to retirement age. Take it from me, you really want to make sure you've got both, because shit happens.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    Noted spastic blabbermouth Jim Cramer makes a point of this in his books. He more or less calls disability insurance the most important financial product that people can buy.
- 13y ago
throwmeaway2525 13y ago
Wow, very generous donations coming in. It's really nice to see.
nekopa 13y ago
I want to help, but all I have is time and skills. So if anyone here needs some English language proof reading done (I do have some tech skills but they are very rusty) contact me, I will do the work, and you can donate something to this cause. Email is in my profile, and I'm the head teacher for a language school so my skills are good. My problem is I have two small babies and I live in a low income country so even $10 is tough for me to give right now, but I'm a worker, and I will pull an all nighter to do this. Honor code, I trust you to donate, send proof if you can, but either way I hope I can do something to help. I don't care how much (I know people who need English proof reading are probably coming from low income countries too) but anything would be good. Lee
songzme 13y ago
If you'd like to find out more about Molly, she has a blog. I enjoyed her Desktop Browser song: http://www.molly.com/ http://www.molly.com/
blahpro 13y ago
Molly's books were what really got me started with web development. She was kind enough to send me a signed copy of one of her books when I was probably ~13 years old after emailing her. About ten years later, I was able to meet up with her here in the UK for a coffee, which was lovely. If you can, please support Molly's treatment with a donation. Thank you.
ck2 13y ago
Best wishes to Molly for a speedy recovery and to feel better soon. Thank goodness she is famous, even if lesser known by the mainstream and friends can appeal to help her. For those that think the ACA (obamacare) will solve this after January, nope. A full half of the states [1] have denied medicaid expansion (because the supreme court ruled they could turn it down) which means if you fall into the gap where you "make too much money" ($12k - $16k) you cannot get health insurance. So if you got ill but were trying to work part time to stay in your home/pay rent, you will probably make too much to get health insurance! [1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/02/us/uninsured-americans-map.html?ref=health&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/02/us/uninsured-a... This is probably going to cause "healthcare migration" where people who get ill have to move to get assistance if they have some income but not enough.
- oijaf888 13y ago
  If you make less than (I believe its) 4x federal level of poverty in your area you are eligible for subsidies on your health insurance via the marketplace. The issue you are pointing out is where you make too much to qualify for your state's medicare plan but not enough to be able to pay for private insurance even with subsidies. So its not that you make "too much" to get health insurance, but you make too much to get free health insurance but too little to live off of and pay for private health insurance.
  - drivingmissm 13y ago
    "subsidies" is the new fancy term for "welfare" or "handouts". That's what it is, and there's no such thing as "free health insurance" only taxpayer-provided health insurance.
    - potatolicious 13y ago
      Pure pedantry. Nobody is under the illusion that doctors and nurses work for free. When people say "free" they mean "free for the user at the point of service", which is a bit of a mouthful. Exactly zero people believe that the health care doesn't have to be paid for by someone at some point. This is a straw man. Also, "tax breaks" is the fancy term for "welfare" or "handouts". See, I can do meaningless feel-good rhetoric! Let's debate these issues at their core, not resort to meaningless weasel words.
FlyingAvatar 13y ago
If you live in the US, this should serve as a warning that you need Long Term Disability insurance. If your employer doesn't offer it, get it yourself. Healthcare is still broken and ObamaCare doesn't fix this situation.
PeterisP 13y ago
What happens to people in USA with similar situation (employer-provided insurance ends, life sustaining healthcare is needed, no income to pay for that) who don't get a successful fundraiser? Bankruptcy due to unpaid medical bills? Withheld treatment because of non-payment, possibly causing death? Both of these? No offense, I'm simply curious on how the system works.
- bippi 13y ago
  I think you described it. In all likelyhood though, her income drops to zero, she qualifies for medicaid...which isn't great, ever...but it works.
- VLM 13y ago
  Life sustaining you'll get for free by the hospital which merely raises everyone elses rates. We already have socialized medicine, its just the "wrong" middlemen are profiteering. From personal experience via a friend with a broken arm, the hospital will eventually present you with the most amazing collection of bills you've ever seen with the most unimaginable rates, so a simple non-compound arm fracture and cast will end up billed as $50K. The goal of the hospital is to book as large of a paper loss as possible, so the paper loss will probably exceed actual service cost by a couple orders of magnitude. Somehow the ER doc who spent about 15 minutes verifying yes it is indeed broken will charge 6 hours of dedicated time, you'll be billed for entire jars of painkillers if they give you a single pill, etc. It'll take about six months for all the bills to arrive from all the doctors and the hospital, but bill collectors will start calling before the first bill arrives. Once you're sure you have all the bills, its bankruptcy time, which costs some time and money. So the real cost of any lifesaving medical procedure never exceeds maybe $2K to a lawyer, maybe less. She needed the car insurance money from the accident to get the car to continue to attend school and work, don't recall how she paid for the bankrupcty. Bankruptcy is actually pretty expensive and not surprisingly the sharks in the biz only take cash. The bankruptcy doesn't really matter, because part time no benefits minimum wage retail cashiers are not going to get mortgages and new car loans anyway. Legally officially it could be an issue for 7 years or whatever, in practice its not an issue after a couple years at most. I suppose if you had the misfortune to break your arm the week before graduation and you get a real job, you'd be out a substantial amount of money. It would be highly unwise to get married if you're poor, because if she was my wife at the time, I'd have had my financial life destroyed by her mere car accident and broken arm. At least that's how it was in the early 90s. Other than prices probably going up an order of magnitude or so, I suspect nothing has really changed.
baudehlo 13y ago
My one story about Molly - I met her as a speaker at an XML Conference around 1999 or 2000. She was extremely welcoming and kind to me, a wet behind the ears nobody at the time. We went for a speakers' pre-conference dinner that night, and it was decided we would have Sushi. As a Northern Brit I had never seen nor eaten sushi before, never mind looked at the menu. I asked if she minded ordering for me, and she graciously did so. As my first time eating sushi I assumed the small amount of guacamole provided would be topped up once I finished it, so I happily spread the top of a piece of sushi with half of my "guacamole". Never have I wanted to scream so much in my life. Molly just kindly passed me some extra water and made sure I was OK. I never really kept up with her, but she'll always be there sat next to me when I had my first ever wasabi experience.

146 points by cheeaun 13y ago

For those wondering if this is legit, Molly herself has confirmed it on Twitter https://twitter.com/mollydotcom/status/398090908496691200 https://twitter.com/mollydotcom/status/398090908496691200

zdw 13y ago

Having met Molly at a CSS WG meeting last year, she's an amazingly enthusiastic (maybe too enthusiastic) contributor to the W3C. The fairy godmother comment is pretty spot on - she's plays the part of the consensus builder and conscience to various disparate technical parties.

diydsp 13y ago

Just out of curiosity, is this the kind of thing the Affordable Care Act would be expected to help?

chrisrhoden 13y ago
It's one of the things disability benefits and disability insurance are supposed to help.
lftl 13y ago
Not in any huge way that I see. She was on employer provided insurance, which won't undergo any huge changes that would change her situation. After the FMLA time period (where her employer could keep her on their insurance without her paying extra), she's now on COBRA which is basically an additional period where you can pay the full cost of your employer's plan to the insurance company directly, and extend your coverage by 18-36 months. The only difference under the ACA is that if she became unemployed during the annual open enrollment window, then she would be able to immediately jump to individual insurance rather than using COBRA. Depending on her income level, she might be eligible for a subsidy if she made the change. So depending on income, her state's insurance market, and when she gets sick she might be able to get insurance for less than $1000/mo she's paying in COBRA premiums.
- anactualmd 13y ago
  My understanding is that Cobra becomes available after termination. Therefore, she's already unemployed.
  - free652 13y ago
    Kinda. My GF can get a cobra during an unpaid leave. So my GF is expecting a baby in December, so for the 6 months she has discounted healthcare and then if she doesn't come back. She gets unpaid leave and Cobra. Technically she wont be terminated, but she will have Cobra.
  - lftl 13y ago
    COBRA is available immediately once you're unemployed (left voluntarily or most of the time if you're fired), and it will still be the only short-term option for someone in Molly's position under the ACA. If you become unemployed and ill, you'll still need COBRA to cover you until you can get on an individual plan which will be available at the start of the next calendar year.
- raelshark 13y ago
  My understanding is that she wouldn't be able to jump to individual insurance given her health status until pre-existing condition coverage kicks in this January.

rtb 13y ago

(As a brit) I don't understand this: "Molly was employed at the small NPO Knowbility as the Open Web Evangelist. Knowbility was able to put her on Family and Medical Leave which allowed Molly to retain her health insurance coverage. The FMLA time period has ended and the only coverage available now is through COBRA." So she had health insurance, but now that she's ill and has to stop work, it is stopping? If health insurance doesn't help you when you are sick, when does it help you? Thank god (and the Labour party) for the NHS.

throwmeaway2525 13y ago
We don't understand it, either. The fund is growing--good to see that!
chrisrhoden 13y ago
The standard in the US is that this is a different type of insurance (disability insurance) and it's often sold in parallel with life insurance. Disability benefits can also (often) become available in this situation, meaning that this is one of the only situations in which the fed will actually give you money (most other benefits are paid out by the state). Not saying that this is a good situation, just clearing up some misconceptions.
- slowmover 13y ago
  Specifically, there are both short-term and long-term disability insurances. Both pay some percentage of your base pay (often 60%-80%, or even 100% for short-term) at the time of the qualifying event. Short-term kicks in first, but eventually runs out and the long-term insurance kicks in. Long-term insurance often covers the individual to retirement age. Take it from me, you really want to make sure you've got both, because shit happens.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  Noted spastic blabbermouth Jim Cramer makes a point of this in his books. He more or less calls disability insurance the most important financial product that people can buy.
13y ago

throwmeaway2525 13y ago

Wow, very generous donations coming in. It's really nice to see.

nekopa 13y ago

I want to help, but all I have is time and skills. So if anyone here needs some English language proof reading done (I do have some tech skills but they are very rusty) contact me, I will do the work, and you can donate something to this cause. Email is in my profile, and I'm the head teacher for a language school so my skills are good. My problem is I have two small babies and I live in a low income country so even $10 is tough for me to give right now, but I'm a worker, and I will pull an all nighter to do this. Honor code, I trust you to donate, send proof if you can, but either way I hope I can do something to help. I don't care how much (I know people who need English proof reading are probably coming from low income countries too) but anything would be good. Lee

songzme 13y ago

If you'd like to find out more about Molly, she has a blog. I enjoyed her Desktop Browser song: http://www.molly.com/ http://www.molly.com/

blahpro 13y ago

Molly's books were what really got me started with web development. She was kind enough to send me a signed copy of one of her books when I was probably ~13 years old after emailing her. About ten years later, I was able to meet up with her here in the UK for a coffee, which was lovely. If you can, please support Molly's treatment with a donation. Thank you.

ck2 13y ago

Best wishes to Molly for a speedy recovery and to feel better soon. Thank goodness she is famous, even if lesser known by the mainstream and friends can appeal to help her. For those that think the ACA (obamacare) will solve this after January, nope. A full half of the states [1] have denied medicaid expansion (because the supreme court ruled they could turn it down) which means if you fall into the gap where you "make too much money" ($12k - $16k) you cannot get health insurance. So if you got ill but were trying to work part time to stay in your home/pay rent, you will probably make too much to get health insurance! [1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/02/us/uninsured-americans-map.html?ref=health&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/02/us/uninsured-a... This is probably going to cause "healthcare migration" where people who get ill have to move to get assistance if they have some income but not enough.

oijaf888 13y ago
If you make less than (I believe its) 4x federal level of poverty in your area you are eligible for subsidies on your health insurance via the marketplace. The issue you are pointing out is where you make too much to qualify for your state's medicare plan but not enough to be able to pay for private insurance even with subsidies. So its not that you make "too much" to get health insurance, but you make too much to get free health insurance but too little to live off of and pay for private health insurance.
- drivingmissm 13y ago
  "subsidies" is the new fancy term for "welfare" or "handouts". That's what it is, and there's no such thing as "free health insurance" only taxpayer-provided health insurance.
  - potatolicious 13y ago
    Pure pedantry. Nobody is under the illusion that doctors and nurses work for free. When people say "free" they mean "free for the user at the point of service", which is a bit of a mouthful. Exactly zero people believe that the health care doesn't have to be paid for by someone at some point. This is a straw man. Also, "tax breaks" is the fancy term for "welfare" or "handouts". See, I can do meaningless feel-good rhetoric! Let's debate these issues at their core, not resort to meaningless weasel words.

FlyingAvatar 13y ago

If you live in the US, this should serve as a warning that you need Long Term Disability insurance. If your employer doesn't offer it, get it yourself. Healthcare is still broken and ObamaCare doesn't fix this situation.

PeterisP 13y ago

What happens to people in USA with similar situation (employer-provided insurance ends, life sustaining healthcare is needed, no income to pay for that) who don't get a successful fundraiser? Bankruptcy due to unpaid medical bills? Withheld treatment because of non-payment, possibly causing death? Both of these? No offense, I'm simply curious on how the system works.

bippi 13y ago
I think you described it. In all likelyhood though, her income drops to zero, she qualifies for medicaid...which isn't great, ever...but it works.
VLM 13y ago
Life sustaining you'll get for free by the hospital which merely raises everyone elses rates. We already have socialized medicine, its just the "wrong" middlemen are profiteering. From personal experience via a friend with a broken arm, the hospital will eventually present you with the most amazing collection of bills you've ever seen with the most unimaginable rates, so a simple non-compound arm fracture and cast will end up billed as $50K. The goal of the hospital is to book as large of a paper loss as possible, so the paper loss will probably exceed actual service cost by a couple orders of magnitude. Somehow the ER doc who spent about 15 minutes verifying yes it is indeed broken will charge 6 hours of dedicated time, you'll be billed for entire jars of painkillers if they give you a single pill, etc. It'll take about six months for all the bills to arrive from all the doctors and the hospital, but bill collectors will start calling before the first bill arrives. Once you're sure you have all the bills, its bankruptcy time, which costs some time and money. So the real cost of any lifesaving medical procedure never exceeds maybe $2K to a lawyer, maybe less. She needed the car insurance money from the accident to get the car to continue to attend school and work, don't recall how she paid for the bankrupcty. Bankruptcy is actually pretty expensive and not surprisingly the sharks in the biz only take cash. The bankruptcy doesn't really matter, because part time no benefits minimum wage retail cashiers are not going to get mortgages and new car loans anyway. Legally officially it could be an issue for 7 years or whatever, in practice its not an issue after a couple years at most. I suppose if you had the misfortune to break your arm the week before graduation and you get a real job, you'd be out a substantial amount of money. It would be highly unwise to get married if you're poor, because if she was my wife at the time, I'd have had my financial life destroyed by her mere car accident and broken arm. At least that's how it was in the early 90s. Other than prices probably going up an order of magnitude or so, I suspect nothing has really changed.

baudehlo 13y ago

My one story about Molly - I met her as a speaker at an XML Conference around 1999 or 2000. She was extremely welcoming and kind to me, a wet behind the ears nobody at the time. We went for a speakers' pre-conference dinner that night, and it was decided we would have Sushi. As a Northern Brit I had never seen nor eaten sushi before, never mind looked at the menu. I asked if she minded ordering for me, and she graciously did so. As my first time eating sushi I assumed the small amount of guacamole provided would be topped up once I finished it, so I happily spread the top of a piece of sushi with half of my "guacamole". Never have I wanted to scream so much in my life. Molly just kindly passed me some extra water and made sure I was OK. I never really kept up with her, but she'll always be there sat next to me when I had my first ever wasabi experience.