A month later and there has FINALLY been some more progress on the house. The flatwork is finally done. That means I have a basement floor. Things are supposed to move pretty quickly for here on out but we’ll see.
Monthly Archives: October 2013
An Election Of Some Note
There was a special election in New Jersey yesterday to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Frank Lautenberg who died earlier this year from pneumonia. New Jersey, you may remember, is currently run by Governor Chris Christie who was the Republican flavor of the moment prior to Ted Cruz. Christie took a bit of heat for calling the special election from pretty much everyone. He refused to appoint a Senator which pissed off the Republicans and he called for a special election instead of holding the election on the regular election date which pissed off Democrats since voter turnout would be much more difficult. The special election also cost New Jersey millions of dollars more which pissed of governmental waste hawks like Chris Christie. Ha! Just kidding, there are no governmental waste hawks in government.
Anyway, the special election was between Democratic Newark Mayor Corey Booker and Republican perennial candidate for something Steve Lonegan. The fact that this was a special election usually puts the Democratic candidate in a tough position since turnout for off cycle elections like this generally favor the Republican. Corey Booker fairly handily beat Steve Lonegan with 54% of the vote despite this. That means that Corey Booker is only the fourth African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate. He is also the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate via a special election. That may not seem like a big deal, but it is. It reflects the changing political landscape in New Jersey, but I would also argue in the whole country.
A black man was able to bring enough people to the polls in an off election. This should strike fear in the hearts of the Republican party. Without significant minority outreach, they will just continue to look more and more like the fringe political party they are.
Adventures In Obamacare 3: Electric Pricingaloo
As I hinted at my previous Adventures In Obamacare post, healthcare.gov, the government one stop shopping center for insurance quotes still sucks. My current insurance company’s web site (BCBSIL) sucks less. I have always HATED their website. It’s designed well for people shopping for insurance but incredibly poorly for actual members. For instance, it’s nigh impossible to figure out how to make a payment online. Also, instead of giving you a list of doctors in your plan, they send you to another site where you have to enter in your plan information all over again which is confusing because the name of your plan can be different from the list of plans you can choose.
Since I can’t compare plans on the government site, I will compare my options with Blue Cross which is who I’ll likely go through in the end. I am assuming that various other insurance companies’ offerings will be similar.
Blue Cross offers 18 different plans in Illinois. The prices listed below are for me, a 40 year old male. They range in cost from their bare bones Bronze plan which would cost me $152.24/month to a Gold plan that costs $383.14/month. Due to the weird pricings that go into deductibles and coinsurance and copays, the one Platinum plan that they offer comes in at $357.13/month.
I will compare only three plans for the sake of brevity. They will be the three that I briefly mentioned in my previous blog post. They are: the cheapest plan (Blue Choice Bronze PPO 006) at $152.24/month, the one closest to what I pay now (Blue PPO Bronze 006) at $225.40/month, and the one closest to my current benefits (Blue PPO Bronze 005) at $227.69. A chart of the comparisons will follow at the end of the post. But to begin, Blue Cross screwed up when they sent my letter. I currently pay $303/month which is not close at all to the one they say is closest to what I pay now. The issue there was I just switched to a higher deductible plan ($5,000) and I paid less than the $303 for the first cycle because of the pricing differences when switching plans. Somehow, Blue Cross quoted me that lower price per month instead of my actual price per month.
As far as coverage is concerned, all three plans are exactly the same. The cheapest one is a Blue Choice PPO plan and the other two are Blue PPO plans. As far as I can tell, the Blue Choice PPO plans offer a smaller network of doctors to choose from than the Blue PPO plans. For that added ability to choose, they charge $73.16/month. That’s a 48% premium. It’s funny that the Blue Choice plans actually have less choice. They are obviously steering people towards those plans based on that name. I’m sure they’re somewhat more profitable than the others.
Besides the added ability to choose, the Blue Choice Bronze PPO 006 and the Blue PPO 006 plans are exactly the same. They all have a $6000 deductile which is $1000 more than my current deductible and require no copay. Despite the fact that they both state a 100% coinsurance, they both have an out-of-pocket maximum of $6000 so coinsurance shouldn’t ever actually come in to the equation. So really, the coinsurance should read “not applicable” but I guess programming wise it may be easier to just say 100%. The Blue PPO Bronze 005 plan costs just $2 more than the similarly named 006 plan but coinsurance actually comes into play here with only a $5000 deductible and a $6250 maximum out-of-pocket cost with a coinsurance rate of 80%.
The bottom line is I can get similar coverage under the Obamacare plan for 33% less than what I currently pay. If I am willing to accept a $1000 larger deductible and a smaller network, I can cut my insurance premium in half. Not bad. Not bad at all. As an added bonus, with the savings, I will likely add dental insurance which I have not had in the past.
My next Adventures In Obamacare post will be when I can actually get on the exchange and compare other companies.
|
Blue Choice Bronze PPO 006
|
Blue PPO Bronze 006
|
Blue PPO Bronze 005
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
$152.24
|
$225.40
|
$227.69
|
|
| Quote Profile | |||
| Effective Date | 01/01/2014 | 01/01/2014 | 01/01/2014 |
| Zip Code | xxxxx | xxxxx | xxxxx |
| Applicants | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Plan Features | |||
| Individual Out-of-Pocket Maximum | $6000.00 | $6000.00 | $6250.00 |
| Plan Features | |||
| Benefit Level | Bronze | Bronze | Bronze |
| Individual Deductible | $6000.00 | $6000.00 | $5000.00 |
| Family Deductible | $12700.00 | $12700.00 | $12700.00 |
| Coinsurance | 100% | 100% | 80% |
| Lifetime Benefit | No Limit | No Limit | No Limit |
| Well-Adult Care | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Well-Child Care | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Medical Coverage Details | |||
| Preventive Care | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Maternity Coverage | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Outpatient Physician Medical Services | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Outpatient Physician Surgical Services | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Inpatient Physician Medical/Surgical Services | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Outpatient Hospital Services including Surgery | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Outpatient Hospital Diagnostic Testing | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Inpatient Hospital Services Medical/Surgical Services | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Outpatient Emergency Care (Physician and Hospital) | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Mental Illness Treatment and Substance Abuse Rehab – Outpatient Hospital/Physician Care | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Mental Illness Treatment and Substance Abuse Rehab – Inpatient Hospital Care | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Mental Illness Treatment and Substance Abuse Rehab – Inpatient Physician Care | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Outpatient Prescription Drug Details | |||
| Preferred Generics | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Non Preferred Generics | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Preferred Formulary | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Non Preferred Formulary | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Specialty | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 100% Coinsurance after Deductible | 80% Coinsurance after Deductible |
| Cost Reductions | |||
| Tax Credit Eligible | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cost Sharing Eligible | No | No | No |
| Health Savings Account Eligible (HSA) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Adventures In Obamacare 2: The Reinsurancing
The pooch-screw that is healthcare.gov continues. The website continues to have lots of problems and delays. I am still waiting for the website to officially declare me a human. But that’s not what this post is about.
I received a letter from my current insurance company (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois) informing me that my current plan is being cancelled because it does not meet the minimum requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This was highly surprising to me given how comprehensive my coverage was supposed to be. What’s frustrating is that the letter is not very descriptive of what exactly was missing in my plan that the ACA requires. As best as I can tell, the only thing missing from my coverage that the ACA requires is pediatric dental care. One would think that it would be a much simpler matter to just add pediatric dental care to my plan instead of having everyone on my plan switch to something else. But maybe it’s not.
The interesting thing is the options that Blue Cross gave me as alternatives. They gave me three alternatives. All of them were considered Bronze level coverage according to the letter. The three options were: 1) a base Bronze plan, 2) a Bronze plan that was closest to what I pay now for my current plan, and 3) a Bronze plan that was closest to the coverage of my current plan. The base Bronze plan was noticeably, but not significantly cheaper than the other two plans. The Bronze plan that was closest to what I pay now was, shock of all shocks, right at what I pay now. The Bronze plan closest to my current coverage was only a few dollars more per month than my current plan.
I was shocked at a few things. First, that my current coverage fits neatly into a Bronze plan. I was fully expecting to find that my coverage was Gold level or higher. Second, I can get an ACA plan that offers greater coverage than what I’m paying now for only a few dollars more a month. Score!
I have yet to dig into the nitty gritty details of the three plans Blue Cross offered me. I’ll write another post about them later. Horrible website issues aside, Obamacare is looking pretty good so far for yours truly.
A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted
Anybody who has participated in the stock market for a reasonable amount of time has made a trade that they kick themselves over. You buy a stock only to see its value plummet soon after or you sell a stock just before it skyrockets. Both have certainly happened to me before. Do you know what hasn’t happened to me before, though? Buying the wrong stock.
Twitter, a company who has made absolutely no money yet, recently filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. The IPO will not likely happen until Thanksgiving. That fact did not stop many an intrepid investor from trying to buy the stock immediately. So off to their computers they went with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads. And what do you buy when the company you want to buy doesn’t exist? Well, Tweeter, of course!
What is Tweeter, you ask? Tweeter is a company that no longer exists. It was a higher end audio/visual component sales store that went bankrupt in 2007. Investors, poured money into the bankrupt stock raising its value over 1400%. 14.4 million shares were traded one day on a stock that normally has under 30,000 shares traded a day.
Those all sound like big numbers, but we’re talking about a stock that was trading at a penny at the start of this. My guess is only a million dollars or so actually traded hands. Too bad we can’t see how many people were actually involved in this flub. My gut tells me that it was just a handful of people. It was enough for the Security and Exchange Commission to change the ticker symbol of the stock though.
Wow, House Republicans Are Asshats
Say you were in a battle that you knew you couldn’t win given the rules that were in place. What would you do? If you answered “Why, change the rules at the last minute, of course!”, you may be a House Republican.
There is (or was) a House rule that says if a House bill is brought up for a vote in the Senate twice and is rejected both times any member of the House may call for a straight vote of the corresponding Senate bill. That’s a straightforward enough rule. It keeps things moving and prevents gridlock. But the modus operandi of House Republicans is gridlock so they can’t have that. To prevent the possibility of a vote ever coming up for the Senate bill, on September 30th, mere hours before the government shutdown, House Republicans altered that rule. Instead of allowing any House member to call for a vote, they changed the rule so that only the House Majority Leader can call for a vote. Who is the House Majority Leader you may ask? Why Eric Cantor (R-VA), of course. So there will be no straight vote on the already passed Senate bill to fund the government and the shutdown can last indefinitely.
But yeah, go ahead and blame Democrats for the shutdown.
C’mon, Jon Stewart, Really?
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was on “The Daily Show” on Monday night to talk about black holes or Obamacare, I forget which. Same difference. Hey oh! Normally, I find Jon Stewart to be a fairly informed interviewer, but his discussion with the Secretary seemed more Chris Matthews than Jon Stewart.
He kept trying to get an answer from Sebelius on why they delayed the implementation of the small business requirement for a year but wouldn’t delay the individual requirement. Even during his Moment of Zen lead in, he was still remarking on how he doesn’t understand it. In his defense, Sebelius repeatedly answered his question like a politician. Meaning, there was absolutely no substance to her answers. It was all fluff. It is frustrating as hell when politicians do that, but it’s not the first time that’s happened to Jon. Usually he just says what the politician is really thinking and the politician just smiles noncommittal. That didn’t happen this time.
There is an obvious reason to me as to why the individual requirement needs to go in right away. Maybe I’m way off base on this, I don’t know. The answer to me is pre-existing conditions. Delaying the individual requirement would not delay the requirement for insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. Everyone who has been denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition is going to flock to the new marketplace. I’m not sure how many people this is, but judging from the number of people that I know who fall into this segment, it’s pretty large. If the individual requirement was delayed for a year, most healthy uninsured individuals wouldn’t sign up. Insurance companies would have to account for that and the premiums would have to go up in response. This would be a huge blow to Obamacare.
The whole reason why Republicans are so keen on delaying parts of Obamacare is they know this would happen. They would have some great ammunition for their base to eat up. “See how expensive Obamacare is!” Then they can push an agenda of Obamacare repeal for the midterm elections with some excellent talking points. People are too busy with their lives to recognize the difference between costs for a pool consisting mostly of people with pre-existing conditions and a pool that represents the general population. They’ll just see the price tag and be all “OMG Obamacare is going to bankrupt us!”.
The small business requirement covers a much smaller potential pool and is more difficult for small businesses to navigate so delaying it is not such a big deal. Most “small businesses” already offer their employees health insurance. Remember, we’re talking businesses with over 50 employees here.
Now, I don’t know why Sebelius can’t just say all that. It is pretty impolitic to say that there are electoral concerns with the potential delay, but she could have easily have done so without mentioning that portion of it. Regardless, Jon Stewart is a smart, funny man surrounded with a staff of smart, funny people. He should have been able to figure that out for himself.
I Am A Bitch Ass
I have always strongly suspected such, but it was confirmed to me on the train ride in to work this morning. I am a bitch ass.
I get on the train this morning and surprise of all surprises, there is a seat available right behind the conductor’s compartment. None of the standing people seem eager to take it so I swoop in and sit down. A connecting train comes in and a few more people get on including an older woman who is legally blind. No one near the doors offers her their seat so I get up and walk over to her and offer her my seat and guide her over. I am now standing up in that awkward part near the front of the train car where there is a lot of space but not much room to hang on. There is still space in front of the two seats that face the middle of the car so I grab onto the pole and start reading my book.
Seated in the space right next to the pole is a lanky teenage looking kid with legs spilling out farther into the aisle than is necessary. It’s not a big deal, though, he has room and I have room. He leans over and mumbles something to me in a sleepy, half awake voice but I can’t understand what he’s saying.
“Sorry, what?”, I ask him.
“Could you move somewhere else? There’s room in front of the door.”
I look to the door that people will be entering and leaving from and there is, indeed, some room. But it’s the door that people use to get on and off, there’s supposed to be room.
He continues mumbling, “I don’t like people standing in front of me.”
I’m sure at this point I had some strange expression on my face; half bemusement, half incredulity. I’m not sure if the guy is high as a kite or just tired and I don’t think it would be very productive to explain to him the finer points of train etiquette and my philosophy of proper standing arrangements given how full the train is currently and is expected to be. So instead, I answer, “That’s tough. Sorry.”, and continue to read my book.
The young man proceeds to mumble stuff under his breath with the only intelligible words being “bitch ass” making the woman sitting next to him more uncomfortable than he’s making me. He also stretches out his legs making sure that they come in contact with mine. Being a train riding veteran, bodily contact doesn’t bother me. I just smile and continue to read, a “bitch ass” softly rising to my ears every once in a while.
The very next stop, one of the sitters gets up and leaves the train. The woman that is standing in my favorite standing spot tells me that I can have the seat so I sit down. The young man immediately sprawls his legs into the aisle in front of him making it impossible for anyone to use that space to stand. He looks my way every once in a while with a “bitch ass” on his tongue before pulling his cap over his eyes in an attempt to sleep.
As I exit the train at my stop, I pass the young man and he makes it a point to stare directly at me as I leave the train. “Bitch ass” greets me as the train doors open. I meet his eyes and give him my best grimace smile as I walk out the door.
Limiting Principles
This is a repost of something I wrote prior to this blog that a friend recently reminded me of. This was written in March 2012 when the Supreme Court was deciding on the constitutionality of Obamacare:
There was lots of talk at the Supreme Court today about there needing to be a ‘limiting principle’. Basically, the question is, if the U.S. government can mandate insurance purchases, what’s to prevent them from mandating broccoli purchases?
I don’t get these ‘limiting principle’ arguments at all. Where in the Constitution does it say “You can do x. But not all the time.”? The Constitution IS the limiting principle!. The Enumerated Powers tells us exactly what our Congress can do. As long as the law fits an Enumerated Power and doesn’t violate anything else in the Constitution, it’s fair game.
But, beyond that, there are plenty of limiting principles. The limiting principle is the lack of political will that caused universal healthcare 40+ years to be a reality. The limiting principle is elections that can change laws if they are sufficiently unpopular.
So, yes, Congress can probably mandate that you can buy broccoli under the Commerce Clause. But Congress can also declare war on Canada. Congress can also borrow one trillion dollars. Congress can also print one gazillion dollars. If you think the Enumerated Powers grants Congress too much power, change the Constitution or change your representatives. Because, in this fine Republic, the limiting principle is us.
Movie Review: Gravity
Jean-Paul’s Rating: 5/5 stars
Bottom Line: Go see this movie. Go see it now!
There is a theory as to why we haven’t been visited by being from another planet. It goes something like this: When an intelligent species first makes its way into space, they so pollute their orbit with debris that it ends up making space travel impossible thus dooming them to life on one planet. Something tells me that the idea for “Gravity” came from that premise.
“Gravity” is an absolute visual and aural feast for the mind. There are times when so much is happening that you can barely breathe. The soundtrack is pitch perfect always. As if seeing someone twirling out of control isn’t panic inducing enough, the music gives it that extra oomph to really get your heart into your throat. But at the same time, you can not help but be in awe of the majesty of the backdrop they find themselves in. Fear and awe come together like nothing I’ve ever experienced.
The science in this movie is pretty solid as far as I can tell. Things move like they should move in microgravity. I thought that maybe Earth was rotating a bit slowly in some of the backdrops, but it was hard to say for certain given the various angles that were used to terrific effect. I do wonder if the space suits could have taken some of the abuse they did. There was also a bit of overuse of the decompressing airlock popping open leaving the astronaut to hang on to the hatch for dear life which I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to do in a space suit. And I don’t remember for sure, being so much in awe as to what was going on, but I believe the space shuttle post-accident was not spinning nearly as much as it should be.
This is as close to a perfect movie as you can get. Every little element creates a depth and immersion that you don’t get to see very often on the silver screen. Even the hour and a half runtime was absolutely perfect. I would see this movie in the theater again and I don’t say that very often.