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Posts published in “Day: July 13, 2011”

A thin divide

July 13, 2011

More notice ought to be taken - more headlines, even - when you see press releases like this one from Idaho Regence Blue Shield:

Regence BlueShield of Idaho announced today that Shad Priest, deputy director of the Idaho Department of Insurance, will be joining Regence [emphasis added] as the director of legislative and regulatory affairs in Idaho. Priest will begin his new role on August 15.

“Shad’s strong background in insurance, coupled with his experience in working with legislators, industry members and the public on insurance-related matters will make him a valuable member of our team,” said Scott Kreiling, president of Regence BlueShield of Idaho. “He has a track record of developing consensus-based regulatory policies that blend consumer needs and insurance industry priorities, which is especially important in a post health care reform world.”

In a "post health care reform world" - we'd dispute that we're actually there - or is that intended to mean a world in which reform has come and gone already? - the insurers and the state agency officials who are in theory regulating them would have a tense and standoffish relationship, punctuated with sharp differences of opinion and an uneasy relationship. You might even see as evidence public events (like the contentious June 2 rate hearing Oregon Regence had before Oregon regulators, not that they've historically been very tough either) that throw a sharp spotlight on rate setting and practices, this being a world (the world we see) in which fewer and fewer people can afford health insurance because rates keep on rising while coverage scales back.

Don't hold your breath.

Carlson: In memoriam

July 13, 2011
carlson
Chris Carlson
Carlson Chronicles

Jack Briggs died at 3 p.m. July 7 in Steele Memorial Hospital in Salmon, Idaho. While his death will be little noted other than by family, neighbors and friends, his passing brought to an end, at age 81, the life of one of those remarkable, vanishing breeds of Idahoans.

He was everything a man should be.

He possessed country wisdom born of experience, was incredibly well-read but largely self-educated. He was an excellent mechanic and worked in the family business, Pocatello’s National Laundry and Dry Cleaning, maintaining a large fleet of delivery trucks while in high school and several years thereafter before moving to Salmon in the fall of 1963.

We always could bring a smile to each other’s face by recalling the scene of his father, Fergus Briggs, Sr., a devout Baptist, holding a rake in hand extended toward the garage ceiling and jumping up in an attempt to hook that early Playboy Magazine pin-up of Marilyn Monroe in a diversion Jack had stapled to the ceiling where he could view it as he rolled out from under a vehicle on which he was working.

Within a few years of moving to Salmon with his wife Lois, a nurse by profession, and their daughter, Theresa, Jack purchased a ranch a few miles up Indian Creek which flows into the Salmon River. He became an outfitter and guide having purchased, with the ranch, rights to the Saddle Springs Area which straddles the Idaho/Montana border. (more…)