ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: July 2009

Monday

20

July 2009

0

COMMENTS

Monday

20

July 2009

1

COMMENTS

Health Care

Written by , Posted in Feminism

President Obama, Secretary Sebilius and others are working hard right now to try to solve the nation’s health care problem. I hope they do it soon.

However, I don’t think what they are proposing (as well as I understand it) is the right solution. The main reason is the reliance on employer-provided health care.

Can we stop with that? Having one’s health tied to one’s job seems like, and has been in my experience, a really horrible idea. It keeps people in jobs they don’t like (that others might do better, which could improve the nation’s productivity) and prevents people from leaving for jobs they might do better. It causes stress and crazy debt for people. 

And think about a really bad day. You lose your job. So that sucks. And then, you find out that not only do you not have a job, but if you want to keep health insurance on the chance that you don’t get a job within 63 days, it’ll cost you up to $400 / month. And that’s just for you – if you have a family, it could $1,000 or more. A month. While you are unemployed.

I don’t know if a government-run system makes the most sense. But private competition with no requirement to cover people seems to be doing squat right now. It punishes people for taking care of themselves. For example, one must list all medical issues within the last ten years. So if one is responsible and visits the doctor while the cough is still a cough, instead of waiting for it to turn into pneumonia, it gets listed. And if one gets diagnosed with a non-life-threatening condition that could develop into something worse, one gets denied outright. Nevermind that one could have just forgone doctors appointments for a couple of years and the condition would have gone undiagnosed, thus allowing the person to get health insurance. It’s this system of perverse incentives (don’t go to a doctor and hope you’ll get better on your own) that seems to be contributing to people who, once they do get sick, are really, really sick, and end up costing us all a lot of money.

I have some ideas. One is removing the job-health insurance connection. Another is preventing companies from denying patients coverage. They have loads of data one how likely people are to get certain diseases based on their past history. So let’s say Sue has had condition X for a year (one that requires little to no medical care), and 5% of people like her with condition X develop condition Y, the treatment of which is quite costly. Can’t they instead just charge her 5% extra for her coverage? Or 5% x % increase in cost? There are obviously some not-so-well researched conditions, but I’m guessing there’s a lot of data on obesity and heart disease, or asthma and other respiratory ailments. 

The Economist had an interesting article probably five years ago about requiring all to have health insurance. I love that idea. If all were required to do it, we’d have to fix the system. Hopefully remove it from any sort of tie to employement. Use the tax breaks given to employers to provide tax breaks and subsidies to consumers.

There was also an excellent article in the NY Times Magazine on the topic of restricting health care (posted below).

This is admittedly not the most well-thought-out musing I’ve ever posted, but I couldn’t not comment on it. I’m about to leave my job, and while I’ll have coverage when in London, I won’t have coverage at home, so I’m going through all of the options. COBRA is ridiculously expensive, and the various private options are hit-and-miss. I could go without, but I’d give my mother a year of stress that she doesn’t need, and myself a hefty hospital bill should something happen to me when I’m outside the UK.

Sunday

19

July 2009

0

COMMENTS

One month to go

Written by , Posted in Reviews

I fly to Caifornia in a month. So much left to do. Like get a ticket to London.

 I have chosen to spend my time not packing, or sorting, or selling.

No, I’m going to movies.

 There are some blockbusters I have no desire to see (Transformers, I’m looking at you), and some I’m excited for (Funny People may have Adam Sandler, but I’m still looking forward to it). Yesterday I fit in two biggies – Public Enemies and Harry Potter. Johnny Depp and Marion Cotilliard are brilliant. Christian Bale was ok. But I enjoyed it. And Harry Potter was as expected – entertaining and fun

 Today I’m really excited to see 500 Days of Summer. Zooey Deschanel can do no wrong in my eyes. And Joseph Gordan-Levitt has that something working for him.

Saturday

11

July 2009

0

COMMENTS

Thursday

9

July 2009

0

COMMENTS

A visit from my sister

Written by , Posted in Adventures

Stephanie and her boyfriend Jimmy are in town right now. They arrived Tuesday evening and are staying with me. I’m having a great time; the only bummer is that they leave Friday morning. 

Wednesday we had a crazy full day. We walked along the High Line, which just opened last month. It’s a repurposed elevated train bed now being used as a public park. It’s amazingly well landscaped – it feels like a desert with some great plants. There are huge wooden lounge chairs, benches, and cool architecture. It’s only about seven blocks of park, but more will open later.

After the High Line we visited Chelsea Market. So much yummy food. And four different bakeries, two of which have cupcakes. Heaven.

A quick train ride up to Columbus Circle took us to Central Park. We wandered up to Bethesda Fountain, and I remembered that I’ve been wanting to go out in a rowboat on the lake forever but never done it. Since it was early afternoon on a week day, there was no wait. It’s only $12 for the first hour for a boat of up to four people, and only three dollars each additional hour. It was so, so, so much fun. It’s a really different perspective of one of my favorite places in NYC.

After an hour on the water (getting a little crispy) we walked over to Serendipity III, and again benefitted from the date and timing of our visit with just under a 10 minute wait. Nachos and a famous frrrrrrozen hot chocolate refueled us for a quick stop in Dylan’s Candy Bar followed by a two-mile walk down Fifth Avenue to the Empire State building. Did you now you can go to the 102nd floor now? It’s $35 instead of $20, so we passed. But if any other friends visit and want to go, I may do it.

We ended the day with drinks at Vol de Nuit in the Village.

I’m exhausted. But it was so much fun.

Sunday

5

July 2009

0

COMMENTS

Independence Day

Written by , Posted in Adventures

The City was kind enough to give me Friday the 3rd off, so I did what seemed most American – met a friend for BBQ and then visited the USS Intrepid museum. It was a great afternoon – I’d been to the Intrepid in 1996 with my family but hadn’t been back since the rennovation. We went in the Growler submarine (at least, I think that was its name), which was so tiny. We also walked through the Concorde, which was much less fancy than I thought it would be. It feels like a smaller version of an Embraer that jetBlue flies on short hauls.

Today I had one of my more relaxing and fun Independence Days. After a good nine-mile run this morning in the park I met up with Jonathan for brunch. Then it was off to the Apple store, where they were able to replace my broken iPod Shuffle and sell me a back-up hard drive (a project for tomorrow). I finished packing up a box, and then went to meet up with Herman, Kathleen, Megan, Aaron and Alli for drinks and dinner at an outdoor bar. We finished up just in time to go back to Megan and Aaron’s roof to catch a bunch of the fireworks shows going off across New York and New Jersey. It was a very short walk home to my place, but I still managed to see a few rogue fireworks on my way home.

Summer is definitely in full swing, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.