The
WSJ has an article how Safeway cut its healthcare costs by making employees be more careful about the costs of their healthcare visits. The journal notes:
We're going to go out on a limb and guess that the scheme has its critics and flaws, but this sounds like the right idea. Use insurance as it's meant to be used (as protection against rare events, so that you don't get financially wiped out when you get hit by a car on your bike) and then create real incentives to stay healthy and reduce costs on the routine stuff. What's great is that it doesn't even sound like something that needs anyone's approval. Any company, looking at the Safeway model, should just be able to up and do it.
Insurance is meant as catastrophic cover, not routine healthcare, and in this the WSJ is correct. This is one of the reasons that US healthcare is so inefficient cost wise. The other problem is that there is
no price transparency in the US in relation to healthcare. You cannot get a direct quote of cost out of anyone. Companies adopting policies like this might improve that aspect of the health system.
The culture of health is a good one. In this office
we do mad mile time trials and one of the fellows just started training for a triathlon sprint which others in here might do as well (including me). The office here has a culture of fitness and strength, but it isn't because of the company, it is because of the personalities here. Recently when a new CTO came and did a video conference call with all the people in Phoenix, seven of us (out of a total of fourteen) were absent because we were at the gym.
The main problem with the US healthcare system though is that companies are paying for it. The WSJ doesn't ask this question. It stems from World War II and the Norfolk docks in Virginia where labor was excessively tight and ships needed to be built in lightning fast time. The employers there started offering healthcare as an incentive to get the best labor. Now it is an assumed right that companies will pay for health care which has led to one of the most inefficient health care systems on the planet.
More Reading on Healthcare
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
