Paid holidays for employees

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Thought I posted this earlier from my laptop but it didn't make it on here.

Thanks for the answers Darren.  Always nice to hear from someone who is actually using a system.

We have a variety of policies available to us as Federal retirees.  None of them include dental or vision worth squat so we purchase supplemental policies to cover them.  Still questionable to me as far as what they "cover" as a crown was $1,000 last one I had and our new dental policy will pay 50% to which I say "Who hoo -- I still have to come up with $500 to get my broken tooth fixed".

As far as waiting time goes.  MIL's Parkinson doc is a 3 month wait.  Her hearing doc is somewhat longer.  My spinal surgeon who fused my back is at least a 3 month wait.  Our PCP is KS was a 6 week wait as he was very sought after.  So, we are already familiar with waiting periods.

On scripts, our insurance pays a portion only.  On generics, I can get a 90 day supply for $20.00.  Non generic's depend on their cost.  One of Bob's diabetic meds for 90 days after co-pay is around $120.  Better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Glad to hear that someone else thinks that health care should be automatic.  When I worked at the Feedlot outside of the town, the owner used to strut around saying "Health care is a privilege not a right."  I was the Office Liberal so I figured he was just trying to rile me up, though he truly did believe that.  We used to have interesting discussions about it.  Drove him crazy that our insurance was better than his.  I think he secretly felt like Federal Retirement Benefits was just another form of welfare but knew better than to fess up to me that he felt that way : o

Thanks again for the info Darren!

Virginia

[Mojo]

Dennis:

It's a crap shoot these days when dealing with young workers. Very few get it and most are lazy as hell. Pride in your work, work ethics, etc. steadily goes down hill every year. Finding help for manual labor jobs is tough. Most of the kids now days want an office and a computer job.

HVAC technicians, diesel mechanics, auto mechanics, etc. are all hard to find. I had my local Hvac company come over last week to tune up my system. The technician said they have a hard time finding tech's and when they do half of them cannot pass a drug test. The ones who do pass show up for work when they want to.

Ask Darren about the shortage of diesel mechanics in the sand fields ( and they start these guys pout in the 6 figure bracket ). They cannot get oil workers in North Dakota because of the cold climate despite pyaing high wages. On and on it goes.  I have a buddy who owned a chain of McDonalds. He said he would weed out the good workers from the bad, keep the good ones and fire the bad ones and then pay a good hourly wage for the good ones. Many of them went into management positions and one went on to buy his own McDonalds franchise. He said his attrition rate was low compared to other franchises because he paid $ 10 per hour.

I often wonder what this country will be like 20 years from now with the lazy group of kids who are coming up. Video games, computers, cable TV, smart phones etc. and Mommy and Daddy turning them into entitled kids has really changed the mindset of these kids.

Chris

[Darren Henry]

Is your sisters and doctors income in Canada regulated by the government?

I'm not sure. Nurses are paid hourly wages by the facility they work for. I don't know what regulative body sets the range for those wages. Here every trade has a range usually set by the labour board and any unions involved.

Doctors make good money here. The problem I have is that they are paid piece-work---office visit $50,write prescription $50,7 stitches @$75 ea. etc...makes one wonder if you really needed this or that. But then again I ask my mechanic to see all my old parts too for the same reason. They also get kick backs from the drug companies---which always make me ask if tablet A is better for me than tablet B or does it pay him more? Did I really even need either of them?