Here’s some more lunchtime news chum, collected over the last few days:
- From the “Health Care Confusion” Department: Last week’s election brought us a Republican-led House, who seems to be continuing the call of repealing the Health Care bill passed last year. Although I believe that total repeal is impossible (as noted on Electoral-Vote.com), for it is unlikely that Republicans would willingly explicitly re-open the “donut hole” for seniors’ drug benefits, explicitly permit insurance companies to cancel policies after people get sick, explicitly refuse to insure critically ill children, and explicitly kick children aged 18-25 who can’t get insurance off their parents’ policies. In any case, here are two interesting data points regarding health care. The first is a story about the rise in people choosing extremely high-deductable policies because they can’t afford any other insurance. This leads to them forgoing preventive care, which ends up hurting everyone… including companies who lose good workers. It also hurts all the other businesses that can’t get paid when individuals are faced with the choice of deductables or rent. Where does that money go? David Lazarus answers that question: health insurers are making money hand over fist. Aetna said its third-quarter net income jumped 53% over the same period last year, to $497.6 million. WellPoint, parent of Anthem Blue Cross in California, said its profit rose 1.2% to $739.1 million. Health Net posted a net income of $62.7 million, compared with a loss of $66 million a year earlier. Now, with all this money these corporations are making: where is the job creation? Lastly, the NY Times has a report on how employers are increasingly passing on the cost of health insurance, including tiering it based on salary. Of course, one of the reasons for all these cost increases is that the healthy are not paying into the overall system, increasing the insurance costs for everyone else. This will be addressed with the mandate for everyone to get insurance… which of course is the part that is being fought the most.
- From the “Security Theatre” Department: I so love that word, coined by Bruce Schneier. In the continuing task of fighting the previous attack, DHS is banning toner cartridges from flights: “the Department of Homeland Security also prohibited toner and ink cartridges over 16 ounces from any U.S. passenger flights, domestic or international, bound for the United States.” Might be worth getting your cartridges for your laser printers now, because they’ll be on the slow boat from China shortly. In other news, travellers are being given a new choice: potentially higher-radiation body scans or potentially more intrusive pat-downs, and in some cases, both. The NY Times is reporting that the patience of fliers is wearing thin, and there are calls for a better system that focuses on bad people, not bad objects. What bothers me here is that I’m unsure whether this is really addressing the threat; that is, whether we are being more reactive than proactive. I can easily see the day when these measures get so onerous that national ID cards and government-approved travel papers seem like the easier solution. Neither approach is the answer—I’d say we could educate the passengers, but based on the comments I read in the papers, I fear we would get even worse profiling. I know that you and I are intelligent, but it is everyone else I’m worried about.
- From the “After the War” Department: Speaking of fighting wars… those of us who grew up in the 1960s remember the POW/MIA bracelets. The LA Times has a nice piece on those bracelets: who made them, and how people who wore them are getting in touch with the soldiers who returned. Very touching.
- From the “Junk Food” Department: Lastly, with the news being full of the badness of children’s fast food, I thought I would share a piece on the return of the McRib. Specifically: exactly what is in the McRib? It appears that someone took the time to deconstruct the sandwich. As always: you should know what you are eating.
