pic from Sepponet

Heath Care care be a pleasant experience for employers and an employee or become the disaster that ruins the economy.  The means by which health care is delivered is a life style one is use to that just may have to change.  I question how close to the edge Congress is willing to bring the country to before it makes the math work.  

I had a good laugh the other day when my Governor said I am so proud of the action we took last year rejecting the double digit increases requested by the health insurance providers.  This year they all requested single digit increases.  Well Governor, a 9% increase last year and a 9% increase this year does not help my business grow or allow me to give my employees a raise.   As a small business it is my employees who are the most important asset that should be rewarded not the health insurers.  I want to hire more individuals, I want to pay each of us more but it is health insurers that are getting more of my revenues. 
Governor, I do not feel my employees are any healthier, I do not see them getting a better service, but I do see that the health insurers are making a profit and paying their executives large salaries.  My small business made a profit by me only drawing a salary that fit what the company could afford. 
So I ask, “When is health care reform going to control health care costs”?    I cut expenses during the recession for my small business to survive.  It is time that health costs are capped.  No more increases period. 
President Obama and Governor I request you create an opportunity for a health premium that is lower than what small businesses pay today.  If you make it affordable for my small business than you have made it affordable for many individuals.   Otherwise I suggest their costs and benefits be the same as the majority.  Yes, elected officials should place their own health care option in the trash since it is not available to most employees. 

 pic from Jelene

There was a time where government and nonprofits were joint allies in working to create solutions to a challenge.  As time pass these partnerships became nonprofits 100% reliable on government funding and the partnership ceased.  In reality you have nonprofits functioning as quasi government agencies doing the governments work.  It is privatization of government services.  It is time for the government to reestablish that the solution is not government only. 

There should be no funding of awards to nonprofits or for profits without a required match.  It has been shown that when one is not responsible for a level of the funding that the effective allocation of the dollars is not as efficient.  The federal government has at times required a 10%-50% match when competing for a grant.  However, this needs to be across the board and standard practice at all levels of government.  It must be the goal to maximize the taxpayers’ dollars.  

I would advocate that a minimum requirement of 10% be required for receiving any government funds.  This includes states, city and towns looking to receive government funds from each other.  If a government or nonprofit entity wishes to show an initiative is important, than it needs to put money forward to show its commitment.  This will quickly prioritize the projects that the private sector, nonprofit sector or government sector wishes to support. 

It is alright for government to say I cannot do it alone.  It is alright to say how much money it has, what it wishes to resolve and invite proposals willing to provide a solution.  It will quickly show what the private sector, nonprofit sector and community is able to do with the funds.  Government needs to be more interested in measuring whether it got the result it wanted. 
Those entities willing to put a higher match into an initiative should be given more weight especially if it shows a partnership of multiple entities supporting the effort.

Pic by Docpop

Are you an executive at a nonprofit avoiding communication due to debt? 

A simple pattern emerges for those nonprofits who are struggling and which ones ultimately succeed in surviving .

Those that overcome the struggles have been more forthcoming and communicating with all parties and trying to work things out. 

The nonprofit that goes into silent mode and ignores creditors and concern entities closes.  It’s called complete failure.  A failure to communicate. 

 So instead of waiting for a miracle, put a plan together that is workable and present it.  Otherwise the nonprofit will be gone and forgotten soon.  Good intentions and good faith efforts work in most cases.

pic from Nine Inch Nachos

It is my position that Credit Unions are much better at providing the best value for the fees they charged and the services their members receive.  I think it is time for the government to cut the cord of taxpayers supporting the for-profit banking sector.  I would like to hear feedback from the nonprofit community about reasons the organization does not utilize Credit Unions for their banking needs.

So far “I just never thought about them as an option”  has been the strongest response.

From the Wall Street Journal: 

President Obama supports the teamwork environment that doctors of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio work in on a daily basis. Rather than having doctors work independently, thus increasing costs, the Cleveland Clinic has doctors from the same speciality collaborate together to figure out the best treatments for patients.

In a perfect medical world, patients wouldn’t need to pay for second opinions they’d be told them by the group of doctors working to help them get better, no extra fees.

 From the Wall Street Journal:

A tax on health care insurers is an interesting way to boost our economy. Of course, with these taxes placed on insurance providers, the employers who offer health care packages exceeding a certain price would have to pay most if not all of the tax put on insurance providers. If an employer is charged to pay for taxes than more than likely an employee will have a smaller pay check every month. Americans may not like that idea, but it is a price we will all have to pay.

pic from NINE Inch Nachos V

Credit Unions

Investing for its members.

Managing its products for its members.

Providing products to its members they need at a good price.

Profits go back to the Credit Union for  its members to use.

As a nonprofit itself, it knows how to serve the community.  Nonprofits and their employees just might want to consider to have Credit Unions as a part of their network.

pic by Eli the Bearded

In January the savings rate rose to 5%.  The highest rate in about 14 years.  To the degree possible each of us should have three months worth of expenses saved for emergencies.  The same is true of any business.

The recent credit freeze on businesses only underscored this truth.  Credit lines are available at the discretion of the financial institution.  The use of savings and credit lines together are the best tools for businesses to have.

Nonprofits seem to be doing a better job  in cutting costs and adjusting to the market place than than government.  The government should learn to work more like nonprofits before they owe too much.

The cost of a college education, the need to lower health care costs and a budget deficit need to be resolved together.  The nonprofit community can help with the three components.

1. First is the linking of jobs that are eligible for loan cancellation to those attending college.
2. The second is working with government to create a national health insurance system since many nonprofits depend on federal and state funds for portions of their programming or donations.
3. The third component as it relates to budget deficits needs to be dealt with by those organizations whom own large amounts of property exempt from taxation.  Local services are very dependent upon property taxes and certain organizations such as universities, churches and medical facilities are some of the largest landlords. Congress should pass a bill that allows for a user fee to be set per thousand for any community where any net holdings worth above $10,000,000 are controlled by any one organization regardless of federal ID number.

pic by 7ups

I find actions by the Treasury, Federal Reserve and the SEC of keeping information private in order to not adversely effect the market, very disturbing.  By keeping information private they are manipulating the market and therefore the news that investors have must be considered suspect and not the whole truth.   However, information is now internal to the companies involved and some of the larger investors.  Thereby, giving certain financial institutions and large investors inside information.

I find that the cartoons circulating can sum up the Government and Wall Street being a bunch of clowns just trying to entertain everyone to keep their mind off the real problem.  This provides Government and Wall Street the opportunity to do little and keep it more or less the same.  It is time to be open, honest, enforce the rules and make everyone accountable to the same rules.

However, the SEC has the time to make waves about Corporate Blogs and Twitter posts which are much more public.  Companies making public statements and letting the public decide how to utilize the information from companies is what investing is about.  The SEC job is to enforce whether the information is truthful or not.

The courts have repeatedly shown that stating information as a current fact when it is known to be lacking other facts that would otherwise influence an outcome can be considered fraud.  Those companies that have been shown to perform intended manipulation to gain an outcome are those companies that are severely punished for years by investors.

While the truth hurts in the short run it is more important that all investors can trust the information  they use to make informed decisions.

From what I am  reading, hearing and seeing organizations and individuals are growing tired of the lack of transparency and have acted accordingly.  Thereby, creating the wide swings in the market.