United Healthcare - Death Care

UnitedHealth's profit jumps 22% - Net income increased to $1.2 billion, or 87 cents per share, from $981 million, or 70 cents, a year earlier Having been part of that 1.2 billion I can relate with disgust, I had UHC, my company switched last year. I called and verified that the doctor and hospital were in the plan and it was I then my wife went for two appointments. They were both denied, as the doctor was not supposedly listed(hospital run office). The key to this is that UHC has denied not just me but many others medical care that was paid for for any technicality. There are many people who I am sure are denied for even more important procedures. Now I live in a small town and there were no other options listed, so I would have to go out of town for any care, also part of the plan to eliminate costs. UHC's tactics are not geared for the insured, but for the shareholder as is evidenced by the profits driven. That is the nature of any shareholder owned company. The problem than is that when a shareholder is the driving force behind the motives of the company, the company will drop shareholders, deny coverage, increase premiums or anything else to drive profits. The only solution is to get the shareholder out of the picture. That does not mean a government adminsitered one though(single payer). That creates the same problem with the governmentbeing the shareholder

98k

This article doesn't focus really on the fact of the 98k deaths, but I wasn't to look at this fact that people brandy about. I find it altogether impossible to believe. That's a lot of deaths or a lot of mistakes. The more likely candidate is that there were a lot of choices in a serious situation and the wrong one was chosen. Lets focus on the significant factor. The person, by and large, who died was ill, seriously ill. The death is attributed to the error, but in all reality they might or probably would have died anyways. Now this doesn't negate the reason for dealing with errors, but the number does need to be an accurate reflection on the truth. The real question is how many deaths does the insurance industry lead to by denial of claims, or procrastinating(hoping the patient dies first) or causing emotional turmoil. That is a big issue as well that needs to be addressed The other reason that 98,ooo is impossible to believe is the 1/5th statistic. that means that on average 3.7million people die from 4 main causes. I think that is impossibly shallow statistical writing. Ultimately the real question is why is it that everyone wants to live forever? 3.7 million is based on an old US population of 270mil/70 year life expectancy(rough guess)

The Real Battle - The A380 or the 747-8 Intercontinental?

Now the Real qestion is not which one is the most gracefull. Though even the head of airbus couldn't argue that the A380 is not a gracefull airplane. The Concorde is without a doubt the most gracefull. So the real question is which one will get you to where you want to go on time. I have dealt with this in other places. The airbus could hold a third more. The last two trips I have had with A 747 were delayed by people checking in with bags and not showing up to the flight. Maybe they were lying down under the bar stool or some other bad reason. Either way I was delayed from 45 minutes to an hour. Now those odds are not the norm, but with a third more people it will not only cost more to land but also be more frequently delayed by passengers. Time slots and arrivals and departures are critical to the airlines and this is very important. I suspect this is a major driving force of the sales of the 757-8I over the A380. The A380 is a product of the pre 9/11 era. They had a lot of money invested and continued to pour money into it. The problem is this is the post 9/11 era, and people are going to be flying more and more point to point. This is the model the 787 and later the A350 project are designed around. This reduces the chance of terrorism taking out major transfer points as well. Never mind that we might be able to avoid LAX all together. LAX& Tom Bradley Terminal = the worst international airport in the world!!!

Amazing expression - Noël Forgeard President & CEO of Airbus

Now I might believe that the A 380 is an ugly plane with a huge forehead. Airlines will eventually realize that with that many passengers there will be far more complications than there are today with the 747-400 screwing up the schedule far more. They will also realize that more people are going from point to point the Boeing model, and smaller Hubs. There will still be hubs, maybe even larger than today, but the focus will be point to point. Not everyone likes to sit and lounge at the airport. Though many people do like to whale watch and the A380 has a lot of resemblance to the Blue Whale.

Working together

Heathrow airport Facing the crunch Having just flown through Heathrow I always like it. Now most don't, I know, but I enjoy the crazieness of the place. Having lived in London, LA and New York I can see that there are many airports with simmilar problems. Not only with similar problems but also with Similar solutions. The airports need to, must work togetther. Now the solution is a High Spead rail between the regional airports and transfering freight and passengers to their own respective sites. Not the people who run the airports don't like the idea that they have to cooperate, but so what

LAX Disfunction

having recently traveled through LAX I was greatful to read about the changes that they are making. I think that is great, but in contrast to any other international airport I have traveled through LAX is the worst. I have had people tell me that they would not fly out of LAX but use San Francisco instead. LAX is more convientent though. I hat it especially for international travel. It is the pits. When compared with what Heathrow , UK is doing its laughable. In reality LAX is going to bring it up to the standard of what Heathrow or Hong Knong was, not what they are or will be. There is no real competition though for international travel, but LAX is terrible. The Check in is terrible with checking your bag twice, then when returning the immigration is crazy. Now for the INS officers its a headache I am sure, but the disorganization is horrendous. If Disneyland can figure out how to keep people in a line and sort them out so there is some organization so should LAX.

Giant Bicycles on the Lil’ Giant Review

While back my wife and I were looking for a tricycle for our son t ride. We looked and looked and finally after a lot of thought landed on the Lil’ Giant. The local bike shop had two and one was used but in near new condition, it was not as nice as the nice German bikes, but a whole lot cheaper and appeared to be a lot better construction than the cheap ones around. Well we wanted one with a handle, to help with steering, breaking, and pushing. The bike seems great, the handle on the back is not. It’s aluminum tubing. While its lightness is great, the strength of the tubing and the weld is negligible. We have had two break off under normal use now. Don’t expect to have something that will withstand enormous stress, but I do expect to have something that will not continually break. The problem is that there are two straps underneath the bike and the aluminum is merely welded in a simple weld to it. Twice the soft aluminum tubing has broken off of this through simple use. It would be much better to put the aluminum post into a much stronger receiver than simple weld. But then no one has asked me, nor can I even really complain to the company. I was looking online at there website and there was no contact information. Since they care so little of giving me excellent customer service, the chances of me giving them any more business is nil. Zero, nada, none.

The interesting thing is that while I was looking this up online I ran across a description that said it will make a great heirloom, the bike might the handle will serve a different purpose.

Reforming American Medical Care

The American Medical System is based on money. This is no surprise to me it seems as though there are actually two different models of this.

• For Profit
• Non-Profit

The for profit puts the shareholder as the driving force, the non-profit puts the patient and care givers as an integral part of the driving force. Some will say that efficiencies are gained by the profit motive, and there is something to that, but also there is finances taken out of the system and payed to the shareholders. This appears to be a net lost to the system. Some will want to adopt the socialist version found thought the rest of the world, and in the most of the rest of the world it works well, if not always fabulous. Now some might argue with my criticism of the socialist model, but the fact is that all of them will send difficult cases to the US for treatment. That is exactly where the model fails in the difficult abnormal system. The model that the US should adopt at least as a first step is to require that everyone who is responsible for deciding care given be non-profit, a non-profit will set limits on pay(renumeration) and remove the share holder. Who would be included on the list

• Doctors Organizations
• Insurance companies
• Hospitals
• HMO's
• Traveling Nurse Organizations

Some will argue that the drug companies and equipment manufacturers should be on the list as they have a part to play, and I will agree that there prices need to be regulated, but innovation in manufacturing seems to only come from a profit motive. This is why Marxism fails, not because its a bad ideal but because it is against basic human nature.

Doctors will mostly complain as they think that they are gods and should be paid as such, but the reality is that they are no more important than the whole. They are not gods and need to be treated as such, being a non profit would only effect a certain amount of doctors and where pay controls are in place in the socialist systems they still get paid a fair amount and there are enough to go around. Besides the fact that with my medical care I don't want money to be the driving factor. I really suspect that there are few doctors in the nation that this would have any effect on whatsoever.

The last important piece is limiting liability. Now I am all for intintianal negligence cases, but I am against the whole phylosophy that the case will cost so much that the insurere will settle out of court rather than fight a fraudulent case. Some cases are appropriate but many are not. Negligence is one thing, mistakes are another. Sometimes people want to sue because of misconceptions about what healthcare can and can not do. This whole culture of lawsuitses has gone over the top though and must be limited.

The ultimate goal of healthcare must be to treat patients with care and consideration. Not as a number or a method to gain wealth. Now it might be difficult to actually thwart people who will abuse the least able to fight them off, but like politicians who are in it for the power and prestige(most of them) we need to slow them down.

Customer service

I find it amazing how many companies cut back on customer service. Yeah, many of them stay in business, but I won't go back, if at all possible. The Customer is always king, but it seems like some people haven't learned that. Delightfully some people have learned that excellent customer service is returned with great purchases.

HD vs Blu-Ray

It has come to my attention why I have to take a stance on Blu-Ray or HD. I had thought I would cheer for the Blu-Ray, because in storage space matters, I was watching CNET Video blog on the debate and they braught one point that will definitly push me toward the Blu-Ray. The Big factor - Blu-ray is trying to prevent everyone from replicating porn. They all said that they don't in anyway duplicate Porn. For this alone. SONY has gotten a huge boost in my books, even if they don't support macs.

Predicting the future

I had planned on writing this many months ago when it had become obvious to me what the next big change in computing was going to be. It has become even more evident with the new IPhone coming along. The next major advance won't be in touch screens, while the new IPhone will have a great tech. It is not a huge advance, other than its dispensing with a keyboard. The next great advance will be in the human interface, though. I believe ultimately we will be getting rid of a flat screen. Somehow it will be scanned into our minds or maybe a 3D holographic projection. In like manner there will be less to no need for a keyboard. This will all lead to computers becoming more ubiquitous. There will be less of a need for a computer with people sitting down, like I am now, to use a machine. The computer will be built into the book that will automatically be programed to update this blog wirelessly when it comes within range of any network.

Thus computing as we have known it will be completely different, possibly a bigger change than the World Wide Web has caused. Could be better compared to the change from the typewriter and the computer.

717 or the CRJ1000 - some striking similarities

Any body notice some similarities. Now they are obviously not the same, but maybe Boeing wasn't so smart to close the 717 line down.

Ghostaction - Getting things done

The question always arises in my mind which is the best software for doing something. Now I am one who does a lot of research, so much research that I have been getting Macworld for a year and I don’t even own a Mac(yet). I read most of the Mac blogs and news and just about anything on the web, not merely because I like the Mac, but because I dislike the MS solution. I did not say I hate it, I just think that there is little thought really in how users will use it and more about how to sell it. Thus MS always is playing catch-up to the underdog, apple. I decided to go with the underdog. Some will try to say that Mac is more expensive, but when comparing the two at the appropriate levels, one realizes that the apple is the same price. Not only that apple actually is a cheaper machine as the OS is cheaper to own and is will run on older machines much longer historically. Thus the apple is cheaper in the long run, not counting the aspirin needed for the Microsoft. I started to look for scheduling and planning software and ran across a note about Ghostaction. Now not actually being able to run the software I can only evaluate it off of three criteria. What they say it will do, screen shots and the appearance of the quality of customer services, the fourth is price. Ghost action is software based on the recent philosophy of project planning called Getting Things Done. There are a number of software and other solutions developed for this. I ran across this comparison of all the software on Wikipedia GTD Software. This was great for then I could compare the software available. Most of the software as normal was written for M$. Some was written cross platform and a few are web based and about four are exclusively Mac. I looked at them all. Most seem to be OK, but not great. I hate a cluttered interface, I also hate to pay a lot for software. Ghostware seems to win on all my evaluations

• What they say it will do- Do the most, easily.(Others might do more, but have an interface that precludes its being used regularly
• screen shots – By far the best interface
• customer services – Though it is only one guy he seems very easy to contact and communicated clearly on the web, with an interest in good customer service. He also seems intent on maintaining it, which is very important
• Price – It seems as though $20 is the base price of software today.
• The last is is it made4Mac? – Yep and Intel compatible Once I get my mac, I will be looking at buying my license.

Ready for customer service

Lithia Motors Repair - Reno NV

Now I went to Lithia Motors in Reno last year to have my timing belt replaced. Subaru Forrester 2001. I had a coupon that was sent out and it was probably $100 off. All seemed well. The serce manager just commented on how much this was less than the original, especially as it was a set price and they had just increased their prices.

All seemed well, until I picked up the car. Even that seemed well, other than I appreciate it when a car dealer will wash your car. I had driven a long way and really though it should have been washed. I also like it when a dealer will go out of there way to get a loaner car, this seems to me to be a no brainer to loan a late model car, they are trying to sell them I thought.

A few months ago I took the car in for something else and the mechanic, I know, said, you might want to change the timing belt. I told him I had, and asked why. He said that the fan belt was old and cracked and clearly not knew, and should be replaced. I had him relace it.

Conclusion:

It it rather common sense to replace the fan belt at the same time as the timing belt. I reallize that I got a great discount, but its unacceptably poor maintanence to not even mention it to me that it might need to be done.

Subaru Forester 2001

For some time I have been thinking about doing a review of car. I have a Subaru forester 2001 silver l model. Driving - Excellent Snow driving - Excellent Breaking – Excellent Interior – Needs some attention to the quality of the detail Noise – Far to noisy Cost for upkeep- fine, now that I found some one in town to do the majors I guess the biggest complaints are The Carpet is to thin and not nearly enough padding under it in the back seats especially. The air seems to make a lot of noise in the front seats; I think the air flowing over the mirrors is the culprit. The cup holders are just far to easy to break, and are a joke. All in all the car is a great car, especially with driving in the snow.

United Health Care: Rating -2

Last year my company moved its health care to UHC, as Blue Cross was doubling the price. That sounded outragous. Well, it was, but UHC was worse. My wife ended up going to the doctor in that time 2 times and having lab and exray twice. Each and every visit I have had call up and deal with on the phone. Now all the service people were very kind, but non the less I always had to check with every charge. I hve never had as much problem with any other insurance company. I figured out any insurance company who fails to pay on claims is worthless, no matter how nice they are thus so Far UHC get a -2 rating