Healthcare Tsunami

Today I received my Anthem H.S.A. policy increase - a mere 24.8% increase (and a three year average of 21.3%.  Co-incidentally Susan sent me an article from the Heritage analyzing the data for the new Government Exchanges (see Find Your State: See How Much Obamacare Coverage Will Cost).  For once Ohio looks good (obviously it doesn't apply to me) but look carefully at the column for the 27 year old - the differences are astounding - double or triple!

Healthcare costs and coverage will be the defining issue of intergenerational wealth transfer of our time.  The challenge is the balance of compassion and individual responsibility.  We all make health care and lifestyle choices - taking risks (i.e. smoking, diet, exercise, physical risk etc.) that affect our health.  Some of our health is genetic and some random (i.e. like an accident).  So the challenge is whether we should try to eliminate this risk (some taken, some given) and provide everyone equal care (Affordable -yet Mandated - Care for Everyone).  If the answer to this is yes - then the next challenge is how (and who) should pay for this risk equalization.

Should the healthy pay for the sick?  Should the lucky pay for the unlucky?  Should one generation be forced to take care of another generation?  What amount of money should be spent during the last months of one's journey?

Here is a chart of my Healthcare Insurance Premiums since 1990 and the scary change that occurred in 2010 with projections from 2015-2019.  I can guarantee that I had no clue about this in 1990 (or for that matter in 1977 when I started work).  I hope the younger generation is ready for this Healthcare Tsunami!

Note:  In 2003 I tried to contain this cost by enrolling in a High Deductible H.S.A. plan which is why the big drop.

Wisner Household Insurance History & Forecast

 

 

 

 

Steering a Parked Car

Rev. Stover had a great sermon this morning about Prayer.  First he referenced Matt Batterson's  (the Church is studying his book Circles) point that failure is not about a prayer being unanswered, failure is the prayer not made.    And add to that the issue that asking is only part one of the prayer, acting is part two.  Rev. Stover then mentioned the quote he forever he would remember from Seminary - "Steering a parked car does no good".

Taking that first step in a risky area is always the hardest.  Being a self starter is challenging. How to motivate oneself into action.  One of my techniques (the ultimate procrastinator) was to get an action (any action) on a future date in my calendar.  Just the simple action of scheduling the task (even if it was on a future date) would get me started.

Find the technique you need to start your engine. That make steering much easier.

Musical Matches

I completed (well as much as I wanted to do) the Musical Oldies Personality Project for the Vistage 1107 group.  Each member was instructed (naturally there were some renegade non participants) to pick their favorite song for each year from 1962 to 1982.  I promised that I would analyze the data and analyze their personality based on the selections.

The research ("The Do Re Mi;s of Everyday Life: The Structure and Personality Correlates of Music Preferences" by Rentfrow and Gosling - University of Texas at Austin) was a gold mine of information.  Rentfrow and Gosling mentioned work by Mehl and Pennebacker (2003) that found individuals listened to music during approximately 14% of their waking lives.  So music is important to people!

It wasn't hard to see musical personality preferences (even without their stories and explanation of picks) among the 10 Vistage members who participated.  I'm sure I had some advantage in nine years of hearing personal stories from four of my Vistage buds. But even for our newer members, I could easily see some personality traits within their selections. 

Even more fun was coming up with the common matches among the network nine responses:

Triumphs and Trophies

Just finished my eighth presentation to my Vistage Buddies - titled Triumphs and Trophies.   An inspiration came when A.S. said that I was in the spotlight this month.  It all came together after a recent viewing of Lewis and Clark's PBS special, breakfast speech by Joe Gibbs, the recent read of "Triumphs of Experience", watching the Emmys, and the comeback win of the America's Cup Team (down 1-8) victory,  I began to think about the Trophies we get in life.

Answer this question:

Dad (or Mom), As you reflect back over your lifetime........   What is your greatest accomplishment?

This lead me on a journey of thinking of my accomplishments, and the fourth Life Strategy Principle that Kerry and Chris Shook suggest in their book "One Month to Live" ---   "LEAVE BOLDLY - creating a legacy that will impact generations".

But are they really your accomplishments - is it really all your trophy?  Think about your acceptance speech - who is (and was) a part of your trophy network?

Now - think about how many acceptance speeches YOU are mentioned in ( YOUR HIDDEN TROPHIES!).  Maybe just a smile of acceptance, a word of encouragement - something you may never know had an impact.

"Your Hidden Trophies are your bold legacy of eternity"   

Blogging Opens Today

Since the Government reopens today, my blogging will start back up.  Yet 16 days without an entry (well I did one on Oct 4th).  A.M. said the other day, "I don't know who to blame - Congress (GOP or Democrats), the President, or the People".  We both concluded you get what you ask for - and we have a complete set of children that reflect our own childish behaviors.  Clearly if this was a business (and it is a big business) that we were running, the shareholders would be fleeing!

P.H. sent me the best email titled "Washington Redskins" .....

The owner of the Washington Redskins conceded today that, in this era, their team name is insulting. 

 

From now on, they will just be called The Redskins.

 
P.S.   Hot Air blogging is open again :)

Safety First

"Safety First" was Mom's constant reminder to my girls (and to me growing up).  Her rules were consistent with this reminder (e.g. no backyard tackle football).  I've been working on a Visage Spotlight (my eighth time in the hopper) and part of the presentation is on risk.  More importantly how do you measure your individual risk?

"Risk issues are emotional.  They are contentious. Disagreement is often deep and fierce. This is not surprising, given how we perceive and respond to risk is, at its core, about nothing less than survival"  (Risk- A practical guide for deciding what's really safe and what's really dangerous in the World around you, by David Ropeik and George Gray). 

So how YOU perceive risk and decisions are in the context of your own life.  Even with probabilities across events and populations with various consequences and outcome (costs and benefits), the risk statistics  can't answer the question  - YOUR risk is specific to YOU.

Judgments about risk are based both on the facts and on how we feel about those facts using the head, heart, cortex  and gut. "We are Affective"  (How Risky is It, Really by David Ropeik). 

My preliminary conclusion"

If you are not risking something .......

                                                              you are not living.  

Hot Air Shutdown

Hmmmm - no blog since Sept. 21. almost 10 days.  The Government shutdown today.

And the combined impact?  

Global cooling -  no hot air :)