The Mansfield Parks and Recreation Department has managed to assemble a ten year master plan.
It's a piece of work that reads like an Aryan Race Handbook for cost of oven operations during WWII.
There's a chart that has been particularly perplexing to me that appears on page 53.
For a long time I just couldn't figure out where these percentages could possibly come from - so strange.
Then it occurred to me that the chart has nothing to do with accuracy but instead a manufactured justification for the narrative of the plan which is, in and of itself, a tautology.
Here's the paradox. Believe it or not, insurance companies can do morally and ethically good things. I know. That's an unexpected twist. So what can I possibly be referring to? Well, it's the Silver Sneakers/Renew Active insurance policies for seniors.
The intent (a successful one) is to encourage seniors to maintain healthier lifestyles and so on. It keeps insurance rates down, yada yada. I mean this is truly a great program for all the right reasons AND it establishes a realistic baseline of the reimbursement for their use of services from a participating "community center" - as of this writing, $3/visit to a max of $30/mo.
Seniors aren't wearing out the equipment either, they require no supervision, and leave the place like they found it - low cost/high return - win/win/win. Seriously. Seniors are a temporal value-add in every sense of the concept.
The chart certainly lists these programs as line items but every column has no relationship to the goals of the insurance and senior participants.
No. the Cost Recovery column distorts everything. We have no idea what cost means or why seniors are responsible for recovering that cost percentage or why cost recovery is a criteria for evaluating a noble insurance policy. And the other columns are simply collateral fictions intended to mislead.
The insurance policy is assuming the community center already has everything required for seniors as a subset of normal operating procedure. There's no added cost for a senior walking in the door. This a deceit - yet another take-advantage-of-seniors ploy to manipulate their emotions and age compromised judgement into thinking they need to pay more to get out of a jam.
Why is the Mansfield CT Community Center using these tactics? Is it incapable of welcoming seniors in whatever numbers to stay healthy first?
Charts and draconian accounting tricks are an ad hominem character assassination technique repeatedly found in the Facebook discussion of this topic. For sensitive older people this kind of deceitful rhetoric is more than insulting, it's yet another psychic papercut.
This chart is really a subliminal message about greed. The message is that if the insurance coverage would just pay a max monthly membership fee, Parks and Recreation could keep spending money like drunken sailors on leave. Nobody cares if you come or go or drop dead - to hell with the insurance companies incentivizing regular attendance - the Little Shop of Fiscal Horrors needs to be fed a bigger, more certain portion.
Then it occurred to me that the chart has nothing to do with accuracy but instead a manufactured justification for the narrative of the plan which is, in and of itself, a tautology.
Here's the paradox. Believe it or not, insurance companies can do morally and ethically good things. I know. That's an unexpected twist. So what can I possibly be referring to? Well, it's the Silver Sneakers/Renew Active insurance policies for seniors.
The intent (a successful one) is to encourage seniors to maintain healthier lifestyles and so on. It keeps insurance rates down, yada yada. I mean this is truly a great program for all the right reasons AND it establishes a realistic baseline of the reimbursement for their use of services from a participating "community center" - as of this writing, $3/visit to a max of $30/mo.
Seniors aren't wearing out the equipment either, they require no supervision, and leave the place like they found it - low cost/high return - win/win/win. Seriously. Seniors are a temporal value-add in every sense of the concept.
The chart certainly lists these programs as line items but every column has no relationship to the goals of the insurance and senior participants.
No. the Cost Recovery column distorts everything. We have no idea what cost means or why seniors are responsible for recovering that cost percentage or why cost recovery is a criteria for evaluating a noble insurance policy. And the other columns are simply collateral fictions intended to mislead.
The insurance policy is assuming the community center already has everything required for seniors as a subset of normal operating procedure. There's no added cost for a senior walking in the door. This a deceit - yet another take-advantage-of-seniors ploy to manipulate their emotions and age compromised judgement into thinking they need to pay more to get out of a jam.
Why is the Mansfield CT Community Center using these tactics? Is it incapable of welcoming seniors in whatever numbers to stay healthy first?
Charts and draconian accounting tricks are an ad hominem character assassination technique repeatedly found in the Facebook discussion of this topic. For sensitive older people this kind of deceitful rhetoric is more than insulting, it's yet another psychic papercut.
This chart is really a subliminal message about greed. The message is that if the insurance coverage would just pay a max monthly membership fee, Parks and Recreation could keep spending money like drunken sailors on leave. Nobody cares if you come or go or drop dead - to hell with the insurance companies incentivizing regular attendance - the Little Shop of Fiscal Horrors needs to be fed a bigger, more certain portion.
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