More ruminations, rambles, rants and raves from the downhill side of the mountain.
Just so you know exactly where I stand vis-a-vis today's polarized politics, let me recommend this organization to you.
And I also recommend my gentle employer to you as well. The Barnes & Noble Affiliate Network, which seemed to have stopped working, is back in operation, so the links and banners are working again.
Now, go buy some books.
And I also recommend my gentle employer to you as well. The Barnes & Noble Affiliate Network, which seemed to have stopped working, is back in operation, so the links and banners are working again.
Now, go buy some books.
Links:
Fox Den: Creative (i.e. Fiction)Writing
A Pilgrim's Progress
Ian's Knowledge Modelling Weblog
Future Scan: Future Studies Department University of Houston at Clear Lake
PLSJ (aka Anne, the Anthropologist)
link
Lost in Transit
link
Coffee Grounds
Traveling in Style
Slacktivist Recommended with a bullet!
Hoofin To You: Bridgewater, NJ politics
Inadmissible Evidence
Big Black Van
Overflow
In Spite of Years of Silence
Metamorphosism (Mig's new blog)
Real Live Preacher
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Alas, A Blog
A Fistful of Euros
BuzzMachine
Eschaton
Pedantry
The Poor Man
Barefoot and Naked
Boing Boing
Craigblog
Fafglob
The Road to Surfdom
link
E-Mail Me
My Other Blogs, Journals and such
Fox Den: Creative (i.e. Fiction)Writing
A Pilgrim's Progress
Business/Economics/Future Studies and other Social Sciences
Ian's Knowledge Modelling Weblog
Future Scan: Future Studies Department University of Houston at Clear Lake
PLSJ (aka Anne, the Anthropologist)
link
International
Lost in Transit
link
New Jersey New York Pennsylvania and Delaware
Coffee Grounds
Traveling in Style
Slacktivist Recommended with a bullet!
Hoofin To You: Bridgewater, NJ politics
Inadmissible Evidence
Personal/General
Big Black Van
Overflow
In Spite of Years of Silence
Metamorphosism (Mig's new blog)
Real Live Preacher
Blogs with Attitude
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Alas, A Blog
A Fistful of Euros
BuzzMachine
Eschaton
Pedantry
The Poor Man
Barefoot and Naked
Boing Boing
Craigblog
Fafglob
The Road to Surfdom
link
E-Mail Me
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And finally, here are a few books I might recommend for your edification and amazement.
What's the Matter with Kansas?
Friday, February 28, 2003
My wife works for a Montessori school. As businesses go, it is not very large. The school does have a medical insurance plan and it does pay (on a sliding scale depending upon length of service) a percentage of the employee's premiums. It does not, however, pay for spouse and/or family coverage. Those premiums come directly out of the teacher's paycheck.
Well, we just got the new rate schedule for the coming year. The kindly insurance company has increased their premium rate schedule by 25%. It now costs, for an employee and spouse, about $2200/month. Of that sum, $1150/month is not picked up in any part by the school. This is not a form of insurance, this is a form of highway robbery.
Sure, some of the exorbitant cost can be attributed to the "usual suspects" (malpractice insurance costs to doctors cause increased number of tests and higher fees yada-yada), but the real culprit is the fact that insurance companies are no longer (for the most part) mutual companies which are owned by the policy holders. Now they are straight "for profit" public companies who see their insured clients as profit centers who need to be milked for every last cent possible. Charge as much as possible while paying out as little as possible; that is the new mantra of the insurance industry. And it sucks.
I am so fortunate that I now work for a very large corporation which has pricing power as far as insurance is concerned. I am switching to my company's insurance program as soon as I am eligible. So, even though I earn below poverty level in direct pay, the health insurance benefit the company provides is like giving our family a $1000/month raise. Still, it is time to seriously start thinking about alternatives to the system we now have in place. Insurance companies should not be "for profit". They should collect enough premiums to insure that they can pay claims, and any surplus at the end of the year should be applied, pro rata, to the next year's premiums.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005
