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One year later, where are the higher healthcare costs?

One year into the life of the healthcare overhaul bill passed by President Obama and the Democrats in Congress, and really I think you would be hard pressed to find too many people screaming for the bill to be stricken down (other than Tea Party members, of course).

The reality of the thing is that, while Republicans have frequently called for skyrocketing healthcare costs and denial of services, it would be disingenuous to say that these things have yet to materialize.

That’s not to say the bill is broadly popular, by any means. Just that it is not experiencing any sort of backlash, visible to the common beholder. A recent Gallop poll shows 46% of Americans in support of the measure, while 40% are opposed to it. Juan Williams for Fox News wrote about the subject today, calling the situation “sunny.”

Kirsten Powers, on the same news site, came out calling for a public acceptance of the bill for all of its qualities (and shifting blame for its vices on the age old causes of skyrocketing healthcare costs; remind me, what was this bill supposed to be doing again?).

However, beneath the surface is a torrent of activity which, if revealed, would likely surprise the average citizen.

The best way to see this activity is through the eyes of one of the benefits consultants currently involved with the companies that are dealing with the new costs and regulation. For instance, Towers Watson has been aggressively interpreting information as it has materialized, putting much of that on the front of their website. I know of a few other consultant groups who are providing similar fast paced advisement services.

Healthcare overhaul is going to be the big thing this year; and that’s saying a lot, as it wasn’t exactly a small thing last year.

Going into last year, only 14% of respondents in a Towers Watson survey said they thought the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would help keep costs down, although 96% said that was a high priority to them.

Only 20% thought that the reforms would improve quality of care.

These numbers are quite significant, as they represent the general mood of business towards the act. Keep in mind, health costs are a large portion of any responsible corporations budget; business owners have been very tepid about spending money and budgeting over the last year.

Still, despite the concern of HR departments and management the country over, it appears as though their worries were blown out of proportion, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, no.

You see, last year, carriers (most notably the big ones, like Blue Cross Blue Shield) went and did exactly what you would expect from savvy corporations.

Facing uncertainty and understanding that most provisions would not be fully understood for some time thereafter, they knew that reacting at the moment was pointless. And they also understood that if they rushed to raise rates when everyone was looking at the issue they would be painted as opportunistic, greedy, bloodsucking monsters. So many of these carriers moved to conform to the new law immediately, despite being grandfathered in for a couple years more.

And they ate the costs.

However, those happy days are done. These companies have been taking losses, giving out services for less than free. They did so for the purpose of expediency. However, the changes are coming.

And the unfortunate reality is that, this year, employers who were already scrambling from needing to implement the legislation themselves are about to get hit hard; a cost increase likely double to what they’re used to. One part of that increase is for going forward. One part is retroactive pricing for the free six months – one year that the carriers were giving out.

That’s if they’re lucky. Plenty are getting nailed to the tune of 20% cost increases or greater.

If you’re in an HR group, you probably already know this. But if you’re an employee, let me give you an intro to some new terminology you’ll be getting to know intricately very soon.

• Copay – this will bring new meaning to the word. The only thing that can’t be touched under Obamacare is preventative services. But that leaves a lot that can be touched.

• Deductibles – I bet every plan in the next five years will have a deductible; carriers will not be offering any plan that doesn’t have one. No more effortless services; they want you to share the pain, so you think twice about whether you need that pain medication (did you catch the irony?).

• Consumer Driven Health Plans – this one is probably new to most of you. Just understand, it functions as a series of accounts where your cost depends on your usage; much like everything else in life. You will be required to put away money into a tax free account that pays no interest and gets wiped clean every year. It will be an immense headache to most of you, and you will hate these plans very much.

• Generic Drugs – Rx costs are the number one growing segment in healthcare, already accounting for something like one third of gross expenses. Guess what? Purchases of brand name drugs will be paid for in blood, for you certainly will not be paying for them in dollars. Preferred brand names will cost as much as 8x more than generics. Non-preferred will…well, just don’t ask.

• Spousal De-coverage – guess whose significant other won’t be getting under your plan if they have coverage elsewhere? Did you guess, “mine?”

• Benefit Cuts – Even if it looks like nothing has changed…it probably has. Small tweaks, like in the definition of what constitutes “necessary” or an “accident” will probably floor you the first time you get stuck with a $700 bill after an unapproved visit to the ER.

• Per Member Costs – Up until now, a group of three or more has been billed as a family, regardless of whether that meant a man, a woman, and a child, or a man and his six illegitimate offspring. Now, many plans will start forcing you to pay for your children’s coverage, since they will be responsible for your offspring for much longer. Just remember, just because coverage can’t be denied, doesn’t mean coverage is free.

You see, friends, nothing is free. There are always trade offs – yours just got delayed a bit. Renewal dates for health plans will come as a nasty surprise for many of you, as you get socked with deep cuts to things you took for granted. These cuts will most likely be the equivalent of a 10-12% decrease in the cost of your health plan to your company. To you, that would likely translate to an increase of somewhere between 80-200% in fees from what you are paying now. Whether you actually pay that much more, or just have value secretly denied you, remains up to your employer. However, the necessity to trim does not.

Folks like Mr. Williams and Mrs. Powers have been asking, “where is all the suffering that everyone was screaming about?” The answer is:

It’s coming.

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Editorial: Michigan kicks off the protest party

In a logical progression, which I’ve been expecting for some time now, Michigan’s most self entitled have suddenly awoken, up in arms over the new budget being proposed by Rick Snyder.

As I said, this is no surprise to me; I’ve been waiting for it day and night since Wisconsin kicked off the party by slamming unions.

An attack on unions anywhere could challenge the unions nationwide. And nowhere in this nation are unions thicker, dumber, and more obstinate than in the state shaped like a hobo’s glove.

I should know; I’ve lived here my whole life.

I have had the unenviable pleasure of watching our state’s self centered bullshit spiral now for literally decades. I talk with the aged then-70’s revolutionists who are now teaching my state’s youth. I’ve passed by the limestone monuments that the entitlement culture erected to themselves on Detroit’s coastline. I’ve shaken my head for years as their members complained how no business wants them and their unappreciative and rigid demands.

And so, it was inevitable that when this snowball started rolling down the hill, it would eventually blast through Lansing, MI. on its way to Detroit.

From the Detroit FreePress:

LANSING – More rallies are planned at the Capitol this week to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget and tax plans, and labor union leaders warmed up the stage today by denouncing what they called tax breaks for big businesses at the expense of families, seniors and school children.

A rally of seniors Tuesday is to be spearheaded by AARP Michigan, which has arranged nine busloads of 400 seniors. The “It’s not Fair!” rally is certain to focus on Snyder’s proposal to end income tax exemptions on pensions.

Wednesday, another union-led rally is planned, similar to several in recent weeks, the largest a Feb. 26 rally to show sympathy for protesters in Wisconsin opposed to moves there to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers.

Nothing here should really surprise you much; same self entitled crap that gets spewed anytime a “sacrosanct” benefit is cut or reduced, anywhere in the country. All the same talking points, even.

However, where the Michigan variation of this culture stands out is in its blatant stupidity and subsequent willingness to phrase obviously ludicrous propositions as if they were matter of fact principles.

Confused? Let’s bring up a later statement of this news article to make my point:

Among those promoting the seniors rally Tuesday is Mary Lee Woodward, 63, of Oxford. She started a Facebook page to drum up opposition on Feb. 17, the same day Snyder unveiled his budget plan.

She said she’s a GM retiree who’s especially angry over his proposal to tax all of her pension.

Okay, so far so good. A Michigan GM retiree who has a tax free pension and thinks she shouldn’t have to pay up. Not notable. But where does this woman stand out, that I would bring her up?

“I bought a new truck and a house,” Woodward said. “If I have to pay tax on my pension, I’m going to lose my truck.”

Did you catch that?

Glossing over what a 63 year old woman is doing buying a house on nothing but a pension, or the fact that plenty of other states in this country do tax pensions, let’s just skip straight to the point where she wants an entire state of almost ten million people to scream to a halt and suffer so that she can keep her brand new fucking-automobile.

And just why is it, then, that if her pension gets taxed she will lose her new car (many people here are losing the home and the car) in the first instance?

Because she, like the distinguishable preponderance of every union member I’ve ever met in my life, is absolutely terrible at budgeting and planning.

They’ve spent their days running their budgets to the hilt – 100%, flat lining, running on empty, burning the motor, spinning the wheels…call it whatever you want. They have zero maneuvering room in their day to day lives. If this were poker, they ante up, every single time.

And if anything goes wrong, they get completely wiped out.

Except, they do it in a way that is completely, terrifying, numbingly afraid of any perception of “risk.” Of their cash flow, which they are spending up dry every single day of every single week of every months, without even a penny to spare, they aren’t even bothering to take gambles that could maybe, possibly pay off.

I mean, if a see a gambler, maybe he hits it big in slots. If I see someone blowing their life savings on speculative penny stocks, at least the potential payout is thousands, tens of thousands, millions even – to one. Sure, they’ll likely lose it all, if not today then tomorrow. But there is that lingering, almost unimaginably imaginable chance that it could happen.

And that’s what’s instead so pathetic about these kinds of people.

Here, you have someone who at every moment could lose it all, so if you even debate changing anything in the slightest (shy of just handing them more money, of course) they immediately jump to charge, claiming you hate them, children, pets, Jesus, what have you…because if they fail and anything deviates AT ALL, then it’s game over.

But the best case situation is that they come out on par.

And they run this gamble in the same world where just this week revolutionaries are burning the Middle East to the ground and Japan gets half of its shoreline crushed by a tsunami.

But the worst part of it is definitely the selfishness; the persistent demand that everyone else drop their own ambition, goals, and dreams to shelter them.

That’s the great irony here; you may not have caught onto it yet, if you live anywhere else. But here, in Michigan, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing this cycle through. Most of the states with overly influential entitlement programs have only been driven to the brink of bankruptcy.

Here in Michigan, on the other hand, we’re bankrupt. Our state’s been in a recession for over a decade, even while the rest of the world enjoyed the bounties of the greatest bull market bubble we’ve ever seen. That angle lets you glimpse what’s going to happen in other, similar situations now being set up across the country.

It’s sort of like tomorrow’s news, today.

So what’s so ironic about entitled people and just how is it that they’re selfish?

Most people who have something have it because they sacrificed for it. They spend sometimes literally decades striving for that goal. And, while they’re striving, they often do so in a state of wanting.

Pampered offspring of the rich aside, I don’t know many successful people who just fell into lavishness. There’s usually a period of time there when they have less than everyone around them.

When you think about it, it’s obvious why.

In order to save up for big plans, the tradeoff is what you have in the moment. And, since ultimately big plans entitle risks that can leave the practitioner without anything they put into those plans, the act of success very much entails being more content with having less. If you aren’t willing to rent and eat lower quality food, forgo those fun thousand dollar toys, the new car, the new furniture, the new…stuff; well then, you’ll likely never make it very far.

So many of the wealthiest people could be by themselves in a modest setting with very few worldly possessions and, while perhaps striving for more, would still be perfectly happy.

If the endless insults against the “unquenchable greed” of the wealthy have ever caused you to hesitate, it is perhaps that you understood this fact. Many of the world’s richest people are also quite sensible.

Not so with the men and women who are out and about protesting today. They aren’t happy unless they have all of their little bronze fantasy. It must be the four new cars, the house, the ten acres of land, the ATV’s and the snowmobiles and the new golf clubs…and the “everything”.

Miss any of it, and they become disgruntled, dissatisfied, discontented. If any piece of it is missing, then they are genuinely unhappy.

And so these kinds of people are both very greedy AND shit ass poor. Which is the worst sort of depravity there is.

And believe me when I say, they use their near poverty as part of their argument. “Why are you just beating up on poor little old me, with only my small house and few cars and couple million friends who are in the same boat?” It’s not like any one of them has anything substantial.

And that is where the irony comes.

What is greed? Is it what a man has?

Or is it what a man can’t live without?

Really, in that both groups grabbed as much as they could without ever genuinely risking themselves and their positions, I see little difference between the kind of greed that was present in the likes of a Stanford or a Madoff and the kind of greed present in the several million twittering union members across this country, unless it’s this:

Sure, Stanford and Madoff sold out. But at least they exchanged their integrity and their soul’s damnation for a lifetime of unequivocal power. Compare that with these budget busting assholes, who’ve sold their integrity for a four bedroom house and a truck.

And in trying to hide their own willingness to keep what they never sacrificed for, along the way of this entire lengthy process, which is just now ensuing, you can expect them to continue trying to label everyone else as more greedy than they.

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What Now After The Public Union Face Off?

The recent actions being taken across the country to reduce public union bargaining abilities and restructure benefit plans is as inflammatory as it is intriguing.

Since the Wisconsin Democrats fled three weeks ago, the state of affairs has been inarguably terse; having tens of thousands of protestors flown in from around the country is a difficult enough situation when you consider that these people have to eat and sleep somewhere. The logistics alone are stressful, before adding in the anger that has been at elevated levels since this freeze began.

However, now that a resolution appears to be in sight, it seems like this highly infuriating subject is a good point on which to focus my efforts, to address a generally absurd claim I’ve been hearing.

The argument goes something like this:

This is the first step to returning to 1920 labor conditions. Without the unions and their ability to collectively bargain, there is no one protecting the working class.

Ignoring the fact that collective bargaining for pay raises has little to nothing to do with working conditions (and public unions haven’t completely lost the right to strike without consequence), here’s an incomplete list of United States Labor Laws in no particular order:

1. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (amended to cover government employees in 1974)
2. Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
3. Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
4. Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
5. Civil Rights Act of 1964
6. Civil Rights Act of 1991
7. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
8. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
9. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

If you’d like to see the behemoth that is US Labor Law, an open indication that this is not the 1920’s, then by all means, check out the entire list of them here.

What is generally apparent is that the rights of U.S. workers are guaranteed considerably beyond the overly simplified illustration of organized labor constantly fighting off the attempts of some blurry menace, Big Business, to destroy them.

Unfortunately, while the entirety of this issue was entertaining to watch, it brought only instability and, even after this outcome, no relief to the three groups that need it the most; government entities, business organizations, and taxpayers.

Wisconsin is still broke, desperately hoping to hold even. And for the moment taxpayers and their businesses are still paying exactly what they were before now.

But, perhaps the debt of public entities will now improve going forward.

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