Declining balances

Oh, what fun .. it is to ride .. the sleigh of human behavior.

So, today, a call from a realtor with whom I've had great chemistry and bad fortune.

"Did you get my invitation to the show? Blah, blah, our friend should have been in it, blah, blah, it's going to be really cute, blah, blah. Oh, let me bring you up to date on that former client (you gave me.) He's working toward another closing, and it seems that the client himself is the cause of these delays. (blah, blah) Oh, he needs copies of his tax returns, can you please fax them to his new loan officer?"


1. I'm not that easily fooled.
2. Seems that they're trying to get him 100% financing, still, but they need his tax returns. Which won't support a loan at all.
3. Interest rate is what we quoted him three months ago, not the lower number that he was originally promised
4. Appraisal was JUST ordered because the client wouldn't cut loose with the appraisal check
5. LO was stymied trying to get him to release his bank statements
6. They can't prove his self-employment for two years, and I won't sign a tax preparer letter.

Hah. Hah. Hah.

Never once does the realtor say "I'm sorry I ever believed that you weren't doing the best job you could do and that the problem lay somewhere else."

I called him back about ten minutes later to point out that the client couldn't possibly do a full doc loan unless he was no looking at a $60,000 property. Maybe.

Bram came home last night, and, as expected, advised that he'll be gone within days. I am committed to making his bedroom into a curio case. My conversation with C-man this morning on the subject:

back to ATL and hope for the best. I expect he'll be gone in a few days.
[12:49] C-man: ugh
[12:49] C-man: well... best of luck with that - sorry to hear it
[12:49] drdivo: I'm quite serious about turning his bedroom into a curio case
[12:50] C-man: lol... for your glass menagerie?
[12:50] drdivo: all the stupid shit I've bought on eBay and cannot sell now
[12:51] C-man: lol
[12:51] C-man: ahh - a shrine to meg Whitman!
[12:51] drdivo: pretty much. And late night lonliness with a credit card

This selling experience on eBay has been horrible. Of the six things that did sell, three were sold out of country, and the buyers in each case have been pendantic and arrogant about how much postage I should be able to charge. Of course, it's not that you're supposed to just recoup your POSTAGE, but also whatever shipping and handling costs there are. The two Canadians have both already PAID what they thought was "fair," based on the eBay shipping rate calculator, which isn't taking into account the fuel surcharge fees.

So, I was screwed. Well, a different word, actually, but screwed will have to suffice here.

Thusly, I have a batch of crap purchased on eBay over the last ten years that will gather dust until I either wise up and pitch it all in the trash, or until they haul my moldy carcass out of my house, and then pitch it all into the trash. And, it needs a home. And I need a use for Bram's room that doesn't involve inviting yet another non-paying, useless man into my home.

Speaking of useless men, two notes: The Abilene boy was to have come over last night (his request) and he was again a no-show. The client who has a long history of wanting proposals, business project documents, help with understanding his taxes and whatever and can't pay a nickel, ever, has been making noise about getting together to finally cough up some home remodeling supplies he has that he was going to use to liquidate his bill. He invited me to come to his house on Sunday, and then blew me off by text message AFTER the meeting time. Yesterday, it was "sorry, but I'm available the next two days." Yesterday, I told him that I was unwilling to make further plans with him because he doesn't keep them. He wrote me back today and said "well, now you missed me for tonight.."

I wrote back:

I'm still in the same place I was before - you make plans over the last eight months, and you don't keep them. Or you make some enticement to have plans ("let's get together") but there is no specificity, and then you hit me back for not meeting up with you when there were no plans to begin with.

And I still decline. I'm unwilling to make one more appointment that isn't kept, or talk about some deal or project that I'm not going to be compensated for in any way. Sorry.

I'm sure I'll hear something about that.

While on the subject of useless, today I went to Legacy Health (where I've been a patient for almost five years, nee the Montrose Clinic. http://...com/2gq6fh if you want to check them out.) For the ninety-eleventh time, the 82 pound twink at the desk flounces over and asks why I'm there. "Why are you here today?" No, I'm serious. "I have an appointment." "Why, though? What do you need?"

"Lab work." "Well, I see that your appointment is for fasting labs, but that's all it says."

Uh, doesn't that mean that you KNEW why I was there?

"What labs do you need?" "How am I supposed to know that?"

(much flipping through SUBSTANTIAL chart - after all, I've been going there for nearly five years for the identical issue.)

"Well, I don't want to charge you the wrong amount and order the wrong tests, so I'm going to have to go back into the back to find out what you're supposed to be getting."

Now, why would it bother them that they charged me for labs or tests I didn't need, or didn't order labs and tests that I did need? It would be a first time, as they've historically done it wrongly in the past without an apology or a credit back.

"It's not my job to know what your job is supposed to be. When you figure it out, you can call me. I'm going back to work."

Health issues are stressful enough, and they're exacerbated by stress. Many times when I've gone in for an appointment, I have high blood pressure at the exam because of the rudeness, indifference and incompetence that I've suffered at the front desk.

Today, I was thinking about this issue of health care in the US. I was wondering, has Canada had any sort of significant economic reversal since they adopted British Columbia's health care system nationwide some twenty years ago?

From an economic standpoint, having health care in this country wouldn't be so hard to accomplish, and would be a strong economic benefit in the following ways:

1. People who were confident about their health and the support they'd have in health issues are more productive
2. Systems that seek to engage in preventative medicine have fewer people who miss work due to appointments, procedures, and recovery time - so more productivity and fewer missed days

3. Systems that engage in single payer but private provider arrangements provide stimulus for efficient, comforting and accurate care delivery

4. Systems that engage in single payer arrangement can negotiate enormous discounts, and set fair values for procedures as is currently done by HMOs and Medicare.

5. Systems that provide for the care of everyone would resolve the emergency room meltdown; everyone could just go to a clinic or doctor that was convenient for them.

6. Systems that focus on preventative and critical care leave open the high-profit elective, cosmetic and vanity medical services that our high paid doctors gravitate toward.

7. Taking out employer paid benefits (for that lucky portion of the population who are employed where such benefits are paid) dramatically increases the profitability and competitiveness of US firms in a global marketplace.

8. Making health insurance uniform and predictable creates a situation where EVERY employer's positions are competitive based on environment and opportunity, not based on health coverage. This makes smaller, non Fortune 500 employers far more competitive, and increases their opportunity.

9. Making health care generally available through a single-payer system also provides for uniformity of access to health care; people in smaller cities or rural areas would not be impeded from high quality care when there is no "give 'em a pain killer and shove 'em out of here before it costs us something" mentality.

10. Otherwise highly productive employees who are older, or have health issues could gain access to full employment, because their prospective employers wouldn't shun them to avoid increased risk/health care costs. This again increases the wage base, increases productivity, and provides more general economic stimulus.

11. On the job injuries cease being the responsibility of the employer (where such rules are actually enforced.)

12. Immigrants to this country have to "buy in," essentially pay in an actuarially calculated amount of money to gain access to the health care system, or pay privately.

13. Instant financial relief for the myriad industries in this country who are burdened by health care costs for their current and retired workers. Instant global competitiveness for those firms.

14. Bankruptcies and financial defaults would plummet; more than half of all consumer bankruptcies are brought about by health care costs related to a catastrophic health event.



Accomplishing this isn't rocket science, either.

The British Columbia model, which I've only superficially studied, works like this:

a. Everyone who is in BC has a health care card/registration.
b. Everyone in BC pays a tax into the health care pool. EVERYONE. The unemployed pay in. The employed pay in.
c. Since the BC system is non-profit, the rates are established by the actuarial and actual prior year costs based on the number of enrollees. No reserves are necessary for losses, or for underwriting issues.
d. Everyone has equal health care, with an emphasis on non-invasive and preventative health care.
e. The Federal government in Ottawa contributes some Federal revenue into the provincial health care system.

Many elements of this system are already very familiar to anyone who is acquainted with Medicare/Medicaid.

So, we just expand Medicare/Medicaid to include EVERYONE. It's administered on a state by state basis with uniform standards imposed by the Federal program. EVERYONE pays a tax in. The tax collected is a pittance as compared to the health premiums now paid by employers or individuals, but covers the actual risk/costs of health care delivery. Local governments contribute a PORTION of their charity health care tax revenues now allocated to emergency room and clinic care delivery. "Poof!" No more ER crisis. No more county red-ink.

No cosmetic or vanity procedures are covered.

Massive discounts on drugs are negotiated by the system. Drug costs plummet.

The amount of money spent on health care in this country falls. Productivity goes up disproportionately, as more people are able to work more fully, or become hireable.

The following subjects fall away from the collective consciousness entirely:

* Immigrants stealing health care
* Counties and cities overburdened with indigent health care costs
* HMOs denying health care to someone who needs it
* Fraud committed against insurance carriers or Medicare on schemes like motorized wheelchairs or unnecessary back surgeries
* People dying of undiagnosed disease for inability to pay for health care
* People in one state or city having access to wonderful health care, while people in another state languish with old methods and inadequate facilities.
* Unreasonably high rates of birth defects, infant deaths, and preventable deaths will go away

Of course, anyone can object and suggest that there will be flaws. There will be flaws with any system. However, I think that either or any of the Democratic candidates for the Congress or the Presidency could do well to promote an economic model that will show the benefits to the economy and to big, medium and small business will overcome the powerfully funded objections sure to be mounted by the AMA, the drug companies, and the retail medical establishment.

If every major business community save and except those directly affected by the bloated, greed motivated health care "system" we currently have were in favor of a single-payer health system in the US, it would get done. Period.