Universal Health Care

Gov Easley talked a few months ago about exploring Universal Health Care for the state of NC.
If it was possible to do Universal coverage in the state what would you want the coverage to be like? What would you be willing to give to get it?

I would want some personal responsibility, like a co-pay or deductible. That would avoid abuse of the system. I would want a residency restriction, like 2 years minimum residency in the state before you were eligible. This would avoid an influx of people from other states rushing here only to get health care. I would like to see the mandatory use of generic drugs if they are available, to help cut the cost to the system. I would be willing to give a little more in state tax or a new sort of FICA tax specifically for the program.

I would love to hear your ideas. Talk amongst yourselves as I will be out of town working for the next week. I'll check back in soon.

Group Health Insurance For One

Dan the Insurance Man has a great post on getting group health insurance rates even if your working for yourself with no other employees. State law requires it. This has been passed through the local blogs from Matt to Me, Me to Sean, and Dan can facilitate it. If you own your own business this is a must read for insurance savings.

I'm sitting down with Dan on Monday to discuss my insurance future. I hope we can do business.

My WFMY Appearance

I was the main subject in the lead story on WFMY news tonight. Video is available online at WFMY. I will try to get the video up here if I can. Erich Spivey came by my house today, after asking my wife about the recent door to door panhandling in our neighborhood. She directed him to me.

We don't have many problems in this quaint neighborhood, but this one could become a little scary. We had a string of nights with a late night knocker asking for money. By late night, I mean 3 am to 6 am late night. This man seemed to target houses with younger couples. My first thoughts were rapist looking for a wife alone at night, child predator looking for a couples child to strike upon, scouting houses to set up a burglary(seeing as younger folks usually have nicer toys, HDTV's, game systems, CD's, etc...).

As I said in the interview, if these folks need help they should get it, but not by knocking on a neighborhood full of doors in the middle of the night. There is help out there, and they should be pointed in that direction. Most of the panhandlers are homeless, mentally bothered, addicts, etc... Either way, if a neighborhood gives, the panhandler will tell their panhandler friends and that becomes a problem. Then when people stop giving, they are more prone to take from your porch, break into your car or house. Crime goes up.

Here in the Historic Aycock neighborhood, we have a listserv. Our neighborhood listserv has deterred many an individual by informing the surrounding neighbors of a suspicious person or activity, by allowing us to communicate with each other quickly and in detail.

I feel like if you are knocking on my door in the middle of the night and you don't have a badge or need me to call a badge, you best leave or I'll ask questions later if you know what I mean. Protecting a family is important, and in the middle of the night is when your family is most vulnerable. There are a lot of children in this neighborhood and we all need to pitch in to keep them safe as well. I feel like my neighbors have my back and I know I have theirs. I think we would be a little less safe if we didn't have the Aycock Listserv. I strongly recommend that other neighborhoods start a listserv, even it is just the folks on your own street. You can learn more about listserv's here. We all need to realize that the police can not be everywhere all the time. They do their best. By being an informed and alert neighborhood, you can help the police be where they need to be, when you need them to be there.

Update: The story has been picked up in Jacksonville, Fl by an affiliate station. Link here.

The People, Yes

Local blogger Sean Coon is working very hard on his uber cool project The People, Yes. TPY is a blogging and community site that empowers the homeless and less fortunate to have a voice online and share experiences as well as get experience. I signed on long ago to help as an instructor when the day comes. This tool to empower people who are as unempowered as one can be, is innovative, inspiring, and possibly step one into turning peoples lives around.

Sean needs our help. Currently, Netsquared is holding online voting for the Netsquared's Technology Innovation Fund. This awards funding and resources to the sites that place in the voting. Sean has all the link's over at his place here. In case you don't feel like clicking to click again, you can go to Netsquared to find out about the competition, see Sean's proposal, or just go vote for this great project.

Support local, doesn't just mean offline, we must support our local online community too!!

MLB and Cable

Sen John Kerry opens his mouth and does something good for a change. He mediated a deal between Major League Baseball and InDemand (which provides the MLB Extra Innings for cable companies), which brings the MLB package back to cable. This ends a horrible exclusive deal for MLB and DirecTV which would have cut a lot of fans out of being able to watch baseball this season and the next six seasons. Kudos Sen Kerry and a personal thank you. I still have my eyes on you Bud Selig, your a sketchy cat and you are not to be trusted.