Enigmatis - The Ghosts of Maple Creek CE

Find a kidnapped teenage girl and save yourself in Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek, a fun Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game! After waking up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, you must piece together your memories and figure out why you ended up in Maple Creek. Discover the ancient evil that lurks in the seemingly peaceful lands of Vermont and learn the truth in this thrilling detective story!

Game Size 419 MB

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Stupid Government Tricks: Premium Increase Edition

As Bob noted a year ago, HHS Secretary Shecantbeserious seems to have a bit of an internet fetish:



"HHS is proud of their site for all things related to health insurance ... So far, pricing inquiries top the list of requests"



Yup: make it easy for would-be consumers to get competitive quotes on various products, but don't give the actual, you know, prices.



Priceless.



But Kathy's now doubled-down on the stupid:



"[C]onsumers in every state can go to a federally-maintained website to view information explaining many proposed increases in the individual and small group market."



The idea is that interested consumers can check out rate increase requests made by various carriers. Of course, there's nothing they (or Ms Shecantbeserious) can actually do about them. One supposes that this sudden interest in transparency will have some positive effect, although I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that.



If there is anything positive about this, it may be that now consumers can see the truth of our own meme that health care costs drive health insurance costs.



Think Kathy will "get" that?

Cavalcade of Risk #139: Call for submissions

Emily Holbrook hosts next week's CavRisk. Entries are due by Monday (the 5th).



NB: We're now using this submission tool: The BC WorkAround



Once there, you'll be asked to provide:



■ Your post's url and title

■ Your blog's url and name

■ Your name and email

■ A (brief) summary of the post ("Remarks")



At the bottom of the form, you'll see a drop-down menu; simply select "Cavalcade of Risk" then press "Submit" and you're good to go.



And PLEASE remember: ONLY posts that relate to risk (not personal finance tips and the like).



Thanks!

Queen City Drama, cont'd

As we noted late last year, Cincinnati is proving to be something of a canary in the coal mine:



"Retired city of Cincinnati workers argued in court Tuesday that City Hall is obligated to provide them for the rest of their lives with an extremely generous health coverage plan"



These agreements, forged by non-disinterested third parties with their union counterparts, essentially shifted the post-retirement health care costs of city employees onto the backs of the citizens and their children (sound familiar?). The problem, of course, is that with double-digit real unemployment in the private sector, these costs are becoming unsustainable (if they ever were such in the first place).



So the citizenry, via their proxies in City Hall, are fighting back against this massive financial obligation.



And they seem to be winning:



" [A] Hamilton County judge ruled today that City Hall has the right to alter retirees’ health coverage to require most to absorb a higher share of the cost ... Common Pleas Judge Norbert Nadel’s decision could save Cincinnati’s $2 billion retirement system tens of millions of dollars on city retirees’ medical coverage."



There's a very big "if" here, of course: the ruling is certain to be appealed, with who knows what results.



Still, it's an important battle won, as the war itself slogs on.



[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]

Good night, Irene?

Last year about this time, we discussed the effects of flooding in the Midwest, and how the Federales running the program seemed not to notice that they were paying out dollars that might be needed down the (waterlogged) road.



But that was then, and this is now:



"Margaret Wert bought her Wayne, New Jersey house in 1999, relying on assurances from her realtor that any occasional flooding would only amount to an inch or two of water. A week after closing, Hurricane Floyd put four feet of water in her basement.



Earlier this year, Wert, 45, got flooded again and received a payout of $5,000 on her government flood insurance, which costs her $1,200 a year. It wasn't enough to cover her bills, but it helped with the new stove, refrigerator and boiler.



But all of Margaret Wert's new appliances and much of her house are now ruined, after Hurricane Irene flooded broad swathes of New Jersey. This time, though, she has a message for the government insurance program."



Granted, Wayne isn't exactly beachfront property, but it's also not hundreds of miles inland. My initial take was that Ms Wert is in pretty much the same class as our erstwhile Midwestern rancher.



And to some extent, that holds; but there's actually a deeper, darker, more important lesson here, which my friend Brian D pointed out to me:



"In the United States ... insuring homeowners against flood damage is the sole province of the federal government."



Now you'll notice the ellipses, and what I redacted is important, but not yet crucial: we'll come back to it. The point here is that flood insurance is administered - and funded - by the government. It is, as Brian pointed out to me, a Single Payer System. In fact, it is a Single Payer System which some folks are required to buy.



Starting to sound familiar?



It is a mandatory, Single Payer System administered and funded by the federal government, and which is "a disaster itself, hanging on by a series of hard-fought annual extensions and the subject of a stalled reform bill in Congress."



Hmmmm.



Keep in mind, Irene came ashore as a much weaker storm than anticipated, and although the flooding and resulting damage has been extensive, it's no Katrina.



But what about the next one?



And the one after that?



Remember those ellipses?



Here's the complete quote:



"In the United States, uniquely in the developed world, insuring homeowners against flood damage is the sole province of the federal government." [emphasis added]



So unlike all those other countries that have (but are moving away from) single payer health insurance, we have a single payer flood insurance program. And how's that working out?



"In New Jersey alone, Governor Chris Christie has estimated losses could be in the tens of billions of dollars. The state has nearly $52 billion in flood insurance in force from the NFIP."



Gulp.



Or, as former FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh points out, "[i]t spends most of its time in the red. That's because it's another government program (where) the premiums that are charged are way under market value, in my opinion."



So we have a Federally administered and funded, mandatory, single payer insurance scheme that consistently loses money, and leaves claimants less than whole.



Remind me again, please: your money or your health?

Health Wonk Review: Meteorology and Unicorns edition

FoIB Avik Roy does an outstanding job hosting this week's roundup of interesting and provocatively wonkish posts. Enjoy!

Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek CE

Find a kidnapped teenage girl and save yourself in Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek, a fun Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game! After waking up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, you must piece together your memories and figure out why you ended up in Maple Creek. Discover the ancient evil that lurks in the seemingly peaceful lands of Vermont and learn the truth in this thrilling detective story!

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