Dear Governor Patrick:
On Monday the State House News Service reported your statements that the additional cost to fix the state's healthcare exchange website will not surpass $26 million and that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Massachusetts, along with the enrollment of more than 400,000 people, is within budget.
Official representations from your administration directly contradict these assertions. In an official statement dated July 31, 2013, your administration disclosed the existence of projected cost overruns:
The fiscal 2014 budget assumes base caseload growth of 2.8% over fiscal 2013. However, MassHealth's most recent re-forecast projects a 3.4% increase in enrollment in fiscal 2014 enrollment. Due primarily to this increase in enrollment,...
Lifestyle
Dear CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield,
I just received your letter, announcing the 20 percent hike in my health insurance premiums, due no doubt to rising health care costs. And I understand how insurance works: The healthy pay for more than they use to subsidize those who need more than they could afford to pay for. I'm grateful to be in the first group rather than the second (at least, so far).
As your records will show, the benefits you've paid on my behalf over the past 16 years amount to a small fraction of the premiums you've received from me. In part, this is because I've been lucky enough not to suffer a traumatic injury or be diagnosed with a catastrophic illness. But it's not only luck. I keep up with preventive maintenance, like Pap smears and flu shots. I buckle my...
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Dear Premier MacLauchlan and Minister Currie:
We write collectively today from an emergency meeting of the PEI Abortion Rights Network, held at the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women office on four hours' notice and attended by 25 concerned people. This is an open letter from the group.
We demand immediate action for local access to abortion care in Prince Edward Island. This care must include – but not be limited to – local access to surgical abortion in a Prince Edward Island hospital or hospitals. Immediate steps are necessary to safeguard women's health.
Yesterday, one woman told her story of being denied care to follow up a prescribed medication-based termination of pregnancy. It is our understanding that she was not offered medical procedures that would determine...
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Dear health entrepreneurs,
Throughout my journey in medicine, I've been asked countless times why healthcare moves so slowly. Many of the same technological challenges have existed for years, if not decades, and despite numerous attempts to invade/disrupt/revolutionize the healthcare space, these efforts have altogether been more amusing than fruitful. Despite having so much bait around, most clinicians just don't bite.
Regulation and funding issues aside, this apparent apathy when it comes to novel health products is at least in part due to two fundamental differences between how you and I think. If we're going to work together, it's about time we acknowledge that these differences exist, establish why, and figure out how to deal with them.
First, my threshold for allowing error...
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Dear babysitter to my baby girl:
Thanks for doing this. Thanks for agreeing to care for her for a couple of hours while I tend to a few things. I would honestly rather be doing nothing except care, play with and cuddle my baby girl. However, I have to work right now.
As much as I’d love to bring her along with me, sometimes it just isn’t possible. I believe in moms being able to bring their babies around while they work — don’t get me wrong there. If I could manage things better, she would totally be by my side, with full nursing and cuddle access to me. In a perfect world, I’d do that.
But things aren’t perfect. Sometimes they aren’t always practical. How I wish they were, because I don’t like goodbyes. With my firstborn, I would feel a sense of relief at the onset whenever I’d...
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Dear Pete Evans,
You are a famous chef. You are a popular television host. You are a best selling author.
It seems to me you need reminding of the fact that you are admired and respected by thousands of people around Australia and parts of the world. You collectively have over 832,000 followers across your various social media channels together with the millions of television viewers tuning in and watching you.
These very people see your life as pretty amazing. I mean, you travel the world to gorgeous locations with other well-known and respected chefs and celebrities all with your family in tow, you cook and eat beautiful looking food, your partner is a babe and your daughters Chilli and Indii would make any person’s heart melt they are just so cute.
Summing it up in an...
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Dear mama whose arms are empty,
I know that you wake up every morning hoping the horrible thing that happened was just a bad dream.
I know you still feel your baby move even though it’s been days, weeks or months since your baby filled your belly.
I know that tears and thoughts of your baby keep you awake at night. I know you despise your body for failing you and your baby.
I know you cringe when you hear whining about terrible pregnancies or cranky babies.
I know you cry in the shower so no one will hear you. I know that you just want to hear someone say your baby’s name.
I know that you hate yourself for the jealousy that consumes you when you hear of new healthy babies being born.
I know that you just want to get pregnant again to make this pain go away....
3,364
Dear Mr. or Mrs. Baby Boomer Executive,
I hope you are sitting down. I have some startling news to share with you: your millennial initiatives are worthless.
The tools and tactics you have been using to "understand", "market", "speak", "engage", "connect" and "win" millennial customers are ineffective and will not increase your sales, regardless of how much data you gather and analyze. Even worse, you have likely lost sales due to them.
The secret to capturing the hearts, minds, and most importantly, wallets of the millennial generation is likely sitting one floor below you. Prepare yourself for a shock: your millennial employees are your most valuable and accessible asset when it comes to successfully marketing your business to the millennial generation.
Your own free focus...
2,367
Dear Backseat Baby,
Hey. Yeah you, in the backseat! I know you're trying to pretend like you're not listening to whatever it is Mom or Dad have droning on through the car speakers, but you should listen up. It might not seem terribly important at the moment, but there are a lot of us working on the other side of that radio, and some day, you might too.
Hold on, you might be saying. There's no way anybody younger than 60 is talking right now. Well, young sir or madam, let me be the first to tell you that you are a terrible judge of voice age, because we here at NPR represent a wide range of age groups. (To be clear, we do treasure and respect the wisdom that comes with time.)
I was you once, dear Backseat Baby. I, too, questioned my parents' sanity as they continuously opted for...
2,117
Dear Chris Riotta of Mic and Justin Bieber,
Both of you recently put words on the Internet that were not only intellectually ignorant, but malicious and offensive to black women all over the world.
“While Stenberg’s point is an important one, Bieber’s should be heard as well. Though Jenner is a major figure in pop culture with access to a loud microphone to talk about important issues, it doesn’t necessarily follow that she should be expected to do so at every possible moment. She is, after all, a teenager.”-Chris Riotta
Amandla Stenberg’s competent critique of Kylie Jenner’s recent culturally insensitive instagram post was not an attempt to blast Jenner in the hopes of engaging a petty feud. Instead, it was an attempt to educate. Stenberg has been and continues to use her...
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