The Responsible Thing To Do?

From the Herald Leader:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear's administration confirmed Monday that Kentucky is seeking a waiver from a portion of the federal health care overhaul that requires large insurance companies to spend at least 85 percent of premiums on medical care.

Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark made the request in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius earlier this month, saying she feared it will create a financial hardship on some insurers and insurance agents.

"Quite frankly, I just thought it was the responsible thing to do," Clark said Monday

Below is a list of active insurers from the Kentucky Department of Insurance. Regardless of the name they are all Humana, one company, one insurer.


CHA HMO, Inc. DBA : CHA Health
CompBenefits Dental, Inc.
CompBenefits Insurance Company
Dental Concern Inc. (The)
Emphesys Insurance Company
Humana Health Insurance Company of Florida Inc.
Humana Health Plan of Ohio Inc.
Humana Health Plan, Inc.
Humana Insurance Company
Humana Insurance Company of Kentucky
HumanaDental Insurance Company
Kanawha Insurance Company


Here are a few facts about Humana.

In 2010 Humana’s first quarter net income was $258.8 million dollars.

Humana's first-quarter net income was $258.8 million, or $1.52 per share, compared with $205.7 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.

According to Forbes:

Michael B McCallister has been CEO of Humana (HUM) for 6 years. Mr. McCallister has been with the company for 32 years. His 6-Year Average Compensation has been $2.71 million per year.

According to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance Humana’s PAC and employees have contributed over $260,000.00 to political candidates in Kentucky.

“The responsible thing to do”, really Commissioner? Are you kidding me?

Money talks, this time Humana is pulling the strings of a puppet that is supposed to regulate the Insurance industry in Kentucky.

But maybe I’m being too hard on Sharon Clark, I’m sure the Commissioner of Insurance is just doing what the Governor is telling her to do.

A Values Driven Company

Let’s get the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off our backs and make Kentucky a “Coal Sanctuary State” then we won’t have to put up with things like this.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Arch Coal Inc. will pay $4 million in fines and change some of its mining practices under a settlement announced Tuesday in a federal lawsuit over alleged Clean Water Act violations in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

The violations Arch committed were:

Discharge of pollutants without a permit pursuant to Section 301 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311.

Failure to comply with the conditions of permits issued pursuant to CWA Section 402, U.S.C. § 1342. Violations of permit conditions include exceedances of certain pollutants, such as manganese, total suspended solids, selenium, aluminum, pH , and iron……..

Mining, particularly surface mining, has significant environmental and human health consequences. Mining discharges impair streams and watersheds. These impairments include high levels dissolved solids, and sulfates, which have detrimental impacts to aquatic life.

Sediment-laden runoff can result in increased turbidity and decreased oxygen in receiving waters, which in turn can result in loss of in-stream habitat for fish and other aquatic species. Sediment can kill fish directly, destroy spawning beds, suffocate fish eggs and bottom dwelling organisms, and block sunlight resulting in reduced growth of beneficial aquatic grasses.

I mean after all Arch Coal is a “Values Driven” company.

VALUES DRIVEN

“Arch Coal’s foundation is built upon three key pillars: safety, environmental stewardship and shareholder value. I’m confident that our progressive approach to our core values will help us build a better tomorrow for our company and our world.”

Steven Leer
Chairman and CEO
Arch Coal, Inc.

His Teeth Look Sharp

Those evil Federal Regulators are on our backs again.

You would think the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) wanting to shut down a major portion of Kentucky's largest independent bank would be big news. Their 150% interest rates put payday lenders and loan sharks to shame.

However, they are one of the largest print advertisers in the State and are known to pull ad buys if a bad story about them airs. Known as one of the worst consumer banks, they did payday lending on military bases until they were shut down.



From the Courier Journal:


Republic Bank & Trust of Louisville claims federal regulators are overstepping their authority in an attempt to stop the bank from making loans that would be repaid from tax refunds.
Republic wants a judge to stop the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from trying to end the loans, called Refund Anticipation Loans or RAL, because the law doesn't give regulators the power to do so…….

In a report issued Monday, The National Consumer Law Group, which opposes the use of such loans, said Republic Bank charges a customer $61.22 for a RAL of $1,500. That rate amounts to an annual interest rate of 149 percent, the group said.



Maybe we need to make Kentucky a loan shark sanctuary state.

They Are Both Wrong

Steve Beshear and David Williams continue to jockey for position in the upcoming election for Governor. Both of them are playing politics with the health care of 750,000 Kentuckians, that's about 17 percent of the population.

The problem is the short fall in Medicaid funding. Beshear want to shuffle money with no realistic way to cover the debt. Williams want so cut services to tax payers. Both are wrong.

FRANKFORT — The Senate is proposing cuts across state government — including cuts to K-12 education — to plug a multimillion-dollar hole in the state's Medicaid budget. The proposal met immediate criticism from Gov. Steve Beshear……

Beshear proposed moving $166 million from the state's Medicaid budget from next fiscal year to the current fiscal year.

The real issue here is tax reform and transparency and accountability in Government spending.

If this is the best they can do neither of them deserve to be Governor.

They Got One Right

I have to agree with the Herald Leader on this one. The General Assembly actually did something that was good fiscal policy and good social policy. They accomplished something good for all Kentuckians.

The 2011 General Assembly can go down as a success now that both chambers have acted to stem the tidal wave of prisoners that is swamping the state's budget and sucking resources from education and other services.

Kudos to lawmakers who defied the "tough on crime" political canon to give near unanimous approval to thoughtful penal code reforms