Health Care

Today was the day that some of the new health care legislation provisions went into effect, mostly for kids and young adults. It took a while to find a news outlet that carried the story. Finally I came across a good summary put together by the good folks at the Baltimore Sun.

The highlights go something like this (not a complete list):

• Insurers can no longer deny coverage to children based on pre-existing conditions
• Annual limits will be banned on new plans (and all plans in 2014)
• Consumers will be able to appeal claims decisions through an external review process
• Up to 4 million small businesses become eligible for tax credits to provide insurance
• An estimated 4 million seniors will begin to receive $250 checks for prescription coverage gaps
• New resources will be used to crack down on health care fraud and waste
• New state or federal pools will offer coverage for adults with pre-existing conditions*
• Incentives such as scholarships and loan repayments will be offered to build up primary care
• States requiring insurers to justify premium increases could win grants and ban insurers from exchanges
• Extra payments will be available to rural health care providers in under-served areas

Above all, full time students can be carried on a parent's insurance plan until they turn 24 years of age.

Now we hear that there is a move afoot to repeal some or all of the reforms. This has become a political football based not in facts but ideology. Someone has decided that it would be cheaper to go back to the old way of doing business rather than getting what we are doing right, while at the same time helping others. What they do not realize is that it is in the best interest of the country from a security standpoint to take care of our own as best we can. Citizens that are unhappy with the basic needs they receive are more likely to create problems.

Most of all it is the kids that are going to be paying for the mistakes of those who have come before them. Doesn't it make sense to have them live longer in order to pay more of our way?

The complete Baltimore Sun article can be found at http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/health-care/bs-hs-health-insurance-for-young-20100920,0,1703938,full.story

Turning Your Back

Nearly seven years ago I was called to the home office of some friends of ours after a phone call my wife took. The friend complained that her husband was about to throw out his PC because of poor performance, putting their business at risk. My wife asked me to go over and help them, which I did.

I provided them six years of technical service and advice on how to advance their business using technology to achieve sales growth. Their business more than doubled without requiring any additional people. They were put on the web for the first time, provided with reliable email, fax to email conversion, server based storage and application delivery, mobile devices that worked, and a PC that did not need to be punted from the 50 yard line. Then one day they decided to move to an office.

The move was going to be complicated for them but I had offered a plan that would do it without service interruption. Being a small business I was sensitive to their need to watch costs but they were making the right investments. They failed to inform me of the move until we were right on top of the date they wanted all the work done on. I was working full time for another firm but achieved most of the move without incident, until we suffered a death in my family. I tried to explain how this occurrence would impact my ability to get the project done on time. What I got was "oh well, you have to die sometime". Immediately after that I was informed that my services were no longer required and that they were transitioning to a "real" company.

Ordinarily I would have said that this was "not personal, just business" but a weird thing happend recently that indicated otherwise. It is my daughter's senior year in high school and we have always gone to parent night to meet her teachers. In the last year since the above "transition" the business owner's daughter has transferred to the same high school. Walking down the hall last night in between classes we encountered the couple walking the other way. In the middle of the hallway they both turned their backs to me as I walked passed them in the opposite direction. As of that moment I realized their decision was not a business decision but rather a personal one.

Now that their business is growing strong they have elected not to share or give any credit to others for enabling their success. It just got personal. I do not turn my back to anyone and would like to think I deserve the same courtesy. One thing is for sure, they were the ones that showed their asses last night, not me.