Anyone got a link to the audio download?

Lent's rants and raves!

The Medicare Modernization Bill is crap, but there was one tiny rider in the bill that allowed for Healthcare Savings Accounts. It will revolutionize the world

(back story...I'm not staffed on a project right now, so I'm helping writing a whitepaper on these things -- I hadn't heard about them before)

They're like an FSA (where you can pre-tax money and have it pay for medical expenses), but unlike the FSA, if you don't use the money, it rolls over to the next year. It grows with interest, so it's identical to an IRA, with an added bonus that you can take the money out for medical expenses and never have to pay a cent of tax on it.

Why its going to change everything, is that it has to be tied to an insurance plan with a high-deductible. So you personally have to pay for the first $1,000 (as an individual) or $2,000 (as a family) of your medical expenses, no matter what they are. Then after that, your insurance company pays. So you pay for the incidental stuff, and if anything major happens, your insurance company pays for it.

You put $1,000 in, but it's really only about $500 because you're saving the tax. Also your company can put money in, instead.

So that's reason #1 why it's going to change the world. Instead of your company paying $5,000-$10,000 a year per employee for insurance (where that cost is wasted for about 50% of the people who don't ever go to the doctor), they can pay like $3,000 a year for high deductible insurance, and put $1,000 into your account. They'll save money, and you'll get $1,000 asset.

Now reason #2. You have $1,000 that you have to spend. It's your money. When was the last time you asked a doctor (if you have insurance) "how much does this cost?". Because it's not going to be a "I pay the first $10 and anything after that is covered by my insurance company, no matter how much" people are going to start putting pricing pressure on doctors and hospitals and drug companies.

For instance, my company offers vision coverage. Up to $1,000 a year. I have no need for glasses. But I went the other day and bought a pair because why not? I gave them my insurance card. Didn't ask how much the frames cost; didn't ask how much the visit cost; didn't ask anything about the lenses. Wouldn't you know it...the glasses cost $992.56. It's people like me that are driving costs so high. No one gives a shit about how much anything costs.

If I had an HSA, I probably wouldn't have even gotten glasses. And if I did, I would have been more jewish about the prices, and even haggled a bit. As more companies start to realize the savings you can have with these things, and more people start adopting them (Bernstein Research projects 25% marketshare by 2010), it will start putting pricing pressure on all the members of the healthcare system.

Sure, it won't be overnight, but as more people start spending their own money, it will have an effect.

Worries from the commies who don't like it:
"People will horde their money and not go to the doctor, thus causing longer-term, and more expensive problems later in life." Not a worry. the high deductible plans cover preventative issues like yearly checkups, prenatal and shit like that
"It's going to cause more unemployed". I don't know why, but that's what people have been saying. 1/4 of the people who started HSAs in '04 previously had no insurance

There really is no downside to these HSAs. If you own a company, you should look into it. If you are at a small company, you should tell your HR department to look into how much they could save by going to High Deductible plans and putting the difference into your HSA account.

Monday night, coming home from work, was a night I will probably never forget.

It was snowing pretty hard. The roads were very slick.

Ahead of me as I was travelling was a full size conversion van. All of a sudden, he lost it. He spun a couple of times and then went into the ditch. Once there he bounced off the hill of the ditch and rolled not once but twice.

I slowed down and stopped at the side of the road and got out to help him. Another lady stopped as well but up ahead a couple hundred feet. She and I were down the hill helping the guy get out of his van (miraculously he was not hurt) and the lady was on the phone with 911 reporting the accident.

He got out, and as we were standing there checking him over and heading up to the road, another girl spun out and smacked the rear end of my car so hard that it slid back out into the lane of traffic. Luckily it did not get hit again.

The way the girl hit was on her driver side door. Her head went through the window (door window) and she was knocked out completely. Finally, after a couple minutes, as the ambulance was pulling up, she came to and began crying. Her door was so far caved in, that I could see her floor board under it. The ambulance arrived with a police cruiser and they completely blocked off the highway. The ambulance carted her off and a wrecker finally came to get me. I spent half the night at a gas station waiting for a ride and the other half at my moms house as it was a lot closer than home was.

Last night as I lay in bed, I realized that had my car been parked up further, that girl would have slid (maybe flown) down the embankment and slammed right into us and the van that was the original accident. I didn't sleep much after having that thought.

Now, I've always had a belief that there is a god, but I never worshipped him. I don't attend church, never have. This morning though (12:30 A.M.), I said a prayer and thanked him for watching over me. On my way to work this morning, I saw a rainbow and I knew that he was answering my prayer.

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Fuck what you heard.
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Edited By The Jays on 1110155625

With the passing of my mother a couple of weeks ago, after going through all the funeral arrangements, it became evident to me to make sure that my death wish was documented and taken care of in advance. By doing this, my children will not have to deal with the decisions and expenses associated with the funeral. Also this way my wishes will be honored and I will head off to wherever the fuck we head to the way I want to head there.

Yes I know you all think this is long overdue for me as many of you think “my time” is just around the corner. But as I have said often, I’ll outlive most of you.

So what is your “Death Wish”? How would you like to go? What do you want your funeral to be like? Cremation or worm food?

I plan to be shot by a jealous husband or boyfriend (Come on, would you have expected anything else?) Actually, I envision cancer or some hideous illness to kill me. When I go, my instructions are to have me cremated and my ashes placed in a Folgers coffee can with some grounds left in the can so that I can take some coffee with me. My son then has instructions to take my remains and sprinkle them into a lake in the very Northwest corner of Wisconsin, where he and I have muskie fished for years. I then can spend eternity searching the lake for that record muskie that got away.

For some reason I was inspired to check in. Guess it's cuz I'm so busy at work I just needed an old excuse to waste time. What's new? What have I missed?

atlanta trades antoine walker back to the celtics for gary payton and then the hawks are going to place payton on waivers and the celtics are gonna pick him up.... this is why the hawks are as awesome as they are!!!

I am currently running a Photoshop contest on my football message board over at GridIronFans.com. The contest is running thru March and the winner will get a $30 gift certificate to Best Buy or the cash equivalent, his or her choice. If anyone here is interested in checking it out, click the link below for details:

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the fucking zealots strike again!


i was supposed to work this show. it started with stern, went to commercials, now its theater. soon tv execs will be to afraid to show anything but "touched by an angel " episodes. these jesus freaks have been emboldened by the facistic theocracy and they are making their move.
you lazy fucks better got off your fat asses and start fighting this or you will be next!