On a sparkling summer day when all normal folks would want to be outside basking, enough “abbynormals” met in the hall to hold the August 4th edition of the Rotary Club of Bellingham. The most-esteemed President Brad hit a mighty whang on the bell to start the meeting.
Announcements:
Assistant District Governor Bill Gorman made an announcement about the District 5050 networking site, to encourage Rotarians to do business with other Rotarians. Other announcements included:
Past President Gregor promoted the Wacky Wickets Tournament coming up this weekend
Sallye Quinn promoted the Rotary Cares committee; let her know if you know of someone who could use contact
Bliss Goldstein announced that the reception & greeters committee has four initiatives they will be conducting this year. Each will be announced a couple of weeks in advance. The initiatives are:
Table lottery: randomly assigned seating to tables THIS WILL HAPPEN AUGUST 18. The random seating assignments give you the opportunity to meet new people, visit with friends and welcome new members, all in one easy swell foop.
Table topics: every table discusses the same topic.
Special greeter for students of the month.
Birthday game: unsure of the rules of this game
Guests of Rotarians:
Debbie Ahl introduced our speaker, insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and Steve Valandra
John Harris brought his wife, Patricia
Presentations:
Today we were pleased to induct our newest member, Mike Meggyesy, proposed by Bruce Clawson and Teri Treat to fill the classification: Financial Advisor. Past President presentation was by Dave Blair. Welcome to the club, Mike!
Program:
Debbie Ahl introduced the four-term State of Washington Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler, who spoke to us about “The Future of the Affordable Care Act”. In a very short time, he made many points. Just some of the facts stated were: statewide 380,000 more insured people; about 400,000 increase in Medicaid. Prior to the act Whatcom County had about 14% uninsured, now it is down to 5%; there were 29,000 without health insurance or underinsured, reduced by about 21,000 who were able to purchase health care in the state insurance exchange.
More companies are interested in providing health care coverage in the state. Eight companies are in the exchange this year, probably going up to twelve next year. Many more plans will be offered in the coming year, 114 vs. the 46 this year.
Mr. Kreidler stated that there are two main principles of the reform. The first is moral, the second economic. On the moral side, with reform no one is denied coverage; children can remain on the parents’ plan until age 26; and, there is no lifetime limit on coverage. On the economic side, the nation is spending 2 to 3 times more on health care than other “first world” countries. We were heading for a melt-down. One of the causes was the cost of uncompensated care. With more universal coverage, that cost is likely to decline.
As far as the future goes, he sees that there will be a change in the networks, with some narrowing. And there will be more transparency, so the public can compare which providers are in which network, and how much the whole thing will cost. The public has been at a disadvantage dealing with insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act is an attempt to level the playing field. On the whole, his talk was not fun-filled, but informative.
