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WARNING: This is going to be an angry, frustrated, rant about the state of the health care system in this country and New York State in particular. If you don’t want to read a rant, then close your browser or click a link to go someplace else. In 2006 New York State passed a law called the “2006 Mental Health Parity Legislation” or “Timothy’s Law”. It is called Timothy’s Law because it was the suicide of Timothy O’Clair in March 2001, seven weeks prior to his 13th birthday, who was discriminated against by his parents insurance company that started the movement to get it passed. It is, in concept a great law. Simply stated it requires private health insurance to cover mental health issues at the same level they cover regular medical issues. Here is a quote from the Timothy’s Law website
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Timothy’s Law mandates that insurance providers covering any health care services must also provide coverage for mental health and substance abuse services, and that coverage and cost must be ‘on par’ with all other health care services covered under such policy.
Since the majority of insurance policies do not offer this type of coverage you would think it was a wonderful and great thing they did, and it is. Except as with any law, especially ones in NY and ones dealing with the insurance companies, there are loopholes. Big, huge, gaping ones that you could march an army through. Here are the two biggest ones as far as I can tell. It only applies to group health insurance or school blanket insurance that is obtained through an employer or association. What the hell does that mean you ask? It means that if you get your insurance through a group policy from work, it *might* apply to you. If you get your insurance through an association, such as a Chamber of Commerce, union, etc., it *might* apply to you. However, if you buy insurance on your own or use one of the publicly funded or subsidized programs such as Healthy NY, Child Health Plus, Health Care Plus, etc, you are screwed. No mental health coverage for you. Now, if you make it past that first obstacle and have a policy that meets those requirements there is one more HUGE loop hole that you have to get past. The law only applies to policies that are WRITTEN in New York. Now I am not an expert, but from what I have been told and found out the state that the policy is written in has nothing to do with the state the people covered live in or the company buying the policy (ie: your employer) is located. Case in point, a company headquartered in Massachusetts has and insurance policy for residents of New York state that is “written” in Florida and administered by a company in Kentucky. Now some of you who live in other states or know about these things would say “But Rich, if the insurance coverage is mandated by your state law, the insurance company has to abide by that mandate.” And you know what, in many cases you would be correct. However, there is apparently some national level reciprocation agreement that states have the option to participate in. Sort of a “you wash my back and I will wash yours” thing. If the state where the person lives and the state where the policy is written both participate in the program, you are covered. Guess what, New York State doesn’t participate. So you can join the other people who are screwed. Now there is one other option for those that do not want to be completely at the mercy of the system, and that is a program called Family Health Plus. A program that to get into you need to do an hour long in-person interview, provide financial data on every member of your household, and wait 2 months for approval. Oh, and you have to pick one of the plans that has the coverage you need and there are income requirements that anyone who makes more money than Unemployment pays probably exceeds. So in a nutshell, if you live in New York State and have medical insurance that doesn’t cover mental health issues and it was written in a state other than New York… you better hope you never have a mental health issue. Like anxiety and stress related to the fact that you don’t have mental health coverage….. UPDATE: A friend posted this link over on Facebook and I thought it timely…. http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/goodsheet/images/goodSheet_002_BillofHealth.jpg
 Bill of Health Goodsheet from Good Magazine
Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very happy, healthy, and safe New Year. Here is to 2010, may it have none of the sorrows and twice the joys of 2009.
And for those that have helped me get through what was one of the most difficult years I’ve yet to see, THANK YOU! You know who you are.
If you want to see a video of a bunch of fools sledding down a 20+ foot high mountain of snow in a dark parking lot, click the link. 
Sledding Mount Staples
I am thankful for my family and friends, all of who make putting up with all the crazy stuff in this world worthwhile.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
As we prepare for Black Friday and the holiday season, I thought I would update you on what’s been going on at Staples.
 Danielle loves her Dunkin Donuts coffee  Jeff and Danielle cracking under the pressure Okay, so Back To School was two months ago, but hey, I’ve been busy. And so was the store. It was crazy! We did almost double the business that they expected. It was so busy that some of us were starting to crack under the pressure, as you can see. Some of use became very close with our coffee, which some nights when you are cleaning up until 1am, is the only thing that keeps you going. The days leading up to Labor day week were hectic. We were stocking stuff left and right, working 2-3hrs after closing just to get the store ready, and cleaned up after the early birds who didn’t wait until the last possible minute to do their shopping.
 Francessca trying to clean up the folder section  The Binder Wall after the first night of BTS Then it was showtime, the Tuesday after Labor Day when several of the local school districts went back. It seems that the grade schools give out or post lists, but high schools don’t. I got to work at 4:30 and the line was to the back of the store and along the wall. And it stayed that way until 9:30. It was crazy! The good news is that the line moved. Several customers said that they only waited on line about 15-20 minutes tops. And while the store was extremely busy, it seems mostly organized. Most people were able to find what they were looking for and we had enough of most items. We ran out of some items quick, and the binder wall got decimated, but overall it was a good day. However, the store closed at 10 and we didn’t leave until 1:30am because we were cleaning up the mess.
 The BInder Wall again... it was completely filled.  Yea, more binder wall Yes, the binder wall was empty. By Wednsday night people were looking for binder, particularly the 1.5″ ones and going away unhappy. We probably could have sold another 200-300 of them it was had them. Oh, and in addition to that wall we had a full end-cap and about 4 other locations in the store with a dozen cases of binders on display. All gone.
We also sold out of the TI-84 calculators that they use in the high schools. They had to send someone to another store to pick up 4 cases (6 per case) on Thursday and those were gone by the weekend. It was quite impressive.
Overall we did about double what corporate expected on each of those days for back to school. It was crazy, but also kind of fun.
Things are moving along here in Levittown as the seasons march forward. Fall is here and the air is getting crisp, school is in full swing, football season is already into week 7 and the World Series is getting ready to start. Earlier in the month I celebrated my birthday with a nice dinner at TGI Fridays with the family. Dyaln and Marissa loved it and are still using their “Fridays Cups.”After dinner we came home and had some choclate cake from Dortoni, because we all know that it is not a birthday without the cake!
October also saw the annual pilgrmiage of Mamr and Poppy back to the warmer climes of Florida. They stopeed by one last time early in the month before heading south. Apparenlty Dad was by the pool before the engine in the car even cooled off. But they didn’t stay for long as they then headed off on a cruise which they just got back from.
Dylan has been doing excellent in school getiing high grades on every test, though he did, for the first time, get less than a 100 on a spelling test. He got a 93 because he mispelled the word “though”, which is one I am sure many of you have problems with. Marissa is also in school, she goes to nursery school at Wee Friends where Debbie works and she is doing awesome. Very much like her brother, she is too smart for her own good. She understands and picks up things very, very quickly and has a vocabluary that most 6yr olds would envy.
Also in October Dylan achieved the rank of Little Dragon “Black Belt” in Karate. He has been taking classes with Sensei Nick and Sensei Stacy at Epic Martial Arts in Hicksville for 3 years and loves it. He will now be moving up to the older class and working on his solid Yellow belt. Finally, we went to the pumpkin patch this past Sunday and picked out some pumpkins for decorate the house for Halloween. Dylan is going to be Indiana Jones and Marissa will be a 50’s Girl, poodle skirt and all. We will post pictures when we have them.
   
I am in the process of adding several hundred photos to the galleries going back as far as October 2008. So now all the holiday pics from last year are uploaded as well as once from Auntie Jent’s birthday party, Easter/Passover, first day of Mommy & Me for Marissa, Marissa’s 2nd birthday party, first day of camp, 4th of July, Jimmy’s 65th birthday party, Marlene’s wedding, and all the way up to Dylan’s 8th birthday party and the first day of school by the time I am done later. Click the links to the left to see the pictures.
My favotire band, Megadeth, has released their latest assault on our ears, Endgame, and true to form it ROCKS!
 It includes the following tracks:
Dialectic Chaos
This Day We Fight!
44 Minutes
1,320′
Bite the Hand
Bodies
Endgame
The Hardest Part of Letting Go – Sealed with a Kiss
Head Crusher
How The Story Ends
The Right to go Insane
In typical Megadeth fashion the lyrics cover a broad spectrum of political and social issues, as well as just fun stuff, that are fleshed out by Dave’s trademark snarling while wicked guitar riffs scream behind him. These range from a rant on the financial crises in "Bite the Hand" to the rush of drag racing (1,320′) to commentary on the state of political environment here in the US with pretty much the rest of the songs. The thing that has always amazed my about the lyrics Dave has written, especially on the last 3 albums, is how he attacks some political and social issues without directly bashing anyone. And while the lyrics may use hypothetical situations to illustrate his point, they are always based on reality. For those of you who aren’t into Megadeth’s music, do a Google search for lyrics and you will see what I mean.
I am pretty psyched about the album, not only because I really enjoy the music, but because it means that they will be touring again. They have already announced a bunch of dates for November and December that they will be on the road here in the US, though none of them are in the New York area… yet. They will be touring with Suicide Silence, Arcanium, and Machine Head (in Nov) or Warbringer (in December). You can see the details here on their website. After missing them the last time there were in the NY area in 2007 I plan being there this time. And from what I have heard of the other bands from their MySpace pages, I think I will be enjoying the entire line-up. Now I just need to find some people to go with.
Wow! That summer went fast and it is back to school for both kids and mommy! Dylan started 3rd grade last week (the 9th) and Marissa started pre-school today! In addition, Deb is back to work with the kids coming in for the first time today as well (she setup her room last week). Throw in the fact that Staples was INSANE last week and I worked ridiculous hours and you have a recipe for a very, very, crazy week. Alas, we all survived!
Dylan is enjoying 3rd grade (so far) despite the fact that most of the kids he was in K-2 with are now in a different class. We were a bit concerned about that, but he sees his friends at lunch and stuff like that so it looks like it is working out so far. He says his teacher is nice, we will meet her on the 22nd at "Back to School Night." Luckily we have the same bus driver and aid, Ms Ingrid and Ms Rosemary, who are totally awesome, so that helps make things easier for both Dylan and us.
Marissa went to her first day of school today at Wee Friends and had a great time! She was in school for 2.5hrs and apparently loved every second of it. Simply amazing if you sak me.
Deb had her first day with the kids today and while we haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet, she didn’t come home too frazzled so the 4yr old children must not have cried too much. I’ll have pictures and more posted later, along with more stories for the Adventures at Staples posts.
if you won the lottery? With the multi-state MegaMillions jackpot up to $325 million for this Friday it is hard not to daydream about what you could do with that kind of money. Many people say how they would give away most of it and do great things and such, I won’t claim that. I would, and I am sure reality is that most people would do the same, make sure to take care of all my current financial needs and set aside what I would need to make sure my family was taken care of. Whatever was left would go towards helping others and "doing good." So with that in mind, let’s take a look at what you could do with $325,000,000.
For starters, you don’t get $325,000,000. If you take the lump sum, and live in New York, it works out like this (according to website usamega.com):
- Lump Sum: $205,000,00
- After Federal Taxes: $153,750,000
- After NYS Taxes: $135,361,500
Still not shabby if you ask me.
The first thing I would do is take care of all outstanding debt we have. That means mortgage, student loans, credit cards, doctors bills, etc. Next up would be a vacation house. Not sure where, but someplace nice. After that a bit of a shopping spree for all the things we have wanted but couldn’t afford, you know, the stupid stuff like big screen tvs, sub-zero fridge, etc. Oh, and we would expand our house. Full double dormer with the works. Then I would share with my extended family, help out everyone with things like college funds for my nieces and nephews and giving everyone a lump sum to pay down debt.
Once all that was taken care of I would set up college funds for my kids and set aside some money for Deb and I to both go back to school. She wants to get her Special Ed certification and I have always wanted to get an MBA, though at this point it would probably be in Finance or Accounting instead of something computer related. I would also setup retirement accounts for our parents so they wouldn’t have to worry about their finances. And lastly, setup investments that would generate enough annual income that we would never have to actually work again and could live very comfortably, I figure maybe something like $500,000 a year would cover everything and allow us to have fun and not have to think about what things cost.
Anything left after that would get put to good use, though I am not 100% sure where. So if we use some very rough and generous estimates of about $1 million for all the debt and bills, 3 for the house, another 1.5 for the dormer and shopping spree, and say 15 for the family. Then 20 million of for the annuity (at 2%/yr that would generate about $600,000 a year for 50 years). That’s only a little over $40 million. Toss in another $10 million just to be safe and allow for me to do stupid stuff and that leaves about $85 million to "do good" with.
Yeah, that sounds good. All my debt paid off, college funded, and an income of $600,000 a year for doing nothing. Then I can work if I want doing whatever I want and still have $85 million to spend and give away. Sounds real good to me.
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