other ways health insurance can screw you

for: my own personal validation, and anyone with kids going to college

saw it in: BusinessWeek (05.19.08 Issue)

what it is: article criticizing the so-called "coverage" that students are required to buy for college health insurance plans, and whether it's a deal or a sham

link: article

my comments: when i went to grad school, i had to buy insurance through the school. i had chickering/aetna (mentioned in the article) and found i was rather lucky to have decent coverage for relatively normal health problems, and that treatment could almost always be recieved in the school's very expansive health center. i was lucky because i didn't have a choice in any of those matters, and i knew that if something very serious were to happen, i'd probably be in very big trouble. now, reading this (and having recently left my soul-sucking insurance employer), I'm rather disgusted to hear how lucky I really was.

proof that man are receding

for: Mom, Jess, womankind

saw it in: BusinessWeek (05.19.08 Issue)

what it is: An article about how men are impacted most by employment recession, based on the fact that they make up the majority of employees in the hardest-hit sectors of manufacturing and construction. Women are increasingly expected to be the bread-winners.

links: Article

my comments: There's nothing about this article that is necessarily new information -- it's just that I didn't really put it all together until I read this. It is an interesting concept to think that any economical recession would hit a specific gender more than another, but in this context, it does make sense.