<p>“I shop mostly at a different drug store, and I have to say that the employees there seem rather apathetic towards their jobs and their customers. I always assumed this was because they were unionized, so their jobs are secure regardless of their outward attitudes.”</p>
<p>This is one of the most bizarre things I have ever read.</p>
<p>sally, what makes you think we’ve never struggled? I get a lot of my input from plain observation. I’ve seen a lot of immigrant families work hard and climb their way up, and I’ve seen families (and individuals) who basically sulk 24/7 about how their lives suck, or basically given up. I’ve done volunteer projects in poor neighborhoods. It must just be my luck, because pretty much all the poor families didn’t have jobs, didn’t seem like they were trying, had bad habits like smoking, popping pills and probably worse, some didn’t even want us there to help them patch up their home for winter… Even with most of the poor population being employed, if people aren’t happy with minimum wage jobs, why don’t they do something abou it? And when I say “take initiative”, I mean find a (better) job, and if it doesn’t work the first time, find out what’s wrong and try again, not “as simple as getting out of bed in the morning”…</p>
<p>And I’m not ruling out government subsidies, lasma. Nobody wants to leave the poor with no health care. I’m just saying why privatized healthcare would be better. Subsidies and higher minimum wage help, but it’s a very bad idea to give complete control to the government.</p>
<p>take it of leave it. I’m done</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>How would you know that private corporations are growing “so much”, since they and their financials are private? Why do you think that publicly owned companies aren’t growing? Have you looked at the $INDU, $SPX, $COMPQ and $RUT lately? Publicly owned companies seem to be doing great.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Both private and public companies are subject to their shareholders and the laws which govern the operations of said companies.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Since you’re going to mimic Mitt Romney, are you going to mimic his position on state-run healthcare?</p>
<p>
This is becoming a very big problem and not just in places like retail or restaurants. Law firms are (and have been) increasingly bringing in only temps (including attorneys) for as much work as possible. This is happening in education, as well. Seems to be the new normal.</p>
<p>^^^ agreed and that is why I would like to uncouple health care from employment. Although I do like the idea of single payer best, I would be open minded to a free market health care system (like car insurance). Current system is not sustainable for a host of reasons.</p>
<p>Car insurance is often subject to heavy regulation.</p>
<p>A true free market would exist if everyone just self-paid. Unfortunately, medical care can be expensive enough that most will want insurance against large expenses at least. But medical insurance is subject to heavy adverse selection, due to the individual predictability of some large expenses (e.g. physician says “you have cancer”, then you run out to buy medical insurance…). That is why the non-government part of the medical insurance market in the US is predominantly employer-group-based.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>That article says nothing about the growth of public or private companies. It only talks about investments. Now there are a lot of people out there that are looking for income instead of growth. These tend to be older investors that need a stream of income for living expenses and they don’t really care where the share price grows.</p>
<p>Another problem is that the sample is basically from the customers of Sageworks (1,000 companies). Who knows whether or not that is a representative sample. Larger companies would presumably have their own staff to understand financial statements so that they wouldn’t really need the services of Sageworks.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>And you believe this because? I own several companies that are focused on delivering long-term value to the investor. You may not notice it in the day-to-day fluctuations but it’s really cool to see blockbuster results that were the result of long-term execution of a strategy.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>How do you know that? Private companies are … private! I happen to own a company that provides financing to a bunch of private companies and it’s a bit frustrating to try to determine the quality of those companies.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>No clue as to what you’re referring to.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Careful now. I thought that he was one of your heroes for running private companies.</p>
<p>Well, I’m pleased to say that the partial uncoupling of employment and health insurance through Obamacare has enabled me to create one job. I’ve had to keep a day job my entire adult life because I can’t get health insurance on my own. My educational consulting business has been a sideline when I want it to be my career. Now that I’m COBRA-distance away from the insurance exchanges kicking in, I’m leaving my day job to become a full-time consultant. This way, I can put all my effort into building my business without risking my health. This entrepreneurship brought to you by universal health insurance.</p>
<p>Hanna, that is awesome.</p>
<p>Now people can start their own businesses. </p>
<p>By the way many people that complain about govt, have govt supported health care themselves. </p>
<p>Anybody that gets tax advantaged health care thru their employer receives govt supported health care.</p>
<p>Hanna, good luck. I am glad you are getting to do what you want. You are now freer…</p>
<p>Hanna, best of luck to you in your new venture!</p>
<p>I’ve worked for two companies that did this extensively and my current employer does it to a much lesser extent. The first company… it started out with the health questionairre. Do the questionairre and you get $100 gift card. Cool. Next year, do it or pay the higher premium for your care. Year 3- If your BMI was too high, you were a smoker, had high blood pressure, high blood sugar or drank more than 2 drinks a day then you had to agree to a treatment plan or pay the higher premium. Each year, it gets more strict and it applies to yourself and your spouse (if they are covered). Now, friends tell me that if you exceed the requirement in any of those areas, even if you are in treatment, you pay the higher amount. They also no longer hire someone with nicotine in their blood stream. That means even if you quit but use the patch, gum, e-cigs, etc., you are still paying the higher premium.</p>
<p>I don’t really have a problem with paying higher premiums if at higher risk for illness. However, the reality is, every dime spent on me for health care in the last 10 years has been Crohn’s disease related. LOTS of money. When my BMI is in the “overweight” range, I am so sick that I’m hospitalized. How’s that for irony? LOL </p>
<p>I always fill out the health questionairres totally honestly. I eat ZERO vegetable servings a day. I eat 3 or 4 fruits a day though. It always puts me through this nutrition program to tell me I have to eat veggies and whole grains. Nowhere does it ask “Do you have a medical condition that requires a low residue diet?” If I followed their instructions, I’d be dead from an obstruction. I can’t eat that way and I’m sick as a dog if I do. </p>
<p>The problem with these programs is that they don’t look at the individual. The first year my former employer did that program, I had just lost 65 pounds (in a healthy way, not from Crohn’s) but I still have 40-50 pounds to lose (in their eyes, not in my gastro doc’s eyes!). It didn’t capture that I’d just done that. It didn’t matter. They do a snapshot in time.</p>
<p>Someone asked what about pregnancy? They exempt you if you’re pregnant. But your spouse has to meet all the criteria.</p>
<p>Truth be told, your current employer is probably never going to pay a dime for the long term chronic health issues that being a smoker or being overweight cause. Once you’re on medical for more than 12 weeks, they fire you and you lose your insurance through them. You go on Social Security Disability and get Medicare. Your employer won’t be paying a dime. I pointed that out to a benefits specialist once and his jaw dropped open. He was genuinely surprised at that idea. But, it is the truth.</p>
<p>2016barnardmom, I appreciate your post. Enlightening.</p>
<p>Hanna, good luck to you!!!</p>
<p>2016barnardmom, that is the truth. In many places it’s “90 days and out” 180 at most.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For the love of God.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone else for the thoughtful responses. 2016BarnardMom–really appreciate your perspective. And congrats to you, Hanna!</p>
<p>Oh, I can also tell you… having worked for a health system and then as an auditor for an insurance company… The companies do only get aggregated data on how their employees do on the health screens. It is all vetted through a third party vendor. I audited the third party vendor’s IT systems when I was working as an IT auditor. I was very anxious to verify that only aggregated employee data is sent back to the employer and insurance company. I did verify that, HOWEVER, your employer does know whether you qualified for the lower rate or not. They have to know to be able to do payroll. Also, these programs are being pushed on employers by the insurance companies. It isn’t the employer’s idea. The insurance companies offer them lower rates for participating in these programs with the idea that overall costs will be cheaper if employees take steps to be more healthy. </p>
<p>The thing I wonder about is… if a company is thinking about layoffs and they know that some employees aren’t meeting the health criteria and, therefore, may cost them more in insurance premiums or make the company’s risk pool increase, would they lay off those people first? Is it fair if you’re a diabetic or someone with hypertension who follows medical advice but it is still not under control?</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! It’s scary but exciting to focus exclusively on this work.</p>
<p>“would they lay off those people first?”</p>
<p>Yes, they would. It happens even when layoffs aren’t planned…the person with the expensive health condition can expect a short career.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So now we have the answer to the OP’s question of “Where will this lead to?”</p>
<p>At my company, one of the very long-term professionals became ill with cancer. He was moved immediately to short-term disability, long-term disability at 90 days and then terminated at 180 days. That’s the way it works. When he had a clean bill of health, he was re-hired (which was about 2 years later). I saw him yesterday and he looked like death warmed over. If he is not in remission at this time, he will go through the same process. Thankfully, it is not in the same year because you can only qualify for disability benefits once in a 12-month period.</p>