Response to Green Shield Post

I was very surprised to receive a response to my post from a member of my executive board, as I did not expect any response.  So here is my response to the executive members thoughts on my post. 

I read with your statement that “I have no interest in defending Green Shield (GSC)” then found it interesting that you do just that by your following statement. “I think you will find it a common (not universal) plan practice to not fund a full 90-day initial prescription.”

I believe it is common for those companies that discriminate or practice ageism or paternalism to have what they believe to be “good” reasons for their actions. The reason that you put forward is one of these “good” reasons.  On the face of it, the argument appears to be based on some sound logic, but without statistics that show this is a major cost issue, it is hard to accept the argument that you put forth on behalf of Green Shield Canada.

The insurance company is in my mind claiming they know what is best for the patient and the doctor, which is either based on ageism or paternalism. Either one should be unacceptable.  You state that sometimes a person begins a drug program but experiences side effects and stops taking the drug. I wonder what percentage of people stop taking the drug because of bad experiences and what this action actually costs the drug company.

Before I accept your argument that this policy has nothing to do with the age of the client, I would have to see some independent review of the number and ages of the clients that Green Shield have had that stopped taking medication and began a new treatment based on side effects of a drug. I suspect the policy has more to do with an underlying culture of paternalism, which leads to discrimination such as ageism. So, I have to respectfully disagree with your argument on this point.

Your next argument, about reducing costs and maximizing profits is a legitimate aim of any business, but when they do this at the expense of the client it should be questioned. You state in one sentence that “GSC appears to have decided that there is a saving to the plan when they limit the initial prescription and pay the additional Dispensing Fee one week later when a person renews.” And then state that GSC does not want to pay the repeated dispensing fee for 30-day prescriptions on a 90-day treatment. This is interesting but does not deal with the point that both these policies appear to be ageist or paternalistic, in that these policies come from a culture of “Father knows best” so they are paternalistic at best or discriminatory (ageist) if only older clients receive the benefits of these policies.

You state that “It's all about reducing their costs and they will say it's about keeping premiums as low as possible”, this is the result of the policy but what the policy reinforces and I believe grows from, is the discriminatory or paternalistic culture that appears to be driving decision making at GSC.

I am glad to hear that the “Office staff has spent a lot of time helping our members deal with GSC and we have repeatedly let the Pension Trustees know of our members' frustrations with GSC.”   I will let others that I talk to that they should continue to let the the executive know what problems they are having so you can continue to press the Pension Board for action.

No, I was not aware that we “have a combined EHC plan with a travel plan that has been growing”.  Where can I find information on the plan so I can pass on the information to others?

Yes, I will agree with you that all plans can be improved, but I am glad that we have a say in policy language and coverage, and I will take a look at our plan, although I and my wife do not travel as much as we used to travel. I am encouraged that there may be a plan for members like myself who do not travel.

Finally, thank you for your response, although I disagree with some of your positions, I find it encouraging that there is some action on extended health options for our members.

Snow Days

It snowed in my area overnight Friday and brought about 25 cm of snow to our cul de sac. I live in a community, Port Coquitlam, where the roads are ploughed when it snows. I know I am leaving Poco when the side roads become snowbound and it is hard to drive.

As I was out this morning shovelling the driveway, all of my neighbours were doing the same. Some of them had started early than I had and they were just finishing as I was about halfway through. My next door neighbour to my right went down the street and started helping another neighbour and they finished up that driveway very quickly. When they were finished they came over to my driveway and started working on mine.  The first thing that was said to me was "Merry Christmas". Very quickly I had three young men helping me finish my driveway. When my driveway was finished they moved on to another driveway and I went with them and one more person joined us so the five of us finished two more driveways within about 30 minutes. It was a fun morning, and a pleasant surprise to get see how the how the group came together to help each other. There are only 12 houses on our cul de sac, and there were six of us out helping each other. I did notice when I came out that four of the houses had their driveways completed before I had even started mine. So by 10:00 every house on the cul de sac had their driveway cleared. 

Serendipity happenings in life are or can be a pleasant reminder that we all are in this together and if we help each other unpleasant work can be made a lot easier. Thank you to my neighbours who worked together this morning. The Christmas spirit is still with us.

How much should you save for retirement?

In 2018, many of you are one step closer to retirement. Many of you are now starting to think about retirement. I really did not think about retirement until about 10 years before I retired. My first thought was, will I have enough money to fund a reasonable retirement? That thought or this thought “how much should I be saving – and have banked already – for my retirement” may be taking over your thoughts as it did mine.

If you listen to the financial industry, the answer is an awful lot more than you probably have. According to one financial journalist, and the industry, by the time you are 30 you should have at least the equivalent of your annual income saved for retirement. By 40 it should be three times your annual income; by 50, six times; by 60, eight times and by retirement 10 times. This advice is not meant for the young who are burdened by student debt, high housing costs and stagnant real wages, any of them can ever dare to dream of saving at this kind of level.

These benchmarks are really fairly arbitrary. The industry is designed to sell and uses the greed- and fear sales pitches as everyone else to flog product (the more we save, the more they earn). But in real life it is impossible to project 40 years into the future in this super-tidy way.

I am like most people, in that I could not afford to save 15% of my income every year (most of it into the stock market) from the age of 25 onwards. Because I had small children and I bought a house.

I retired at 60 but I kept working albeit part time for another 9 years. Many of my cohorts (early boomers) will work past retirement if they can and will end up un-retiring, even when we do retire. The idea that we must save a set amount of cash and live on that cash and only that cash for ever seems old-fashioned. Very few of us will rely on nothing but specific retirement savings from the age of 60 on.

The good news is that almost everyone is now saving something. If you have a defined benefit pension with your employer (if you work in the public sector for instance), you are doing just fine. If you are in an auto-enrolment scheme you won’t be saving 15% of your salary, but you will have made a start, and by 2019, you will be saving 8% of your total income automatically. Here is one idea, if you take your next few pay rises and ask to have them immediately recycled into your pension, you will be close to retirement clover before you know it.

Life is a constant balance between the needs of the present and the needs of the future. When I was young, the present was a lot more important. It was hard to think about saving. And with money tight, and expenses high, it was even harder to save. In Canada we have three pillars to help us as we prepare for retirement. We have

·       Government programs, Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement, Registered Retirement Savings Programs, Tax Free Savings Accounts and the Canada Pension Plan

·       Employer programs such as Defined Contribution or Defined Benefits retirement programs

·       Personal Savings in non-registered savings and investment programs.

We are all savings toward retirement if we are working in Canada through the Canada Pension Plan, if you decide you want to save on your own, start when you have the ability to put money into your savings program, and don’t be pressured by the industry that is intent on scaring you that you will not have enough when you retire.

8 Gardening Blunders and the Ways to Fix Them

We often see fashion blunders on TV. We may even hear ourselves giving opinions about them. But do you actually realize that blunders can even happen right in your front yard? Whether you think that your garden looks good or not, it really doesn't matter. If everything doesn't work, your whole garden will not work. So, here as our last post on gardening for a while, we enumerate some gardening blunders and the ways to fix them:

1.    Grass is not greener. This ranks number 1. Why? Most gardens have lawn, but one may be slightly greener than the other. If your lawn looks more than the soil underneath, it is time to reassess your watering, fertilizing and mowing schedule. Think where you have gone wrong and make the necessary adjustments on the areas mentioned. If nothing happens, replacing your entire lawn is a better alternative. Consider other ground covers such as periwinkle and thyme. Ask your local nursery for a possible option.

2.    Tools and clutter are everywhere. They may be useful objects, but if they are stacked in your garage because you think they are not worth the storage, they don't just look like junk, they are junk. Go over them one by one and determine whether you want to keep them or not. Your criteria when deciding if they deserve the trip to dump or not is simple: Ask yourself, do you specific plans for them?

3.    Your home and garden can be seen from the road. There are several short- and long-term solutions to create some privacy. One quick-fix solution is to build a concrete wall that would separate your garden from the side walk. For a longer, much appealing look, planting fast-growing shrubs is a good idea.

4.    Weeds invasion. Weeds problem can be solved by keeping your lawn regularly maintained. Check for weeds as often as you can. Dig the weeds out by hand and keep the weed from re-growing by seeding the empty areas of your lawn.

5.    Limited space. If your problem is space, then here's one idea that can definitely help you maximize every square inch of your garden: think vertical. Create a sense of lush greenery by using wall space, arbors and trellises to allow plants to climb upwards.

6.    Where's your home? If shrubs have swallowed your home, then a hedge clipper comes in handy. Cut everything that is blocking your way. Seriously, you want a garden, not a house in the middle of the forest. Also, shrubs swallowing your home is a security problem and just invites the bad guys to help themselves.

7.    Dry spell in winter. Most garden plants do not survive the winter temperature. Hence, they die. When planning for a garden, think of the plants that can grow year-round. Or you can always include evergreens and plants with winter interests.

8.    Fences are falling apart. Fences are not just to separate your property from your neighbor's. They also add to the overall look of your garden. Make sure that you maintain the looks of your fences like the way you keep your plants.