I had heart surgery when I was 25.  

It cost me only $15 because I had great health insurance through the LA Times, and because California has strong health care regulations. The surgery cured me of a sports-induced arrhythmia that had haunted me since I was a boy.  It freed me of a tremendous physical and psychological burden.  It may have saved my life. 

A few months later, I left the LA Times and decided to let my health insurance lapse because I didn't want to make the COBRA payments.  In my early 30's, I was covered thanks to the Directors Guild, but I let my insurance lapse when I moved to Virginia and stopped making DGA films.  Again, I didn't want to pay for COBRA. 

When young healthy people do as I did -- stay out of the system unless and until we need it -- we drive up costs for everyone else. I paid $15 for heart surgery.  The rest of the tab was picked up by people who didn't have the option of gambling with their health, and were forced to pay rising premiums.  By spending most of the last 12 years uninsured, I have saved money, but it has cost me in other ways.  For instance, I fractured my wrist playing baseball and didn't see a doctor.  It never quite healed correctly.  I've also had to worry about the consequences for me and my family if I was in an accident, or if learned I had cancer but it was too late to treat it.

When I buy health insurance in 2010, I will be paying into a system that has already greatly improved my life.  If a few years pass before I need to go to the hospital again, my monthly payments will not have been wasted.  I will have had a sense of security knowing I don't actually have cancer, and I have coverage if I'm in an accident.  And, I will have paid my share toward the collective good, making health coverage more affordable for others. 

I hope the emerging paradigm shift in Washington will spread to all Americans, in particular to young people who think they don't need insurance, and may resent the choice between getting insurance and paying a fine.  To them I would say the gamble isn't worth it: buying into the new health insurance exchanges will be in the interest of your individual security, your family's security, and the nation's.

This was my first feature film as writer/director.  I shot it in 2001 and finished it in 2002.  In 2003 it came out in theaters and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards. 
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syesvh_jUVQ

www.CharlotteSometimesTheMovie.com

"...UNCANNILY REALISTIC, MYSTERIOUS and EROTIC!
This is a relationship picture that plays like
an emotional thriller." --Roger Ebert, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"...GORGEOUS!...A smartly made, hedonistic
spectacle of alluring, nubile characters, sun-warmed narcissism
and breathtaking color that approaches the exoticism
of Vietnamese filmmaker Anh Hung Tran
("The Scent of Green Papaya" and "Cyclo")." --Desson Thomson, THE WASHINGTON POST

"A WORK OF THE UTMOST SUBTLETY AND PERCEPTION!
The outstanding feature debut of writer-director
Eric Byler, who understands the power of the implicit
and the virtues of simplicity and economy. ...Every image is
charged with wit, significance and emotion. Would that all
love stories were as sophisticated and amusing as
the satisfying "Charlotte Sometimes." --Kevin Thomas, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

"...NOTABLY CINEMATIC STORYTELLING! The deft shading Byler elicits from his thesps is of a piece with his dramatics and his understated, artful approach to compositions and movement.."
--Robert Koehler, VARIETY

"...Writer-director Eric Byler demonstrates a refreshing trust in his material and his audience, crafting a compact, intriguing drama from understated performances and a subtle visual sensibility."
--Sheri Linden, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

" A SEXY, SURPRISING ROMANCE!
Idemoto and Kim make a gorgeous pair... their scenes brim with
sexual possibility and emotional danger." --Carla Meyer, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL-kbeZenaE

If you missed Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's dreadful performance on Meet the Press yesterday, click here to see a man with a promising future throw it all away for cheap political points.

But to truly appreciate how foolish Jindal made himself look on Sunday, you need to watch the subsequent interview with Florida Governor Charlie Crist rejecting Jindal's petty partisanship:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4IKFdOcpp8

Time Magazine's Joe Klein said it best, from both an economic policy and political perspective.

Crist supported John McCain in the election, but says in "take 2" of his interview, "When the campaign's over, it's over."  He also praised President Obama's first weeks in office, and said he hopes he succeeds.  Jindal has another agenda.  He is siding with the Rush Limbaugh wing (the extremist wing) of the Republican Party.  If they howl and whine about Obama's efforts to rebuild the economy, they can say "I told you so" if their hopes come true and America falls deeperin into recession.  This is Jindal's path to the White House in 2012, or so he thinks.  But how much pain is he willing to inflict on the people of Lousiana in order to get his chance?

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzlUKlVL2Uo

It’s clear that Barack Obama has captured the spirit of civic engagement that awakened in millions of Americans, aided by netroots techonology, and propted by the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina, two of many disasters that have resulted from 8 years of partisan politics without effective governance.  But it may be that the most important changes are taking place within the Republican Party.