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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (687)	6/11/2005 1:26:59 PM
From: Constant Reader	Respond to of 544127

I read somewhere that the average amount spent for medical care in the last year of life of the average person was $150,000 and that was about half of the total spent over their lifetime. I could be remembering this wrong, but, if true, I don't find that particularly excessive. Do you?

To: Rambi who wrote (687)	6/11/2005 1:40:22 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 544127

I bet that almost all, if not all, bankrupt pension plans were "self-insured." I haven't heard of one plan underwritten by a reputable genuine insurance company that is in trouble. Why is that? Perhaps because insurance companies make reasonable assumptions about growth, rates of return, and mortality (or lack of it). Self-insured plans, OTOH, are subject to the whims of management (and unions), can engage in reckless speculation, make outrageous assumptions about earnings over time, set benefits based on unreasonable assumptions about mortality and income, and defer funding when inconvenient. (Supposedly, under law, they aren't allowed to do most of those things but they have (and continue to do so).