Federal Employees Health Plan 2011 Premiums

The US Gov't OPM announced the new rates for 2011 for the FEHB plans. Here is the chart showing 2011 premiums for national plans. For HMOs and other plans available in your area, click on FEHB site page.

For those of you who hate federal workers, you can see what the premium subsidy is for federal employees and retirees. Before you explode and bloviate, however, remember that salary + benefits = total compensation, and in general total federal compensation is not out of line with the private sector. In my view, federal employees are generally more risk averse than private sector workers, or more dedicated to public service, or lucky to have found a safe federal job and aware they couldn't command the same salary in a more competitive system. (Or some combination thereof.) We're no angels, but we aren't total ripoff artists, either.

Vitamin D status & elective orthopedic surgery

At last, dear reader, the orthopedic surgeons have come around to the realization that cutting into people's bones without testing their Vitamin D status is neanderthal. Here is a report of a speech by a leading orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. Soon, I predict, it will constitute poor quality, if not outright malpractice, for elective procedures such as hip, knee or shoulder surgery to proceed without a vitamin D lab test and appropriate corrective D therapy.
I learned my lesson on D and elective orthopedic surgery the hard way. Maybe a fundamental understanding of the importance of vitamin d status to bone healing will quickly infiltrate the profession. Can't wait for my next follow up visit to find out whether my own orthopedic practice has evolved.

Medicare Premiums for 2011

Our CBO-Alumni den mother Kathy R sent the attached table around as a first look at what to expect for Medicare premiums in 2011. She took it from a report published September 23 by the National Health Policy Forum. I'm reproducing the table from that report here.

If you're in the "holdharmless" group, it's because you're not new to Medicare in 2011, and your income (modified AGI in 2009) is no more than $85,000. Otherwise, you're in another column. Note the income break points in the table. It makes sense to micro-manage your income if your AGI falls close to a breakpoint.
For example, make $85,001 (if you made only $85,000 in the previous year) and that extra dollar will net you about $58 per month, or about $700 per year, in extra Medicare Part B premium compared with the hold-harmless premium. That's a marginal tax rate of 78,000% on the last dollar (at least I think it is...it's hard for me to calculate high percentages.)

Great summary of the Health Reform Act

The Kaiser Family Foundation has published a very readable Summary of the Health Reform Act in plain English, except for pesky abbreviations such as FPL (=federal poverty level). Some, possibly critical, details have been left out. For example, if you are going to be eligible for Medicaid, due to low income on your IRS tax form, will the State be able to place you in their managed care program, or will you have to go fee-for-service Medicaid? This is important, because at present most doctors don't accept Medicaid and you'll have trouble finding a provider. Little unimportant details like that.
Otherwise, it's a great place to start.

Embarrassing quotes by those in the public eye

ProPublica, my favorite investigative journalism website, has started a new site where people (like us) can upload from their smart phones (not like us, cause we don't have one) snippets of speeches or public statements by politicians, business leaders, lobbyists, etc., that are worthy of at least a raised eyebrow.
It's called "Officials say the darndest things!" Check it out, and maybe you, too, can catch a pol in a stupid remark. On the other hand, I say stupid things every three minutes, but I'm genuine. Maybe there's an inverse relationship between stupid statements and genuineness.

Checking up on Charities

Here are 2 great websites for checking into how your charitable dollars are spent. One of my accounting gurus, who knows about these things, says that these are not perfect, as charities have ways of manipulating these numbers that can't be audited, but it's a start.

Charity Navigator - I like this one best. Has great info.

Better Business Bureau - worth a look.

New Evidence on Vitamin D's role in autoimmune diseases

This news article in Science Daily about a genomic study done at Oxford University and just published in Genome Research, suggests that Vitamin D deficiency is causal, not just a co-traveller with autoimmune diseases. All the more reason for those of us with autoimmune diseases to take it seriously.