25% of Charlottesville residents have no health insurance, and I’m guessing it’s not because they’re so rich that they don’t need it. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Please tell me that is sarcasm: “they’re so rich that they don’t need it”.
I just got my annual premium increase notice from Anthem this week. Its 20 percent higher , starting next month, to continue current coverage. As a self employed building trades guy, its rude news considering the hit I’m already taking due to the widespread decrease in building both locally and nationwide. It may be 25% 1 soon.
I think you need to read that sentence again, Lauren, this time a bit more closely. :)
Those census figures were from a few years ago before the bad economy and layoffs- so I’m guessing that percentage could have gone up (at least incrementally) by now.
I really hate that the article paints the majority of that 25 percent as irresponsible college students who aren’t insured because they’re – “healthy.” I think it’s a misrepresentation.
Waldo- this is not the SAT’s, no DOUBLE negative posits!
We tried hard to get insurance for our staff, but all it takes is one unhealthy starter in the group and the price is nuts. And with a black male, 40 something, smoker in the group it killed us. Fire him and the average goes to $400/person, which is tough but doable. Another employee is overweight and that hurts a lot too. That will be an extra $150/month sir for the overeater.
I could get him to under $1000/month if he would quit smoking, but he refuses, even for himself and the other staff. “You would rather keep smoking than have insurance…?”
So part of me is not so terribly sympathetic to some that do not have insurance. Why should I pay out the nose for their unhealthy choices…?
Way over 25% of the people I know don’t have health insurance. Almost all of us are college-educated. All of us work full-time, none of us smoke. We’re all in our late thirties through fifties. For many, it’s impossible to pay for insurance AND a mortgage, rent, utilities, or groceries. So it’s not like folks are using the savings to go skiing in Gstaad.
The blame falls squarely on the insurance companies, which are run by soulless bastards. I’ve worked for small businesses that had to stop offering insurance to employees because they had a worker get terminal cancer, or need an organ transplant. As a result, the rates were jacked up so high, it became impossible to continue. Our current insurance system is a lose/lose all the way around.
read it again. gotcha.
Danpi, why in the world would you let this one guy prevent you from securing group insurance for yourself and all the rest of your employees? I think you need to up the ante from “You would rather keep smoking than have insurance?” to “You would rather keep smoking that have a job?”
It may be tough to fire an otherwise good employee, but it seems to me that, as an employer, you’ve got a duty to your other employees. Bite the bullet and do the right thing.
VOR. I suspect that blame can go all around in this system. People who run to the doc for little things and expect expensive pills to make something go away a few days faster. Docs that push far to many tests and are afraid of: Lawyers and litigation and hospitals with a lobby that looks like a 5 star hotel. Do ladies in labor really need expensive epidurals? My wife went 5 kids without any and yet most we talk to these days insist on that personal comfort. Did my daughter need a CAT scan for her recent appendectomy? No way says physician friend. She had every possible perfect symptom and history (four generations of appendicitis in late teens) that indicated appendicitis. But they still put her into a $1000.00 test.
Blaming the insurance companies is easy, but if you think they ration healthcare you have not seen anything if the government gets ahold of the system. Spend 20 minutes reading the mess the Cash for Clunkers program had within 24 hours of starting. The system broke down on day one, and ended up costing 3 times what they originally budgeted. And that was for crapy old cars, something that seems much easier to address than healthcare…
The only effective fiscal solution seems to be a variant on “Logans Run,” in which case I should stop eating salads for lunch and jogging because I am screwed!
and then there are the people who choose to not have insurance… though they also choose to have a new car, satellite or cable tv etc.
Harry Landers- You are suggesting I provide insurance to all the white staff and none to the black guy? Could be some problems there. :-)
I do not want to be on national TV with Obama calling me “stupid.’
Nope, danpi. I’m suggesting that you insist that none of your employees be permitted to smoke, if they want to keep their job. And, since you’ve now revealed that the only black employee that you have is one who smokes, I’d also suggest that you spring for a legal consultation to be sure that you handle it fairly and properly.
I don’t know how many other employees you’ve got, but to think that all the rest of these people are denied health insurance because one guy insists on smoking strikes me as horribly unfair.
The example of the employee who smokes does involve some level of personal responsibility though I realize addictions can be powerful.
Here is a common story though- one of my family members works for a very small company where one of the employees has a small child born with serious health issues which causes the premiums to be very high for everyone in the company. Surely no one would suggest firing this father? The whole system is in big trouble…
If I got “sick” I wouldn’t go to anyone who would take insurance, so no use paying for a system I wouldn’t use. Medical literature is full of stories of people who “healed” with no medical intervention. US medical care isn’t the only system, just the dominant one.
fdr– while I’m sure some people like that exist, I certainly don’t know any. Most people who don’t have insurance go without because they bloody well can’t afford it. That means they certainly can’t afford new cars, either. Not everyone has a life that’s jam-packed full of choices: “Gee, should I choose health insurance or satellite radio?” Please…
Should I get insurance or buy my car 24 inch rims and a sound system that makes me so deaf medicare pays for hearing aids and I go on disability at 42 years old…?
Lots of people make their choices. I guess I am not interesting in spending time (visiting lawyers etc) and more money on those who make choices that hurt them, but cost me…
How about we start a program that anyone recieivng aid needs to meet certain standards: An appropriate BMI, no smoking allowed, etc. Or that somehow different form me excluding someone for smoking from insurance?
Lots of ethical questions and few of them simple.
Eventually, almost everyone will have a serious health issue that is NOT the result of poor decisions. We vastly over estimate what we have control over if we do not face this reality. We cannot control our genetic inheritance, other folks dangerous driving, or our exposure to disease if we ever venture out to public places (not to discount the importance of good hygiene)- to list just a few health impacting categories beyond our control.
So should a health care system promote and reward healthy behaviors? Yes, of course but it would be nice if we could do so without an outbreak of self-righteous certainty that everyone gets what they deserve when it comes to health issues.
Agreed, Gail. It’s disheartening to hear the self-righteousness.
When you’re ignorant (and fully insured, also), it’s oh so easy to blame stuff on people w/ rims and loud stereos. (By the way, how’s the view from that high-horse?) That’s because most of the working poor fly under your already faulty radar. While you’re looking around for easy targets… “it’s all THEIR fault”… there’s a world of people you can’t even see. That’s because you don’t want to see them.
To “voice”, people make strange choices all the time. Drive thru any trailer park or public subsidized housing and you’ll see lots of new cars. Immediate comforts and wants often trump long range planning.
@Waldo, Harry Landers, we’ve been in this discussion beofre. It seems there is some support for employers to start controlling their employees’ life styles when push comes to shove. Is the answer really to fire the smoker or the obese? Should the smoker be required to stop smoking and the obese required to work out everyday and diet until the weight problem is solved? If an employer is determined to help his employee pay for health insurance, why doesn’t he just give the employee the amount he would like to contribute monthly to his health insurance and let his employee purchase whatever policy he feels he wants and make up the cost difference? Isn’t that what employers do for their employees’ housing, food, clothing, transportation, and entertainment? That way, there are no grounds for a lawsuit.
Why would somebody’s monthly cost be $1000 when danpri says that, without the problems, the cost would be $400/month? My arithmetic isn’t working.
How does the census bureau know how many people have insurance in Charlottesville and what localities are in the Charlottesville census tract?
The average cost would be $400/month. Let’s say all of the employees are nonsmoking, nondrinking, healthy 30-year-old males. They’re all $400/month. And then there’s one smoking, 45-year-old guy who is obese and has a family history of heart attacks. He’s $1,500/month. If he quits smoking, he’s down below $1,000. Ignoring him, the average is $400.
a) They asked. b) Census tracts are small—1,500-8,000 people—so it’s a matter of how many tracts are in Charlottesville, not how much more than Charlottesville is in a tract. So there’s no problem in IDing C’ville-only tracts.
Thanks, I was confusing census tracts for metropolitan statistical areas, which reminds me that I can’t concentrate on two things at one time.
Who asked in 2006 whether he had insurance or not. I wasn’t. If they called people during the day, most working people were at work, students may have been home, non-working people may have been at home. So, if the latter two groups were who they contancted, I’m not surprised at the result.
I also remember that 11% (5k ) of the people included in the city’s census in 2000 were students and should have been included in the county’s census. Perhaps they polled a lot of them.