"HIPAA ... requires insurers to offer coverage to anyone who has left a job, continued their coverage under COBRA, and then exhausted the COBRA coverage."
My experience with this required coverage is that 1) it is minimal (usually a state-mandated minimum of coverage) and 2) it is EXPENSIVE. Note that the insurance companies are *not* required to offer you the very same plan you COBRAed, or the same COBRA price you were paying... just *a* plan.
In North Carolina (and probably other states), the plan you are offered after COBRA expires has no prescription coverage, and is basically catastrophic health insurance. The details of the plan are mandated by the state of NC. Before counting on this plan, it would be a good idea to check out your state's minimum required plan... probably on the state's .gov page somewhere, maybe on the Insurance Commission home page or some such.
That all said, it is still better to have limited, expensive coverage than no coverage at all, and perhaps (I don't know the HIPAA law on this point), using this post-COBRA coverage for a while and then getting, say, a new employer-based plan, would count as continuous proof of coverage and thus eliminate new waiting periods for pre-existing conditions. I'm not sure on that one, though.
whoever compared derren brown to criss angel obviously has no idea what derren brown is capable of... i would definitely encourage people to go to any of his shows, the tricks derren brown is capable of are amazing! much better than criss angel anyway...
I come from a culture where you should never use other people's clothes or reuse thrown away stuff. Instead we are thought it is better to wear the same thing that belongs to you rather than to wear all sorts of things that was previously used by others.
But over time, I learnt that Americans just use them once or twice, and forget about them. When I started out on my first job, I needed alot of clothes and shoes, so I bought all my stuff this way. I wore it once or twice and then got rid of it. This way, I wore many types of styles I would never otherwise, managed to have some branded names on my body and it felt good each time. Obviously I gotten over the cultural differences and curbed my insane desire to buy more and more clothes. Why pay so much when I can still look good at a fraction of cost. I used this method to buy things for the house too. I bought some dresser and bed from Craiglist and repainted them, varnished them and voila! it is as brand new. I think it is a crime to spend so much!
That's a lovely idea, but the lottery people currently keep about half the money. So they get the money AND the interest. Why would they change?
The difference is that Europeans have free college education, so they are smarter than Americans.
Americans have free education up until grade 12, and then they have to pay massive amounts of money or go into massive debt, because that helps keep the people poor and stupid and it's how you get Bush and Cheney elected.
The European lotteries are probably forced to pay out 100% of the money paid into them, or the Europeans just wouldn't buy any tickets.
that both Derren Brown and the Sci-Fi channel are blatantly lying to us when they say no actors or stooges are involved at the start of each show? Are they allowed to do that? Genuine question, not being combative, I'd love to know if that's something you can do in TV.
Cut out the middleman and find families that will round robin clothes year to year.
We have several people that forward their hand me downs to us. In turn, we cycle back clothes to others in our group. Everyone involved has the understanding that nothing is to be sold and that if some usable clothes can't be given away, they will be donated.
We have some friends who are big name brand buyers and other things can be very generic (does it really matter if a pair of grey sweats is from a Mart type store or from a big name?).
We find that shoes and underwear don't make their way around-- and some people are squeamish about the very idea. Seasonally, we all go thru our things and circulate-- then fill in the gaps.
We just got thru our big fall sorting. My eldest daughter ended up lacking in jeans and a nice dress or two for church- then undershirts and shoes. My 5 year old son just needed socks, underwear and sneakers. My two year old needed nothing-- but she'll be needing regular big girl undies soon. And my 5 month old needed sleepers.
All the needs and sizes are written on a master list and we begin working from the least amount of cost up-- starting with shopping at the Rescue Mission, etc then on thru the big box stores, onto middle level retail, etc.
Your article is really accurate. My in-laws have the reverse mortgage. Just two weeks ago I saw their invoice, and I just couldn't believe that they were being charged over $200 a month for finance charges, plus they have other monthly fees. They get $505 a month to pocket. So this will eat up the mortgage, I'm sure!
He's on the sci fi chan for a reason. Almost everything this guy does involved interacting with other people for a trick to work and ALL of them are actors. You have to be pretty dense to believe the stuff he does is magical or whatever. Look up the video of him having a staring contest. That just makes me laugh.
I like that benefit as well. You really have some extra muscle behind you that way, and it helps when trying to play ball with service departments that otherwise may not be willing to go the extra mile to help you.
Good for you for sticking with it, Sarah. It can be exhausting finding yourself turned into what to me feels like their secretary when they already have a full freaking staff. Following up and documenting can take so much time, depending on the issue.
>Subscription databases available via our website 24/7. These include the full text of magazine and newspaper articles, language learning services, reference material just for kids, practice tests for all grade levels, and more. Go to your library's website and look for things like "Kids Infobits" "E-library elementary" "General Reference Center Gold" and "Novelist k-12).
I used to do on-site database training for teachers. They really ARE the bomb.
What is not the bomb is you, the parent, coming in with your kid's homework assignment and without the kid, meaning we now have one parent and one librarian working on a kid's homework while the kid's elsewhere. Not cool.
Here are some facts: 6% is not the norm! This is assumed by the public. Listings can be any amount, 4% or 5%, etc, with usually 3% to buyer’s broker. Your buyer or listing broker does not keep it all as it usually will have to be split with the company, anywhere from 50/50 on up depending upon the business model. For most average brokers, (in my state, there are no longer 'agents', just brokers or associate brokers, so when I say broker, I mean agent) 75/25 broker/company. So, in a purchase of $300K, buyer broker/company gets 3% or $9000.00. On this split, the broker gets $6750.00. Out of that, your broker will pay for all of their own expenses, such as car, marketing, insurances, continuing education, memberships to associations required to be a Realtor, MLS fees, and continuing education, not to mention their own taxes! (To be a successful broker, you must contact people continually, or starve- hence the constant contact from some Realtors)
The above is not to gain pity, but to point out that professionals get professional pay, well, for a reason. Anytime you work in a highly litigated field, you better know your stuff! Conversely, you should be paid for it, too! By the way, the national average for Realtors is 1, yes 1, transaction a month!
The point is this- Yes, Mr/Mrs Consumer, buy your own home, sell on your own, it's up to you and your comfort level. You can also do your own taxes for a $60 program, or pay a CPA $1000. You can do your own brakes for maybe $50 in parts, or your mechanic can do them for $600.
Do you want to risk an audit without a CPA? A brake job with your family in the car? It's up to you, but don't put down your Realtor because they get paid! It's not just a 'Free Ride'. You say this because you do not know, really, what's involved or what it takes to be a professional Realtor. Period. (this assumes that every industry has its share of bad apples…not talking about them here)
I used to refinish furniture for a living, quote $1500 to refinish grandmas ornate oak sideboard painted (with umpteen coats, no less) of paint. Then, get gripes about the price because they could do it for $50 in materials, after all, you just use some stripper, sand it, and brush on some color and finish, right? Wrong, but this is how you think, right Ken? (As a professional refinisher, with the right chemicals and tools and know how, I won't have to touch it with a lick of sandpaper, because that will ruin the patina! Yet, this is how most pieces came in after the consumer ruined a irreplaceable family heirloom) As someone said above, a true professional will make it look easy, and sometimes, for the professional, it is easy- which is what makes them an expert in their field. So, there's more to it than meets the eye, Ken. Don't put down what you don't know!
Finally, assuming you did save money now, what questions or actions did you miss because the seller’s agent did not volunteer it? Hmmm? You were obviously comfortable at this risk level, but, hopefully nothing was missed that would come back and bite you for maybe tens of thousands of dollars at a later date. (Was home built on a landfill? Projected highway coming through close by? Was it a meth house at one time? Are they building a new subdivision close by with low end, high density housing?) The seller’s broker may not know either, but a good, caring buyer’s broker (not the bad apples, now) would actually look after your well being before the commission! Why, because the true professional realizes that by taking care of their people, it will come back to them in a positive way, ten-fold over the years to come- and they can sleep at night, too!
We have had mixed luck with Craigslist to sell things, but we always have good luck with Freecycle - a yahoo list where you post stuff you want to give away (6 candles, a footstool, a half bottle of shampoo, etc.) and people email then stop to get it. We even freecycled 1950's old paneling (that still had the nails in it). I was amazed at what people would take.
And we use it as well. We needed 3 sheets of sheetrock and found them on Freecycle.
Sometimes when you are extended credit or receive services from a company, you give them permission to run credit checks on you as needed per the terms of your contract (cell phones, insurance, and credit cards are big ones that do this.) So it is possible that anyone with an interest in collecting the original debt may have permission to run a credit check.
However,
I believe that they are just trying to snow you. Regardless of what your credit report shows, it will NOT show how much you make and the total amounts of all your bills (utilities, food, etc) so it would impossible for anyone to determine that you can afford a higher payment or quicker payoff.
My advice is to NOT give them any more information regarding other debts owed. That is none of their business. They are not debt counselors with your financial interest at heart. They are trying to get paid. Period. (And if they can get paid before your other lenders, awesome for them!)
While it is questionable as to how legally binding this may be, you can try the check endoresement contract trick. The next time you send them a check or money order, write something like "endorsement of this check accepts the repayment terms of $(amount) per month until the debt is paid in full"
This way, if they do cash it, you can go back and say that by cashing it they agreed to taking payments. This doesn't always work, but it at least shows them that you are serious about repaying your debt on terms set by you, not them.
It hasn't happened often at all for me but when a transaction goes bad and the other party isn't immediately responsive I simply challenge the charge with my credit card company. I have had the charges reversed 100% of the time. Just another advantage of paying with plastic.
Well, I went to amazon to get the book, and found that it was written in 2004! No thanks... things have changed way too much since then.
However, a revised edition will be published in December of 2007 so I've pre-ordered it and look forward to getting it early next year.
Ann
"HIPAA ... requires insurers to offer coverage to anyone who has left a job, continued their coverage under COBRA, and then exhausted the COBRA coverage."
My experience with this required coverage is that 1) it is minimal (usually a state-mandated minimum of coverage) and 2) it is EXPENSIVE. Note that the insurance companies are *not* required to offer you the very same plan you COBRAed, or the same COBRA price you were paying... just *a* plan.
In North Carolina (and probably other states), the plan you are offered after COBRA expires has no prescription coverage, and is basically catastrophic health insurance. The details of the plan are mandated by the state of NC. Before counting on this plan, it would be a good idea to check out your state's minimum required plan... probably on the state's .gov page somewhere, maybe on the Insurance Commission home page or some such.
That all said, it is still better to have limited, expensive coverage than no coverage at all, and perhaps (I don't know the HIPAA law on this point), using this post-COBRA coverage for a while and then getting, say, a new employer-based plan, would count as continuous proof of coverage and thus eliminate new waiting periods for pre-existing conditions. I'm not sure on that one, though.
Anyway, great review... I'm off to buy the book.
Ann
What a great idea, especially for a Professional Hobo like myself!
I'll be sure to put Esperanto on my list of things to learn to facilitate easier travel.
Thanks, Philip!
whoever compared derren brown to criss angel obviously has no idea what derren brown is capable of... i would definitely encourage people to go to any of his shows, the tricks derren brown is capable of are amazing! much better than criss angel anyway...
I come from a culture where you should never use other people's clothes or reuse thrown away stuff. Instead we are thought it is better to wear the same thing that belongs to you rather than to wear all sorts of things that was previously used by others.
But over time, I learnt that Americans just use them once or twice, and forget about them. When I started out on my first job, I needed alot of clothes and shoes, so I bought all my stuff this way. I wore it once or twice and then got rid of it. This way, I wore many types of styles I would never otherwise, managed to have some branded names on my body and it felt good each time. Obviously I gotten over the cultural differences and curbed my insane desire to buy more and more clothes. Why pay so much when I can still look good at a fraction of cost. I used this method to buy things for the house too. I bought some dresser and bed from Craiglist and repainted them, varnished them and voila! it is as brand new. I think it is a crime to spend so much!
That's a lovely idea, but the lottery people currently keep about half the money. So they get the money AND the interest. Why would they change?
The difference is that Europeans have free college education, so they are smarter than Americans.
Americans have free education up until grade 12, and then they have to pay massive amounts of money or go into massive debt, because that helps keep the people poor and stupid and it's how you get Bush and Cheney elected.
The European lotteries are probably forced to pay out 100% of the money paid into them, or the Europeans just wouldn't buy any tickets.
Has the corporation your company sells their product to been on any variety of news broadcasts for the last few months?
*cough* mortgage industry lay-offs *cough*
that both Derren Brown and the Sci-Fi channel are blatantly lying to us when they say no actors or stooges are involved at the start of each show? Are they allowed to do that? Genuine question, not being combative, I'd love to know if that's something you can do in TV.
Cut out the middleman and find families that will round robin clothes year to year.
We have several people that forward their hand me downs to us. In turn, we cycle back clothes to others in our group. Everyone involved has the understanding that nothing is to be sold and that if some usable clothes can't be given away, they will be donated.
We have some friends who are big name brand buyers and other things can be very generic (does it really matter if a pair of grey sweats is from a Mart type store or from a big name?).
We find that shoes and underwear don't make their way around-- and some people are squeamish about the very idea. Seasonally, we all go thru our things and circulate-- then fill in the gaps.
We just got thru our big fall sorting. My eldest daughter ended up lacking in jeans and a nice dress or two for church- then undershirts and shoes. My 5 year old son just needed socks, underwear and sneakers. My two year old needed nothing-- but she'll be needing regular big girl undies soon. And my 5 month old needed sleepers.
All the needs and sizes are written on a master list and we begin working from the least amount of cost up-- starting with shopping at the Rescue Mission, etc then on thru the big box stores, onto middle level retail, etc.
Your article is really accurate. My in-laws have the reverse mortgage. Just two weeks ago I saw their invoice, and I just couldn't believe that they were being charged over $200 a month for finance charges, plus they have other monthly fees. They get $505 a month to pocket. So this will eat up the mortgage, I'm sure!
Keep up the good work!
He's on the sci fi chan for a reason. Almost everything this guy does involved interacting with other people for a trick to work and ALL of them are actors. You have to be pretty dense to believe the stuff he does is magical or whatever. Look up the video of him having a staring contest. That just makes me laugh.
It definitely does take less than one might think.
I dont believe on filmed "mind control" "magic tricks" shows
I've never heard of an organization sponsored event. Makes sense, though.
Great idea, and great post. Welcome!
I like that benefit as well. You really have some extra muscle behind you that way, and it helps when trying to play ball with service departments that otherwise may not be willing to go the extra mile to help you.
Good for you for sticking with it, Sarah. It can be exhausting finding yourself turned into what to me feels like their secretary when they already have a full freaking staff. Following up and documenting can take so much time, depending on the issue.
>Subscription databases available via our website 24/7. These include the full text of magazine and newspaper articles, language learning services, reference material just for kids, practice tests for all grade levels, and more. Go to your library's website and look for things like "Kids Infobits" "E-library elementary" "General Reference Center Gold" and "Novelist k-12).
I used to do on-site database training for teachers. They really ARE the bomb.
What is not the bomb is you, the parent, coming in with your kid's homework assignment and without the kid, meaning we now have one parent and one librarian working on a kid's homework while the kid's elsewhere. Not cool.
Welcome to Wise Bread. =)
Here are some facts: 6% is not the norm! This is assumed by the public. Listings can be any amount, 4% or 5%, etc, with usually 3% to buyer’s broker. Your buyer or listing broker does not keep it all as it usually will have to be split with the company, anywhere from 50/50 on up depending upon the business model. For most average brokers, (in my state, there are no longer 'agents', just brokers or associate brokers, so when I say broker, I mean agent) 75/25 broker/company. So, in a purchase of $300K, buyer broker/company gets 3% or $9000.00. On this split, the broker gets $6750.00. Out of that, your broker will pay for all of their own expenses, such as car, marketing, insurances, continuing education, memberships to associations required to be a Realtor, MLS fees, and continuing education, not to mention their own taxes! (To be a successful broker, you must contact people continually, or starve- hence the constant contact from some Realtors)
The above is not to gain pity, but to point out that professionals get professional pay, well, for a reason. Anytime you work in a highly litigated field, you better know your stuff! Conversely, you should be paid for it, too! By the way, the national average for Realtors is 1, yes 1, transaction a month!
The point is this- Yes, Mr/Mrs Consumer, buy your own home, sell on your own, it's up to you and your comfort level. You can also do your own taxes for a $60 program, or pay a CPA $1000. You can do your own brakes for maybe $50 in parts, or your mechanic can do them for $600.
Do you want to risk an audit without a CPA? A brake job with your family in the car? It's up to you, but don't put down your Realtor because they get paid! It's not just a 'Free Ride'. You say this because you do not know, really, what's involved or what it takes to be a professional Realtor. Period. (this assumes that every industry has its share of bad apples…not talking about them here)
I used to refinish furniture for a living, quote $1500 to refinish grandmas ornate oak sideboard painted (with umpteen coats, no less) of paint. Then, get gripes about the price because they could do it for $50 in materials, after all, you just use some stripper, sand it, and brush on some color and finish, right? Wrong, but this is how you think, right Ken? (As a professional refinisher, with the right chemicals and tools and know how, I won't have to touch it with a lick of sandpaper, because that will ruin the patina! Yet, this is how most pieces came in after the consumer ruined a irreplaceable family heirloom) As someone said above, a true professional will make it look easy, and sometimes, for the professional, it is easy- which is what makes them an expert in their field. So, there's more to it than meets the eye, Ken. Don't put down what you don't know!
Finally, assuming you did save money now, what questions or actions did you miss because the seller’s agent did not volunteer it? Hmmm? You were obviously comfortable at this risk level, but, hopefully nothing was missed that would come back and bite you for maybe tens of thousands of dollars at a later date. (Was home built on a landfill? Projected highway coming through close by? Was it a meth house at one time? Are they building a new subdivision close by with low end, high density housing?) The seller’s broker may not know either, but a good, caring buyer’s broker (not the bad apples, now) would actually look after your well being before the commission! Why, because the true professional realizes that by taking care of their people, it will come back to them in a positive way, ten-fold over the years to come- and they can sleep at night, too!
(Sorry this was so long)
We have had mixed luck with Craigslist to sell things, but we always have good luck with Freecycle - a yahoo list where you post stuff you want to give away (6 candles, a footstool, a half bottle of shampoo, etc.) and people email then stop to get it. We even freecycled 1950's old paneling (that still had the nails in it). I was amazed at what people would take.
And we use it as well. We needed 3 sheets of sheetrock and found them on Freecycle.
Sometimes when you are extended credit or receive services from a company, you give them permission to run credit checks on you as needed per the terms of your contract (cell phones, insurance, and credit cards are big ones that do this.) So it is possible that anyone with an interest in collecting the original debt may have permission to run a credit check.
However,
I believe that they are just trying to snow you. Regardless of what your credit report shows, it will NOT show how much you make and the total amounts of all your bills (utilities, food, etc) so it would impossible for anyone to determine that you can afford a higher payment or quicker payoff.
My advice is to NOT give them any more information regarding other debts owed. That is none of their business. They are not debt counselors with your financial interest at heart. They are trying to get paid. Period. (And if they can get paid before your other lenders, awesome for them!)
While it is questionable as to how legally binding this may be, you can try the check endoresement contract trick. The next time you send them a check or money order, write something like "endorsement of this check accepts the repayment terms of $(amount) per month until the debt is paid in full"
This way, if they do cash it, you can go back and say that by cashing it they agreed to taking payments. This doesn't always work, but it at least shows them that you are serious about repaying your debt on terms set by you, not them.
It hasn't happened often at all for me but when a transaction goes bad and the other party isn't immediately responsive I simply challenge the charge with my credit card company. I have had the charges reversed 100% of the time. Just another advantage of paying with plastic.