Cadillac insurance? Do you have it?

I used to. I worked for Ohio State University, and you just couldn't beat the benefits (salary wasn't great, though). Some I never was able to use (although they were added into my salary deductions). My husband used to say that the reason he went into business for himself was "the wife got tenure, the children left home and the cat died." My job with health benefits saved us a bundle--not on health care, but on insurance. As a partner in his former firm Feinknopf Macioce and Schappa, he was not eligible for the group plan, so his insurance was bought with before-tax dollars before I got on board at OSU--about $6,000 a year 20 years ago.

President Obama promised in September on numerous talk shows and venues that if you loved your health insurance plan nothing would change. Of course, HE LIED, as he has lied about a lot of things (Obama lied; insurance died). The so called "cadillac" option will penalize people who have them, private or job related, by taxing them out of existence. Here are two examples. First the rich guy who is paying $20,000 a year for his insurance out of his own pocket.

"Mitch Stabbe has one of these plans. He's a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Through his firm, he gets a plan that has an annual premium of more than $20,000, which he pays for himself. Stabbe is a partner, and is considered self-employed, so the firm doesn't contribute to his health coverage.

Stabbe says that when he factors in deductibles and co-payments, the family ends up spending close to $30,000 a year on health care. "That's a nice chunk of change," he says. He believes it's worth it, because otherwise the family would have huge medical costs.

Stabbe's 18-year-old son Bryan has Crohn's disease, a chronic illness that attacks the digestive system. Bryan takes a weekly oral medication, and every five to six weeks, gets an infusion of a drug called Remicade. Without insurance, the infusions alone would cost around $40,000 a year."

So maybe he's rich enough to afford the huge tax increase he'll have to pay, but last year, there were a lot of people who thought they were rich. Then the sub-prime melt down; then Bernie Maddof, etc.

Now here's the not so rich family--a secretary and her disabled husband who doesn't work. They have what I used to have--health care through a college.

"Rusty and Deb Lovell live in Concord, N.H. Rusty had to stop working about a year ago and gets Social Security disability payments. Deb earns a little over $30,000 a year as a secretary at a community college.

But her job also comes with something almost as valuable as her salary — employee health coverage from the state of New Hampshire. Deb's share of the premium cost is $60 a month. Yet when combined with what the state contributes, the total premium for her family coverage ranks in the top 4 percent of premiums in the country.

The plan is negotiated by the state employees union, and Deb says the coverage is "so important to us that we have often negotiated for keeping our insurance and foregone raises year after year."

For the Lovells, the benefit has been priceless. Eight years ago, Rusty was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. . . Last year alone, Rusty's care cost more than $1 million. Because of their generous health insurance plan, the total cost for the Lovells came to $500 in co-payments. " Kaiser Health News

Remember, the basis for Obamacare is communal sharing, rationing of services and treatments, weighting care toward the younger members of the community instead of the elderly, with everybody being equal, and only using proven efficacious treatments. Obviously, it wouldn't be equal if the rich guy got to buy more than the state afforded a secretary, and they obviously aren't going to be able to offer Deb's insurance (top 4%) to everyone, so she'll have to be a good sport and not waste so much of health-care resources. The CBO says the government will be collecting $10 billion in "cadillac" revenue in just one year--that's why he can say it won't add to the deficit (HE LIES!). Remember, the taxes start a number of years before the changes take place, too.

I think there's a lot of college and university employees who are going to be surprised to be hit that that great leveling tax surcharge on their health insurance. A little pocket change left over is all they can hope for.

It's EMS Week

It used to be (in the old days of the 1970s or 1980s) that if you did a good job, you got something called a paycheck. If not, a pink slip. Then came the merit raises, and the occasional departmental party hosted by the boss or pot-luck which were supposed to cover it. But today's gen-x and gen-y workers need so many hugs and warm fuzzies, that entire businesses have grown up to create appreciation gifts and events. I noticed this item in the OSU Medical College newsletter.

"May 18-24 is National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week. OSUMC will provide refreshments and information to EMS crews at both emergency departments, deliver gifts to fire departments and provide educational seminars throughout the week. Look for our "Thank you, EMS" billboards around town and join us in thanking EMS for the lifesaving work they provide."

When I retired in 2000, I had FIVE retirement parties, one in the vet library, one in the main library, two in restaurants and one at the faculty club. The university must have either been very happy to see me go, or very sad.

Now what holiday exactly would that be?

Our local suburb, Upper Arlington, is about as lily white and predominantly Christian as a town could get and not be lodged in the 1950s, but we have an "Upper Arlington Winter Festival and Community Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony" sponsored by the city. Whenever I see that, I ask myself, "What holiday exactly?" Turkey Day? Halloween? Ground Hog Day? MLK Day? Of course not. Everyone knows it is Christmas, but our city fathers (and one or two mothers) don't want to offend anyone--not even Christians who probably think the consumerism is totally out of hand. They don't light the Christmas tree, it's a holiday tree. They just aren't honest, and I think they should just drop all the happy, clappy, let's-all-just-get-along nonsense, forget about the birth of a Savior, the reason it is a joyous time, and go shopping. If it is offensive to use the word Christmas, then it is just a slap in the face to believers to play games with a religious observance. Please don't remind me that the Christmas tree has pagan origins--everyone knows that. All Christian holidays have pagan symbols--it was good marketing in the early days for mass conversions. That doesn't mean we are ready to give it back to the 21st century pagans.

http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/christmastree.htm
USAToday had a similar problem yesterday with an article about a shortage of retail help for "the season." Here's the euphemisms in just one short article:

holiday season

holiday challenges

holiday marketing

holiday jobs

seasonal hires

holiday hiring

during the holidays

holiday cheer

seasonal workers

holiday season employees

holiday workers

However, when push came to shove, USAToday had to use the dreaded word, "Christmas," because of the phrase, "would get Christmas day off," and "Christmas Eve." It's really hard to get around it by saying the workers would get "the holiday" off, or would have to work "holiday eve." Sounds about as goofy as leaving Christmas out of the holiday season, doesn't it?