Joyful Alternative

Business Trends: Banks, Cars, Healthcare and Safe Vermont Mortgages

I wonder who Mr. Collier would like to fall through the cracks. I pay $350 a month for individual health insurance, my knee replacement cost me $9,000 out of pocket, and friends tell me I'm lucky that the insurer didn't drop me for costing them money. Friends in other states tell me I'm lucky to be able to buy health insurance at all. Am I supposed to fall through the cracks?

Mr. Collier obviously doesn't want his wife to fall through the cracks, and how nice for him that they received charity rather than a bill he'd be paying off for the rest of his working life. Should I fall through the cracks if my osteoarthritis makes another joint replacement necessary and I can't come up with the out-of-pocket expense (plus self-employed people don't get sick leave or sick pay!)? Keep in mind that the surgeon wants cash up front; he's had too many patients unable to pay him after he's done his part. Should somebody who makes $15,000/year and can't possibly pay insurance premiums of $350/month, not to mention all those out-of-pocket amounts, fall through the cracks? Is this guy a freeloader if he gets charity, too, when he gets cancer? And keep in mind that his and Mrs. Collier's charity are paid for by higher bills for you and me.

As a long-time self-employed person (and health insurance buyer), I wish I had access to "Medicare for All." I suspect never before in history have so many people looked forward to their 65th birthdays.

Moral Hazard? That Assumes Morals Still Exist

I just got a note from my credit union. It hasn't made option ARMS, subprimes, etc., loans, but it's being assessed a pile to bulk up the insurance for the CUs that did. Which I guess is why my money market account is now paying 1.7%.

Financial Institutions Step Away from Government Debt

Did you mean the example's house is now worth $225,000? Otherwise, the illustration doesn't work. (Oh, and good luck to him trying to sell a house for what it's "worth.")

Nationalize U.S. Banks

I favor the Swedish solution, as outlined in the article, but Appro has some great ideas, too. The government could do both, if it has the guts. Our finance system is broken, and borrowing money from abroad to fund investment bankers' bonuses for their incompetent work ranks somewhere between dumb and immoral.

'The Change We Need' Is in Economic Direction

Roubini hasn't won a Nobel. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve one; he's certainly been prescient. But maybe you were thinking of Steiglitz or Krugman.

Long-Term Ugliness

They posted the article to get us to comment, and we did.

GM's big mistake was not to push for single-payer universal health insurance long ago, say, maybe the Nixon era. They've been burdened by heavy costs for employee, employee family, and retiree health insurance that foreign car makers were spared; they've been competing with one arm (and maybe a foot, too) tied behind their back for a long time. Then again, they're kind of ponderous, and they might very well have screwed up and still found themselves the world's foremost provider of SUVs nobody wants. We'll never know.

As far as Pfizer, I agree with the commenter above. They've got a lot of cash and a fat dividend, and I bought some last week. They may turn around and go places with something in the pipeline or a purchase; if not, I'll get a better return than my bank offers for the foreseeable future.

I'm staying away from the whole banking, insurance, financial sector until it shakes out to my satisfaction, if ever.