LOST IN MASTICATION

[This post is part of several that are my lay attempts at applying the economic and social interest theories to my assumptions, and pragmatically evaluating the options.]

As GDP increases, medical care will undoubtedly increase as well.  So it’s apt time that we take a look at health care reform.

What motivates government?  Why do we have the health policies that we have? How likely is it that we’ll have a different health policy in the future?

I think these are points that we don’t consider everyday, and understanding how we got to where we are today is important.  And part of understanding history is knowing about the factors that fall under the two largest forces driving the debate  – economic and political interests.

Economic Forces include:

• Demands for care.  The demands are dependent on prices of services, insurance costs and the economy.
• Costs for providing care.  For example, as technology increases, costs will increase too.
• Market structure. Competitive markets = lower price increases and more choices. Antitrust policy is important here.
• Incentives. Depending on the types of economic incentives available, all of the above are affected.

Political Forces also include:

• Demands for care.
• Costs for providing care.
• Market structure.
• Incentives.

In an economic market, companies compete against other similar companies.  Under political influence, these competitors become allies because collectively companies want to make sure that public policy does not increase costs. These public policies affects both finance and regulations.

For several years I’ve waited for our country to entertain the health care reform issue.  Now that it’s here, I’m both excited and frustrated.

Excited that we are finally talking about it. Frustrated that I don’t feel anyone is taking a practical look at it.  I hate politics because it’s a game played by finding faults in each others plans, rather than building on each idea or proposal to reach a sustainable solution.

I’d never survive in politics.

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I’m not an economist, health care provider or policy analyst. I don’t completely understand the proposals under the health care bill.  But from a lay perspective, I believe there are a lot of assumptions being made by people (myself included) that could be better thought out to have constructive debates about the hot topic.

I lean neither left or right.  I lean towards the most practical and sustainable solution based upon the information I have at any given time on any given subject.  And of course I am driven by self-interest…  I don’t believe that anyone can claim not to be driven by even the slightest self-interest.

Here’s the issue with individuals and the debate around health care… most people don’t understand.  We generally operate under one of two (or both) broad assumptions that shape our views:

1. The government will nationalize health care, which will unfairly raise my taxes.
2. Private insurance premiums are skyrocketing exponentially, so we need to find an alternative.

You can surmise where the left and right sit on the above statements.  What neither side seems to acknowledge and agree upon is that regardless of the outcome of this debate, tax-paying and law-abiding citizens will always pay for themselves AND others.

In the first scenario, we pay the premium via income taxes.  The risk is spread across the entire American population whereby the healthy pay for more than they use, and the sick use more than they pay.  The idea is that you are investing for the future when you will inevitably get older and need more care.  In an ideal world, you eventually end up using what you’ve paid out in your lifetime.

In the second scenario, we pay the premium via employer/ee insurance contributions and co-pays.  What we fail to remember – or don’t even realize – is that our out-of-pocket premiums pay into a “pool” or community where the risk is spread out as well.  The difference with the risk pool in self- or employer-paid health insurance program is 1) in the risk variables, which include size of your company, average age of employees, etc. and 2) the term of coverage – which ends when you stop realizing your benefits (e.g. you quit you job).

In scenario two, a healthy person may never realize the amount that s/he or their employer contributed.  This contribution is simply a private tax exercised by the employer that most employees would be able to pocket if health care were not a benefit. And unless written as a retirement benefit after vesting with a company, there is no lifetime payout.  Because the private tax is marketed as a “benefit”, people have to come believe that it is an entitlement.

Then there are those that are risk averse and won’t pay for any insurance, or those who are independently wealthy enough to pay for medical costs out of pocket.  These two populations represent only a fraction of a percent, so I’ll ignore them here.

The bottom line is, we all pay – whether you call it a tax or benefit. The solution that we pick should be based upon where the most efficiency lies.  Unfortunately, there are no clear lines that define the efficiencies.  Everything is a fuzzy give-and-take, as you’ll see below.

What the health care issue drills down to, is really the debate between economic theorists and social interest theorists.  These theories are a little less defined by party lines than the original assumptions, though heavily influenced by the population that is able to take collective action, such as labor unions, PhRMA and the AMA.

—

Subsequent posts are my lay attempt at applying the economic and social interest theories to the assumptions, and pragmatically evaluating the options.

Health care undoubtedly needs reform.  I don’t know how to do this.  But I do know that any new policy should:

• Cover all minors.  They have no control of their situation, and it’s in society’s best interest that we take care of them and mitigate future health care disasters.
• Cover all elderly.  They’ve paid their debt to society and we owe them the respect… particularly the lost generation.
• Protect small businesses.  The U.S. has always been a land of opportunity.  And to price someone out of pursing their dream because they can’t afford health insurance goes against the founding principles of our country.  Look at Mr. Jobs, Mr. Gates, even Mr. Buffet.

Whether we solve the health care disaster with wine and golf taxes or limiting excessive and unnecessary procedures, whatever… I do hope we reach a good, sustainable solution that will easily transform our culture for the better over the next generation.

Today is the 95th anniversary of my grandmother’s birth… and 126 days since her passing.

With my paternal grandparents in the summer of 1982 (or thereabouts).

[Unfortunately, this isn't a well thought out post, and completely un-researched.  I write this blog-post-turned-essay as a way to spark constructive discussion about the Web and the way it is transforming lives.]

Happy 40th birthday Internet.

The first test that led to the operation of the Internet happened on September 2, 1969.  Many other things happened that summer, including the Apollo 11 lunar landing and Woodstock.  All three events changed the course of history in then unimaginable ways.  None, however, has affected individual lives as much as the Internet.

The Internet made the Web possible. (By comparison, the Web is only half the age of the Internet.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Web has changed so much about our society, culture and habits.  Many are embracing it, while others will continue to shun it.  Regardless of which side you’re on, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the Web is here to stay.

Read the rest of this entry »

How does the Internet see you?

That is the question that Personas, a project at MIT, asks.  It’s a kind of Doppler Radar for your Web presence.  Here’s what my Personas looks like.

It leaves me wondering… what’s so “illegal” about me?

I don’t think there’s anything you can decipher or definitively pull from the Personas analysis.  But it is a great way to take an alternate look at your personal brand on the World Wide Web.

Here’s an analysis for Liz Pulliam Weston, a personal finance adviser, and contributor to MSN.  Liz’s presence is much more diverse, colorful, and spans 29 dimensions (versus my three).  If nothing else, it says that her brand touches a wide-spectrum of interest and very broadly on the Web.

And why not type in your corporate brand as well and see what comes up?

[Hat-tip to Sam Kaufman]

In the beautiful town of Kanazawa, Japan, there is a gentle soul who teaches in class, everyday, something that I never even knew existed until just a couple months ago: emotional intelligence.

I’m not a parent yet, so I can’t say how much I would want to protect my children from the pains of life.  But I think allowing children to discover happiness and pain, and guiding them to be emotionally intelligent, is a critical missing piece in our education system.

At the end of my MBA, I took the MSCEIT assessment and learned a lot about how I perceive and emit emotions.  It’s really helped me understand why I do or say something, and other times, how differently to approach situations.

I am great at perceiving the emotions and moods of others.  I read people really well, and my gut instinct is right-on.  However, I am horrible at describing how I feel and allowing others to read me – which on the positive side, allows me to control extreme rage.

I venture to guess that most people go through life without ever being aware of their emotional being and the impact of their words and actions on others.  Life is perhaps easier this way.

But I can’t help but think how much better the world, the workplace, and families would all be, if people weren’t so naïve about their actions and reactions to each other.

No matter how old you are, I think there are good lessons to be learned from this series, “Children Full of Life”.

When the kids outline their bodies and fill it in with who they are, where they’ve come from, it reminds me of the personal collage I did at my closing residential retreat.

Here’s to all the wonderful teachers in the world… inside and outside the classroom:

I responded to a manifesto by Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch today, asking:

Why do you, or why don’t you, use Twitter?… I only forbid one answer: “because everyone else is doing it.” That’s the same reason people wore Hammer pants.

In short, my answer was that I use it because it’s part of my research to do my job effectively, and to stay on the cutting edge of my industry.  (Go here for the long answer.)

That all led me to wonder how my tweets were being used by others… if at all.  I know what value I am getting, but what do others get out of my 140-character banter?

Sure people retweet what I say or converse with me via my public lifestream at @sherrymain.  But is all the noise I make actually worthy of anything other than building my online-ego?

I came across an LA Times article from May 21 that quotes my tweet verbatim (down to the hashtag!), and associates it with my full-time profession:

Gun scare at UCI serves as test for text-alert system

…Reports also spread through campus through hundreds of messages on the microblogging site, with students sending tweets about helicopters hovering above campus, swarms of police and apparent lockdowns. “For those reporting on #UCI incident, evidence that UCI’s ZotAlert system works, and Twitter helps to spread the word beyond,” wrote Sherry Main, a communications director at UCI.

Someone is listening!  The media are listening, especially  because I wear a communications hat.  So in fact, the primary reason for my tweeting maybe to research the medium, but a by-product of that research is that I represent not only my private self, but any and all organizations that I am affiliated with.

In such a public forum, I must always be “on” – whether I tweet about my restless night at 3 a.m. or the hair in my lunch – people (and the media, which include major papers, bloggers, etc.) are listening and looking for quick, easy ways to obtain and retool information.

I’ve always been consciously aware that anyone can read what I write, but being consciously aware that someone can reuse what you write, is something completely different.

What starts as research quickly turns into addiction – ahem, Twitter and Facebook – especially when my interactions with the respective communities grow.  But the value in this addiction lies in the ability to filter out the noise and extract lessons for both my life and more importantly to carve a career path and expert niche for myself.

@PadrePablo was home for 98 days this summer.  And the last few days were a lot of fun as we relaxed and drove all over California with our pup, @Chibsters.

In homage to of one of the best movies we saw in theatres during these 98 days – (500) Days of Summer – we sought out Tom and Summer’s “bench” at Bunker Hill’s Angels Knoll Park.  (But not before we grabbed lunch at our favorite Phillipe’s first…)

Here, @PadrePablo explains where we are:

Apparently we weren’t the only one’s with the idea as we saw other couples strolling… asking themselves “Is that the bench?” or declaring “That’s the spot!”

This is the 360° view of the park from Tom and Summer’s bench:

And here’s a 180° view of Los Angeles from the park:

If you’re so inclined to do the same,  LA Times has an article and Google Maps tour of all the sites from the flick.

Twitter backgrounds can now be interactive… [Correction: Works on any browser!  See comment  from ShiftComm below.]

Installing and activating your page with Clickable Now is good practice.  Your followers, customers, and constituents may be using either browser, and this is just one more step that will help ease the process for people who want to interact with you on the Social Web.

Install the add-on or script into your browser from here, then give Clickable Now access to your Twitter account.  Once you do, it’s pretty simple (See the screen shots below):

1. Click on the “New Link” button.
2. Drag the link box to the portion of your sidebar that you’d like hyper-linked.
3. Resize to fit the area to be hyper-linked.
4. Enter the email or Web site information, and choose the highlight color.
5. Save settings.

That’s it!  Although this only works on Firefox browsers, and for those who have installed the add-on, it’s a big step forward.  We’ve been wanting the Twitter backgrounds to be interactive for a long time.

You can see below what we’ve hyper-linked @INCULINK or on my personal page @SherryMain.  We’ve added live links to our logo and URL, personal blogs, personal Twitter accounts, and to our Facebook fan page.

Perhaps one day, HTML will go the way of Photoshop layers and allow us to upload custom HTML backgrounds behind the Twitter feeds.  But until then, this will do…

Hat-tip to Todd Defren (@tdefren) of ShiftComm.com.

My newly earned degree is nearly a month old.

Three years ago, when I started back at school, I couldn’t have imagined where I would be at the end of this journey.  I was completely unsure as to why I was going to business school – except for the fact that my better half thought it was a great idea, and I was bored out of my mind.

Going into the program, I was already a manager.  I had a pretty good job, great staff, and a house to call a home.  Life was pretty much good.  But I wasn’t content.

Coming out of the program, I’m still a manger with the same pretty good job, staff and home.  Life is still good even in these uncertain economic times.  But I’m still not content.

So what did all this debt get me that I couldn’t have otherwise learned on my own for free?

A lot.

Lesson #1: My core won’t let me be content. I’ll always be driven by a “what’s next?” curiosity.  Before I even finish one project, I’m already trying to figure out what to do next.  Being in classes and working in teams, I’ve learned how to make this impatience work for me.  As well, I am aware of how to make my personality work in harmony with other personality types.

Lesson #2: It isn’t just about who you know. The old adage goes: “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”  For me, it’s about how you interact with people – whether you know them or not.  How can I interact with people so that I get the most benefit from a relationship? What do I have to offer to someone, and how do I optimize what they have to offer me?

Yes, I use people and I want people to use me.  But all for the betterment of each other.

Lesson #3: My hobbies can work for me. I used to always say that I’d never make my hobbies into a career because then I’d start to hate it.  I don’t believe that anymore.  I think making a career out of my hobbies is what will gain me the most in life.  I’ll be more motivated to become better at what I do, have more time to do the things I want, and even be rewarded for it by making a living out of a passion.  It’s OK to mix work with pleasure.

Lesson #4: It’s just time and money. The past three years has taken a lot of time and money away from my regular life, but in the end, I am better off.  I lost three years with family and friends – but it’s three years that I got to focus on myself, and an investment in becoming a better wife, daughter, sister and friend (I hope).

Being too busy, I’ve not been able to maintain some friendships and have had to pass-up some great opportunities.  But the friends that are meant to be are still here today, and greater opportunities yet unknown await somewhere in the future.

In one of the first conversations I ever had with Paul, he asked me if I’d ever redo anything in my life – any major regrets?  I said, not a single thing.  I still hold by that answer… I’ve done some stupid things as everyone does, but I wouldn’t be who I am without having had those experiences to learn from.

On second thought, I would do one thing over… I would do the FEMBA 09B experience all over in a heartbeat.

In our last class together in Lake Arrowhead, we all shared about our hopes for the next five years and what experiences in our lives would help get us there.  This was a powerful moment for all of us.  I don’t remember what I said in my speech anymore… something about living separate lives with Paul for a better future, a desire to nurture the entrepreneurial bug inside me, and finding the guts to make my passion my career.  I think.

I don’t remember what I said because I was so lost in, and touched by, the encouragement and words of gratitude that my classmates my friends gave me.  If ever I’ve been humbled, it was that moment in the mountains – the same foggy mountain that Paul and I drove up on our wedding night.

The friends that I’ve made are worth more than the tens of thousands of dollars it cost to be able to add the three letters to my name.  I have a group of girlfriends with whom I’ll always share a bottle of wine.  A business partner and “brother” that I’ve never had.  And many a couple-friends that Paul and I will undoubtedly double, triple, quadruple date with for the rest of our lives.

I finally feel grown up… finally feel that I’ve come into my own.

Perhaps it’s crossing that 30 mark that did it too.

Or the two gray hairs I found a couple weeks ago.

Whatever it is, the MBA has really opened my eyes to a whole new world.

And because the one thing that the past three years hasn’t taught me is how to say “thank you” in person to those who really helped me through it all… I say thank you here.

To Paul.  My parents.  My sister.  My in-laws.

THANK YOU… and HOOAH!