Stupidest reason ever to get rid of your land line

Now that I'm not actively posing as a professor, it's easier to let out the deep, dark secret that sometimes I am exceptionally stupid.

The latest example is not only humbling in the extreme, but relevant to the subject of Medicare, drug costs, and the absurdity of our health care "system."

When we last spoke, I was trying to figure out how much it would cost to keep myself alive under Medicare, with various options and allowing for possible future changes in the drugs I take (and how they are delivered). Medicare supplemental ("Medigap") insurance looked like an attractive option, until I found out that Kentucky outlaws Medigap policies written to those under 65 (I haven't researched the rationale for this yet, but guess it involves fraud).

Nevertheless, I spent hours looking for quotes on Medigap policies, and getting increasingly frustrated. At some point, my eyes rolled back into my head, and I clicked on a website that I had been dodging for hours. I won't even put the name here, to limit collateral damage. Suffice it to say that it contained "medicare", the name of a large health insurance company, and "solutions". I KNEW this was a trap, but I was no longer functioning rationally. So I gave this obvious cybersquatting scumbucket my home phone number, name, and email address. It was like an out-of-body experience.

In less than a minute, the phone began to ring. I realized my mistake, but that wasn't going to do me much good. What's more, the calls weren't coming from one or a few places--they were coming from all kinds of different phone numbers, each connected to a boiler-room operation selling insurance (they didn't even generally know what kind of insurance I was "looking for"). I hung up on some, didn't answer others, concluded that the only short-term relief was to disconnect the phone, which I did. Took some deep breaths, and recalled that our landline was used only by two people whose contact we valued: Liz's mother (Fran) and our daughter (Rosie). Rosie calls regularly and she likes the randomness of calling the house rather than one or the other of our cell phones, but will get over it. Fran calls less often, and can easily be transitioned to calling Liz's phone, which I might pick up if it's not in Liz's possession anyway.

And we can save $30 a month! Not much downside, I guess. But I can't really feel positive about the change, under the circumstances. We (no, I) have been coerced by malign forces into a choice we (I) hadn't planned to make. Moreover, I played right into their hands. Once again, I have to wonder about how a person less informed, less educated, etc. can be expected to even survive in this environment. And now I'm thinking: I'm simply becoming one of those people I have been worrying about. I've got my Medicare card, my Social Security pension, my obsession with collecting the mail as soon as it arrives. I'm a goddamn senior citizen, for Christ's sake.