January 31, 2006
Instead of testing a universal-access card system along the lines of Hong Kong's octopus card, the MTA has fallen prey to the corporate boondoggle of MasterCard and Citigroup by agreeing to test PayPass readers at turnstiles on the 4, 5 and 6 lines in Manhattan, as well as two key outerborough hubs. As the New York Post reports, During a six-month trial paid for by the two companies, Citibank will offer certain customers debit/credit cards and matching key-chain fobs embedded with special chips that can be read by radio frequencies instead of magnetic stripes.
Why is this short-sighted? Because it represents a further degradation of the public interest by a quasi-governmental agency. PayPass technology, akin to the crappy new frequent-traveler technology in use at various airports around the U.S., doesn't promote a universal technology. It just promotes whichever corporate entity can blindside authorities (in this case the MTA, in the other case the TSA) into adapting its for-profit technology. Sure, it makes life slightly easier for the traveler, but there are tradeoffs: PayPass is not the best available system, and it certainly puts less wealthy customers at a disadvantage. I don't want to be a Luddite on this, but there are also ID theft concerns with PayPass that are mitigated by other systems. Meanwhile, RFID has so many interesting possibilities; so why adapt PayPass, which isn't terribly innovative? It's really cutting edge for a Burger King or a Mobil station in Kansas, though.
Why does this matter? Riders will still get every sixth ride free but will not be able to make free transfers to buses, which will not be equipped with the new readers. In other words, this test won't even explore how dynamic an electronic-pay system could possibly be. What about a card that would offer seamless transportation on PATH, the LIRR, and even that biggest boondoggle of all, the multibillion-dollar AirTrain? (Amazing how 20 years later it still takes longer to get from JFK to lower Manhattan via AirTrain A train than it used to on the shuttle bus JFK Express train.) Suburban riders would definitely like to see a monthly pass that allow travel on multiple systems.
As the article concludes: Next month, the Port Authority will begin testing different smart-card readers on the PATH train as part of a joint program with the MTA and NJ Transit. That test — which doesn't use PayPass technology — could one day lead to a universal transit card. Sure, one day. In 2015? Meanwhile, other transit systems around the world are years ahead of ours because they've had the fortitude and foresight to adapt a technology that serves all the customers in its wider region. Ours hasn't even got a contract for its unionized workers.
Tags:
airtrain, lirr, mta, nj transit, octopus card, path, paypass, smart card, subway
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Posted on 1/31/2006
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January 25, 2006
I am celebrating the third anniversary of firing my HMO this week. I have not only saved more than $12,000 in monthly fees for the HMO/PPO, I've never felt healthier or felt better about how I spend my money on health care. Now to be truthful, this isn't for everyone. Some people have chronic health problems and therefore need to regularly visit doctors on a weekly or monthly basis. But I don't.
I got tired of receiving bills for services that Empire Blue whatever-it's-called-now should have paid automatically; for making $5 or $10 co-pays in addition to the outrageous monthly fees; for having to wait on hold for 20 minutes every time (after pressing 1, then 3, then 4, then 1 again, etc.) and explain to a bored bureaucrat why they screwed up; for waiting weeks and weeks for a reimbursement; for being denied vaccinations for overseas travel because they weren't "medically necessary". (I actually demanded to speak—and eventually did—with the medical director of the HMO. He explained that they wouldn't pay for a $75 meningococcal meningitis vaccine, but if I did actually get meningococcal meningitis rest assured they would pay the $50,000 - $75,000 medevac fee to get me to a first-world hospital.)
So I fired them. That's right, I told them to cancel my policy and I'd pay my doctors cash from now on.
My own doctor was ecstatic. He supported my decision. He was happy to be paid right away without having his overworked staff deal with more paper shuffling. He joked that I'd receive priority treatment in his office from then on. Or was he only half-joking?
Moreover, I didn't have to deal with this in-network / out-of-network nonsense. From now on, every doctor I could afford would be in my network. (When you're not throwing $400 out the window every month for insurance you don't need, you can afford just about any doctor.)
And I've never been healthier: because I don't perceive the need to go to the doctor every time I get a cold, or to demand antibiotics for something that will get better in 2 or 3 days longer than if I did take an antibiotic. I still see my doctor, and I still get checkups and visit the dentist, eye doctor, etc. I just don't deal with bureaucracies.
And yes, I do look more carefully now when I cross the street.
It was in 1993 that I watched First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton deliver a powerful speech about our health-care system, which she emphatically dubbed "the greatest health care system in the world." I had to cackle then, but now I just shake my head in disbelief. Our system is a joke. It's a for-profit medical pyramid scheme designed to give executives huge salaries and to deny important and routine care to many. How else would they be profitable if they approved everything you needed to have done? For example, I needed two cysts removed, but it wasn't medically necessary because it wasn't cancerous. So they wouldn't pay. End of story.
In a different speech, to the American Academy of Pediatricians on November 2, 1993, Mrs. Clinton accused the health insurance industry of greed that has driven the nation "to the brink of bankruptcy" and of lying to the public about the President's plan in order to protect its profits. (Adam Clymer, New York Times). Mrs. Clinton was roundly ridiculed and denounced by the multibillion-dollar health care industry and her Republic detractors—who have only grown in numbers and influence in the ensuing 12 years—and her health-care reform was dead on arrival.
Here we are today with a system even more corrupt and more broken than we had in the early Clinton years. Rural and urban emergency rooms alike are understaffed, overcrowded, and dependent on third-world nurses to balance the for-profit hospitals' books. Hospitals around the country are consolidating and closing due to spiralling costs. A recent New York Timesfour-part series on diabetes underscores even further how very unhealthy we Americans have become and how unless massive resources are dedicated to solving the underlying crises we face today, our system will be utterly bankrupt within just a few years. Who will pay for all this managed care just for diabetics, a stealth epidemic already spun out of control? Or will we simply saw off their legs and pray they get better?
Just thinking about that makes me ill.
Tags:
diabetes, health care, hillary clinton, hmo, new york times, ppo
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Posted on 1/25/2006
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January 11, 2006
Money that goes unspent on expired gift cards in New York must be turned over to the state as unclaimed property, a court has ruled. I just read that in the New York Post. The first thing I thought was, Wow, Governor Pataki's wife Libby is going to stop being an overpaid consultant and go on some major shopping sprees. But no, it's actually a consumer-friendly ruling: The decision kills incentives for businesses to impose short expiration dates on gift cards and pocket unspent funds, state Assistant Attorney General Douglas Goglia said yesterday. So in other words, your gift cards in the future won't expire. That way you can keep them buried in a desk drawer forever? Not quite: Under current law, gift cards with no expiration date must be reported to the state Comptroller's Office after five years. Good thing we have computers to manage all these mountains of data. Can you imagine Barnes & Noble hiring a human being to report to Albany that you had three cents left on a card that you tossed in the wastebasket four years ago?
Tags:
albany, expiration, gift cards
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Posted on 1/11/2006
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January 05, 2006
Holy heartburn! The famous 2nd Avenue Deli, whose owner Abe Lebewohl was brutally slain 10 years ago, has abruptly shut down. It's the usual dispute—money: "My current rent is $24,000 a month for 2,800 square feet," Jack Lebewohl told The New York Times. "They want $33,000. I can't afford that." $33,000 per month...that's a lot of chopped liver!
Tags:
2nd avenue deli, abe lebewohl
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Posted on 1/5/2006
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