There are three issues that need to be solved for effective health care reform. These three issues are Cost, Access, and Quality.

Access

This is where the current reform proposals really focus. The tools are guarantee issue (no pre-existing exclusions, no loss of coverage with loss of job), individual and employer mandates (pay or play), and an insurance exchange with a public option to keep those bad boys honest (I am an ex bad boy large group underwriter, so I KNOW)....

I have been at work for almost 2 hours and I am STILL COLD! I am sitting with my jacket over my legs like a blankie Oh well, it was worth it - so what if it was 33 degrees when I rode in today (about 12 when you factor in windchill at 45 mph)? I will warm up eventually - eventually. And with a forecasted high of 60 with clear blue skies and sunshine, the ride home will be awesome. A guy at the coffeeshop this morning said "You are tough to be on a motorcycle today." I just replied...

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/photo...-VegasLowd.jpg

Ahhhh. How does that song go- "Just one look/and I knew, knew, knew/that you/were the one for me"

We are going looking this weekend but I WILL NOT BUY! Not for at least one more season. At least.

Cool thing is, they are made right here in MN! Not just in the US but in my very backyard. Freakin' GORGEOUS bikes.

We were watching the Twins lose (actually at that point they might have been winning); anyway, that commercial came on for Viagra or Cialis or something. The one where the guy is too ashamed to talk to his doctor but not at all embarrassed to talk to his imaginary reflection in the window - you know the one. The voiceover guy delivers the possible side effects rapidfire, hoping we don't hear them. But we do - loss of hearing and vision problems are among them.

So I ask Vini "If...

NBC Nightly News called me. They want to interview me, get my perspective as someone who manages a self funded health care plan for 5000 or so employees and their families. Kaiser Family Foundation gave them my name; they have interviewed me every year as part of a large scale research study. As someone who spent 13 years underwriting (pricing group health plans) at places like United HealthCare, and now is a purchaser on the other side of the desk, I have had a fair amount of opportunities to...

I just found out that he started work the last week of September at Abercrombie and Fitch. That year and a half at Hollister at the Mall of America apparently made him a shoo-in.

So - got off the train September 3 and by the end of the month found a job AND a place to live, with two roommates who dig the same thing he does. When asked "are the two Go players you live with geeky Go players, or are they cool Go players like you?" he responded "They're cool like me."...

I am on the pandemic flu committee at work. Among other things, what I have learned is that if there is a fever WITH a sore throat and/or a cough, it is most likely H1N1; if it is a sore throat or cough without a fever (or the reverse) it is not. Well, Cole has the trifecta.

I emailed a paper he worked on all weekend to his teacher and let him know. There have been other high school kids with diagnosed H1N1 so he was not surprised.

At the moment, Cole is in bed with...

Got a pet rock, my sister told me. And, she said, he named it Maxie. So I texted Max to let him know.

He texted back "Aw, if I ever get a pet rock I'll name it Sammy. Which is never, but still. They're alriight"

I hope it goes a LONG way. Here in Mpls, that amount would cover my every-other-week cleaning service until the middle of May, 2010. Geographic differences and what is really needed by the family in terms of tasks (cooking, nanny services, etc.) will vary that, I'm sure.

But still, how fun for us to be able to help in such a tangible way. And if some of it goes for pampering spa treatments so much the better!

We love you girl.

(And all you FTers from...

http://atgattrat.blogspot.com/2009/0...rcycle-ad.html

I want one. Now.