The Way I See Health Care Reform

I just don’t see the proposed Health Care Reform package that is coming down the pike doing anyone much good. I tend to take the common sense approach when trying to fix large problems so here is what I think we need to do:

INCREASE SUPPLY – We need to increase the supply of available Healthcare. As an example, we need to create more doctors in this country by revising primitive training methods and providing financial incentives for those thinking about becoming a doctor. The same goes for everyone looking to enter the medical profession.

REDUCE DEMAND – To do this we have to provide incentives for people to use less healthcare. This might include wellness programs, providing free screening programs, tax incentives for those that don’t use the healthcare system as much etc. In short, reward good behavior instead of the other way around.

FOCUS ON ADMINISTRATION AND TECHNOLOGY – Have you ever tried to read hand written medical records? Or seen the amount of paper involved in maintaining your medical records?

Having been self insured for Workers Compensation for the past 11 years covering about 1500 claims here is what I know.

We have paid about fifty cents of every dollar spent on Workers Compensation claims on administrative expenses and not on actual medical expenses or indemnity costs.

Lots of room here to save money.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO PAY – Nothing is more important than having your health. In this county we expect/demand someone else pay for it. We’ll drop $30K on a new care before we’ll pay $100/mo. towards our health insurance premium.

Those that have employer paid healthcare in either the private or public sectors are perhaps the worst offenders though not of their own making.

Plain and simple, employer paid healthcare is untaxed wages to that employee. So not only does the employee have the benefit of “free” (or low cost) healthcare to draw from, they also don’t pay federal, state, local, FICA, Medicare etc income tax on the benefit. If your employer is paying $12,000/yr for your healthcare, at a 33% tax rate this is saving the employee $4,000/yr. in taxes. And every time your employer has to pay more in the ways of healthcare premiums the employee is in effect getting a tax free raise.

The net effect of this is that large pools of people are paying a tiny percentage of their total income for healthcare.

And we all know how human nature works when something is given out free!

TORT REFORM – Short and sweet, we need to get over the thinking that we are all going to live forever. The medical technology has us living longer that ever but there are no guarantees. Yes, mistakes are made.

But are thy honest mistakes or made out of greed. What about intent? Is anyone perfect? For the life of me I don’t see how any doctor would agree to have a personal injury attorney as a patient.

KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT – One only has to look at the track record of Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and the National Debt to figure this one out.
And the logic that says that by adding 30 million uninsured to the pool will reduce premiums overall is seriously flawed. This approach is in place in Massachusetts and they now have the highest premiums in the country.

I’m done. . . . thanks for listening.

Tim's Talking About EEOC, WARN and Health Care Reform

Did You Know that...
Race discrimination and retaliation represented 72 percent of all workplace discrimination charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Users of temp services need to be aware of their co-employment responsibilities in these matters. For example, retaliation can become an issue if you end a temps assignment for complaining about harassment by a permanent employee.

Check out the EEOC’s FAQ page for more details on discrimination.

Warning About Warn...
WARN is the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act that was passed some time ago to require certain employers to give employees advanced written notice of mass layoffs and plant closings. It applies to employers with more than 100 employees.


In its infinite wisdom a bunch of Ohio legislators think we would be better off with our own law that applies to employers with 50 employees of more.

This is another fine example of what we do best in this state. We like to put a significantly greater burden on Ohio employers than other states just to make it a bit harder to get them to come to our state. Makes perfect sense, right?


We Have All Gotten Along Before...
Having lived in the Mahoning Valley for the past 33 years and Northeast Ohio for 50 or so you get use to the Democrats taking credit for every great social program that has come down the pike in the past 75 years. And the Republicans are always painted as the party that wanted to send Grandma and Grandpa off to the poor house in their old age.

You might be surprised to learn that in 1935 the Social Security Bill passed in the House by a vote of 372 to 33 and in the Senate by a 77-6 margin. Pretty amazing especially when you compare it to what’s going on today over Health Care.

Ready To Rock N’ Roll
This month’s grand prize winner of two tickets to the Moon Dog Carnation Ball at the “Q” on March 27, 2010 is Marge Melinger, HR Director at Delta in Streetsboro. DVD’s from the four groups performing were won by Jim Puskas of CFI Installation, Joyce Keslar of A Plus Powder Coaters, Chuck Leguillon of Ohio Brass and Robyn Hoffman-Janes of Thermo Manufacturing.

Not surprising the Beatles by far were the group of choice for us children of the 60’s. The most unusual pick was Napoleon XIV. . . anyone remember their hit “They’re coming to take me away”?

Tip of the Month: “Do Unto Others” in the temp world

How would you feel if your staffing service provided you a reliable hard working temp that you invested 30 days in training with good success? Sounds pretty good so far right?


Now that same staffing service gets a call from a different client that wants that same great temp that you’ve invested costly training time and effort. What does the staffing company do? It yanks the temp from you, places him at the second client and calls you to see if you want a replacement.

My guess is that if this has happened to you, it didn’t make you very happy. . . and rightfully so.

Taking this scenario a step further, let’s say the staffing service supplier has a policy against switching temps from one assignment to another. But then the “evil” client threatens to find another staffing supplier to contact the temp to be placed on their payroll. These situations happen every day in the temp world and cause pause for thought. What to do you ask?


The first thing you should do is ask your supplier about their policy of switching temps to other customers in mid-stream. You may want to present the circumstances described above and see what their answer would be. The policy should be that they under no circumstances do they switch active temps between clients without first obtaining the approval of the first client at the very least. Even better is a policy that they just won’t do it period.


Concerning the second client that takes matters into its own hands by finding a second supplier to do their dirty work you have to question the ethics of both the client and second supplier.


This exact situation presented itself to us recently. This is how we handled it.


We told the client requesting the switch (a long term client) that we have a policy against doing what they were asking us to do. We asked them to evaluate their feelings if the position were reversed. Their response was to find other service to “temp nap” our employee.


What it all come down to from our perspective is that even at the risk of losing a long term client you have to do the right thing. As with most decisions in life, the “do unto others” creed applies to most business decisions as well. It’s a matter of who you want to do business with and have long term relationships.

Portage County HR Assocation Set for St. Patty's Day Meeting

Click image to enlarge.