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Unintended Consequences?

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The Wall Street Journal reports today that the recently passed health care bill will soon negatively hit brokers’ bottom lines.   This is due to regulation of insurers’ medical loss ratio  (the amount of the health care premium dollar that goes to paying claims).   I don’t personally like the MLR requirements in the bill as I think they can be easily gamed and they don’t really get at the heart of growing health care costs.   That being said, if this requirement encourages insurers to pay brokers a fixed dollar amount (as opposed to a % on the premium) then it’s one of the unintended consequences I’m happy about.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some brokers who are doing really good […]

Advice to BU grads as they go into the world

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It’s commencement time in Boston, which means a stream of events with caps bobbing and gowns and parents waving. Yesterday was a beautiful day for the Boston University commencement with Attorney General Eric Holder. After the center-ring event, a number of schools have their own convocation events. Here are remarks I made at the convocation for the University Professors Program at Boston University. UNI is a really unique place to get a degree, something like the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in its interdisciplinary approach and unabashed elitism in restrictions on access. (God knows why they let me in.) A few segments worth highlighting: I wish you lots of success, wealth and well-being. Often these occasions […]

When will we go cashless on the Turnpike?

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From Bob Poole is an update on all the toll roads migrating to cashless payments: The conversion of toll roads to all-electronic/no-cash tolling seems to be accelerating. I’m drawing on several recent articles from Tollroadsnews.com for this update. Already operating on a cashless basis are the E-470 in Denver and the West Park in Houston (which has been cashless from its opening day). The next big system to go completely cashless will be the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) in Dallas. It’s already converted two of its five toll facilities—the George Bush Turnpike and the Sam Rayburn Tollway. Its busiest toll road, the Dallas North Toll Road, will be converted during the fourth quarter this year, while its two smallest […]

Innovation Smithovation

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We often hear about how charter schools are so innovative. And now we increasingly hear, especially with this week’s release of a Boston Foundation report touting the number of additional hours charter school teachers put into their work, that time in school is what matters. I agree that charter teachers work their butts off, and we all should be incredibly thankful for their commitment to breaking the determinist logic so many had for so long that “those kids can’t do it.” More time does matter. And innovation does matter. But time on task only matters if what is going during the additional time brings real benefits. And I am more and more convinced that the quality of charter school teaching […]

Running the Numbers – Elevator-Style

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Here at the posh Pioneer HQ, we are well-aware of the vagaries of our elevators — outages, structural issues, and expired certificates of inspection. The State Auditor took a look at the state agency responsible for inspecting elevators, the Department of Public Safety, and found that 30% of the elevators in the state have expired inspections. The Auditor’s report notes that this represents a large amount of foregone revenue — $2.2 million for the current year’s overdue inspections and over $6 million for the elevators that have gone uninspected for multiple years. The Auditor’s report suggests that hiring 13 more inspectors would cure the backlog. Using the back of the envelope, the average inspector gets $62k in salary (thanks, www.massopenbooks.org), […]