Opuscula It’s not 1984: Big Brother Has Arrived

THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING to protect us.

The question is: Who is protecting us from the government?

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is deciding to protect us from ourselves. Ronald Reagan

 

IT STARTED WITH FDR.

Before Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, people generally took care of each other.

Granted, the country found itself in a depression brought on by greed and lack of concern for our neighbors. The whole world suffered.

So FDR initiated a number of social programs, including Social Security, the TVA, WPA, and a host of more “alphabet soup” organizations, many of which linger on even today.

(At the same time FDR was creating “make work” programs for Americans, he kept Jewish refugees from Germany at bay by closing the borders to them.)

Another three-initial president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, gave us Medicare, a social service into which citizens pay and pay and then, when retired, CONTINUE to pay — more every year.

Unfortunately, we — Americans — brought some of this on ourselves.

We allowed technology — that “miracle” that was supposed to save us time and money — to take over our lives . . . and our wallets.

Doctors DON’T know best

I am about to travel overseas for six months.

My Spouse and I have a Medicare Advantage plan that is SUPPOSED cover our prescription medicines, BUT when my Spouse tried to get a Vacation Override so she could get two 90-day supplies — enough to last six months (180 days by my count) she was denied.

The insurer also claims we will have emergency coverage while out of the insurer’s coverage area. But only for five (5) months. I’ll bet the insurer collects from CMS for the sixth month!

After going around and around with the insurance company, she discovered that the most she could get would be a 5 month supply of medications. The insurer told my Spouse that it would terminate her coverage if she was outside of the company’s service area for six months.

Understand, that she could be back on day 179 and needed her pills until she could get a refill from the pharmacy.

ONE DAY and the insurer refused to give the override.

None of her medications are narcotics.

To be fair, there was a person at the insurance company and another at the pharmacy that did their best to help my Spouse. The insurance clerk was about the 15th clerk with whom my wife spoke. Getting to the helpful clerk was a several-day process.

MEANWHILE, SEEING THE PROBLEMS MY Spouse encountered, and knowing that I have far less patience that she, I contacted my Primary Care Physician (PCP) and asked that he write a script for double the number of pills — from one-a-day to two-a-day. That way, my normal 90-day supply would last 180 days.

The pharmacy refused to honor my doctor’s order.

The insurer told the pharmacy that what my doctor did was “unethical.”

Again, no narcotics. Nothing to sell and I’m certainly not about to OD on a diabetes pill.

Still, it failed to meet some esoteric law in place to protect me.

The insurer knows better than my doctor how many pills I need? My insurer has never examined me and I doubt it ever has seem my laboratory results.

I’m 78 years old and I don’t think I need protection from myself; but I’m not so sure I don’t need protection from The Powers That Be.

Something new? Hardly

There was a time when a committee of prudes determined what made-in-America movies could include. Married couples had to sleep in twin beds or, Hollywood forbid, if they managed to share a double bed, each bed partner had to have one foot on the floor. (How did movies ever have babies in them?)

ERM-BC-COOP: Politics as risk

When I would tell clients that they should – I prefer “must,” but consultants only can suggest – consider “politics” as a risk, for most of the clients I was thinking locally: town councils, planning and zoning boards, streets, public safety. I also was thinking about state-level politics, but “not so much.” With the exception of vendors to the Federal government, Washington was almost an after-thought.

How much impact could the Federal government have on a local, or even interstate, business?

It turns out quite a bit.

Forget about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that can shut down airports and disrupt business travel), or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that likewise interrupts business travel as well as import and export activities; these agencies must be considered risks for almost every organization that has any over-a-border interest.

Consider the Obama regime. It has shut down much of the government essentially over the Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a Obamacare, including those agencies that generate revenue. It threatens to shut down most of the remaining services if an yet another hike of the Federal debt ceiling is refused. This follows a sequester of funds and services.

The President of the United States – POTUS – by fiat shut down the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the agencies that run Federal parks, monuments, etc.

In southeast Florida, that shut down means that the Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park are closed. Translation: For tourists, no entry and for the government, no entry fees. For businesses that operated on or into the park, it means they are out of busyness; they cannot get to their business.

Three headlines in the Miami (FL) Herald tell the plight in South Florida communities:

Keys fishing guides protest closure of Everglades National Park A

ISLAMORADA -- Each day at noon, Capt. Matt Bellinger usually does his local radio fishing update from somewhere in the back country of the vast Everglades National Park, where he takes clients to fish for snook and tarpon or photograph birds and other wildlife.

He always ends his updates with his mantra: “Get on the water. And go fish!”

But on Wednesday, sunny with calm seas and a gentle breeze — a perfect day to be out on the water — Bellinger could not take clients to his beloved fishing grounds. Like all 401 national parks, the Everglades National Park was closed by the government shutdown.

Miami’s Biscayne National Park won’t be open to boaters during Columbus Day Weekend

Like the rest of its counterparts around the country, Biscayne National Park is closed because of the federal government shutdown — but not if you want to fish, boat through on your way somewhere else, or seek shelter in a storm.

But the thousands of powerboaters who normally gather in park waters over the upcoming Columbus Day weekend to anchor, raft, play music, dance and drink will not be welcome.

Diving and snorkeling also are prohibited.

Fishing guides want back in Everglades

ISLAMORADA, Fla. -- Frustrated by partial shutdown that has closed Everglades National Park and 400 other national parks across the country, fishing guides in the Florida Keys spearheaded a rally Wednesday hoping to convince federal officials to let them back into park waters.

Although Keys state and offshore waters remain open to anglers, fall is a prime season for visitors to fish in the park's shallow estuaries for prized gamefish, such as snook, tarpon, redfish and trout.

Guides who depend on that for income have lost money and are frustrated with Washington leadership's inability to pass a budget to fully reopen federal resources.

And that’s just the tip of the peninsula. I would provide a map of Federal parks in Florida but “Because of the federal government shutdown, all national parks are closed and National Park Service webpages are not operating. For more information, go to www.doi.gov.” And then we are told to “Experience Your America.”

An aside: the Interior Department’s Web site does provide Information on the Department's preparation of contingency plans for a possible government shutdown in October, 2013.

The DOI’s mandate includes:

• Departmental Contingency Plan
  
• Bureau of Indian Affairs
  
• Bureau of Indian Education
  
• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
  
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
  
• Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
  
• Bureau of Reclamation
  
• Fish and Wildlife Service
  
• National Park Service
  
• Office of the Inspector General
  
• Office of Insular Affairs
  
• Office of the Secretary
  
• Office of the Solicitor
  
• Office of the Special Trustee
  
• Office of Surface Mining
  
• US Geological Survey

Back in the day when I was an honest newspaper reporter & editor in Nevada, I came to learn how much ranchers, farmers, timbermen, and others depended on access to Federal lands controlled by BLM or the Forest Service, the latter’s Web site announces “Due to the lapse in agency funding, the sale of all types of permits (i.e., recreation, firewood, forest products, mineral materials for example) are suspended, recreation.gov reservations are suspended, and all federally owned recreation sites are closed. All offices are closed. These services will be available once funding is restored.”

Much of the Forest Service’s mandate includes revenue producing activities.

Another aside: I wonder what this means to people who have built year-round homes on Federal lands; will they be able to access them? Will the roads be allowed to deteriorate to the point where nothing less than a tracked vehicle will be able to travel on them sans serious damage?

Looking into the future and assuming the Affordable Care Act, apparently the major bone of contention between Republicans and the President - is sustained, what will happen to those insured under the Act if something like this political flap happens again? For that matter, on a personal level, what will happen to seniors who contract with Medicare vendors paid from Social Security funds? (The vendors get substantially more than the Part B $102/month per insured.) If Social Security shuts its wallet – the threat if the debt ceiling is not raised – and will the vendors continue to pay for the senior’s care; will the vendors be able to pay for their client’s care?

While many businesses are not directly impacted by the current and promised threats, many will indirectly feel the impact. (Consider education, veterans - already penalized. The list goes on and on.)

Bottom line: When thinking about “government as a risk” (and it truly IS a risk) practitioners must look beyond local and state governments and consider the Federal government as well.

 

If I wrote it, you may quote it

ERM-BC-COOP and beyond We MUST stop using SSNs as IDs

 

The following from Advisen FPN: Professional Edition for Friday, January 14 2011:

"The Growing Risk of Data Breaches, Sponsored by Swett & Crawford

"As many as 85 percent of US organizations had at least one data breach in 2009, elevating data security issues from the IT Department to the executive suite and the boardroom. Companies such as TJX and Heartland, which together had millions of sensitive records poached by hackers, made national headlines, but a great many other organizations experienced less publicized data breaches that nonetheless were costly to remedy and which potentially damaged brands and tarnished corporate reputations.

"Data Security Issues Escalate as Risk Management Evolves, a new Advisen Special Report sponsored by Swett & Crawford, examines the growing threat to data security for companies of all sizes. This comprehensive report reveals the explosive costs of data security breaches, reviews recent changes to consumer privacy laws, outlines recommended changes to IT security and risk management procedures, and discusses specialized insurance coverages available for when companies experience data security events. It also includes an appendix containing a review of the largest and most alarming data security breaches over the past decade."

The complete article, including links to the Data Security Issues Escalate as Risk Management Evolves, can be read at http://tinyurl.com/493gd9a.

Data theft is a fact of life.

Social Security numbers are, in the US, the "key" to an individual's identity.

Social Security numbers should be limited, by law, to use by the Social Security Administration and, perhaps, the Internal Revenue Service and tax-related accounts.

Social Security numbers should be prohibited, by law, from being used on employment applications, credit card applications, and any other organizations that use the number solely for client identification.

Social Security numbers should NOT be used for background checks - of any type. There are alternatives.

There is, as far as I can see, no reason to give my Social Security number to a prospective employer, particularly now that some states are outlawing some parts of pre-employment checks. It should be sufficient to provide proof of my identity with government-issued IDs; I offer a driver's license and passport. It should not be necessary for anyone to record the numbers of either for an application of any type. IF I am employed by an organization, then it is proper to ask for my Social Security information.

Thanks largely to illegal immigrants, many states now require a birth certificate or other federal government-issued ID before the state will issue a driver's license (or non-driver ID)./

Of course on the flip side of that, we have forced states to allow anyone who can claim an address - no one checks - to vote in our elections, regardless of the person's citizenship.

I'm willing to reluctantly compromise a little. I'll share the last four digits of my Social Security number only to financial institutions where I have an account. Those institutions can match those four digits with other unique information I provide (what was my first pet's name; where did I go to elementary school,. etc.). All other organizations can provide me with an ID generated by the organization; that again matched by my unique supplemental information should be enough to identify this John Glenn from other John Glenns - and I know there are many of us.

Social Security numbers never were intended to be used as identifiers for anything other than Social Security and IRS. They were not intended to be service numbers for the military. They were not intended to be drivers' license numbers. In fact, when Social Security was first introduced in 1935, it was a voluntary tax!

I'm writing my federal senators and congressperson asking them to please introduce a bill that prevents organizations from using Social Security numbers with there is neither (a) payment into or from the Social Security fund or (b) tax liability. I encourage others to do the same.