Question for the Town of Amherst Personnel Director:
The health insurance our retires presently carry has a clause which states, if they have to be hospitalized they must pay the hospital a $250 deductible out of their own pocket.
My question is: Do these individuals get the $250 deductable fee returned to them? and who pays them back?
Answer: The Town of Amherst sends a check for the $250 to these individuals.
Spitzer Administration Moves to Combat Health & Housing Concerns Raised by more than 21,000 NYC Residents Last Year
New York—State Senator Liz Krueger today applauded Governor Spitzer for enacting the New York State Toxic Mold Task Force, an initiative signed into law by former Governor Pataki more than two years ago, which was never activated.
“This summer, I sponsored a sign-on letter to the Governor asking him to act to create this Task Force to ensure that this law was worth more than the paper it was written on,” Krueger explained. “I then co-hosted a meeting with experts from the Governor’s relevant agencies, as well as City agencies and experts from the field to discuss the problems and how to solve them. I want to applaud the Governor for moving so quickly in response to my concerns. Year after year, no matter what was happening to New Yorkers’ housing and health, individual efforts to fight toxic mold were ignored. The problems of mold and its associated health effects are serious, and we hear regularly from constituents who don’t know where else to turn as their home literally poisons their family.”
Mold can pose a significant challenge to maintaining safe and healthy indoor health environments. Toxic mold can cause allergies, trigger asthma attacks, detrimentally affect the function of vital human organs, and increase susceptibility to colds and flu. Certain types of mold have been identified as a major trigger of asthma, allergies and other respiratory problems, especially in children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems. These toxins can also have deleterious effects on humans when ingested, inhaled or when they come in contact with skin.
“Doing nothing is dangerous. Mold is one’s house is like anything in nature—it will continue to grow and spread as long as nothing is done. Mold also does a great deal of harm to buildings and structures, placing far too many New Yorkers needlessly at risk,” Krueger said.
In 2006, the City’s 311 hotline received more than 21,000 complains of mold, and the incidence of mold related actions filed in NYC Housing Court has increased dramatically in recent years.
The mandates placed upon the 14-member Task Force include:
Assessing the scope and magnitude of the adverse environmental and health impacts caused by toxic mold in NYS;
Measuring adverse health effects of exposure to toxic mold, including disproportionate risk to sensitive populations;
Assessing the latest scientific data on exposure limits to mold in indoor environments;
Determining control and mitigation methods that are environmentally sensitive and cost effective;
And Preparing a report to the Governor and Legislature with recommendations for actions by the Legislature and State agencies.
All 14 members of the Task Force have been named; the Task Force will be led by Dr. Nancy Kim of the State Department of Health and Mr. Thomas Mahar of the Department of State, and the first meeting will take place in early December.
“This is yet another example from the Spitzer Administration of what State government can do to serve the public good when time, resources, and most importantly, proper attention are paid to solving a problem. What we’re talking about here is more than just a mere inconvenience or a cosmetic issue. Safe, sound housing is vital to the health and well-being of New Yorkers,” Krueger concluded.
Co-signers on the letter to the Governor included Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, State Senator John Sabini, Assembly Members Linda B. Rosenthal and Keith Wright, and Council Member Rosie Mendez.
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The difference between Democrats and Republicans always came down to the rich and the poor. Not that the front runners in the Democratic party are poor. Far from it. But the Democratic machine is so well oiled right now that their war chest is full to overflowing and the Republicans are looking to match that or exceed it and they are pulling out all the stops to do so.
“Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional races, party officials say.”
“At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way.”
“These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns, according to campaign finance disclosure reports and interviews with party strategists. Experts say that is a large amount for this early in the cycle.”
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Black Friday was closely watched by market anylysts to see what the trend might be for the upcoming shopping season. As it turned out sales rose 8.3 percent on Friday compared with last year, the biggest increase in three years, according to ShopperTrak, a research company. On Friday and Saturday combined, sales rose 7.2 percent.
“But shoppers did not splurge, spending an estimated $348 each over the holiday weekend, down from $360 last year, a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation found.”
““American consumers are trying to outsmart the stores and wait for desperation discounts,” said Burt Flickinger, a retail consultant.”
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WOW. If you want proof that powerful lobbies run things in our government, check out what’s happening with the cable company issue.
“The head of the Federal Communications Commission is struggling to find enough support from a majority of the agency’s commissioners to regulate cable television companies more tightly.”
“The five-member commission is set to vote on Tuesday on a report, proposed by Kevin J. Martin, the agency’s chairman, that would give the commission expanded powers over the cable industry after making a formal finding that it had grown too big.”
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Those of you who are TV watchers may have noticed that certain shows are in rerun mode. That is due to the writers strike. Many of the prime time programing has been untouched thus far but that is about to change. Shows that had episodes taped and “in the can” are coming to the end of the backlog. That’s when we will all feel the pinch. Apparently the studio big-wigs had expected the writers to fold and crawl back to their jobs. Not so.
“When the 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America decided on Nov. 4 to strike, Hollywood wondered how hard the white-collar group would fight. The guild addressed the worry before the first pickets hit the streets.”
“Studio executives rolled their eyes, but they soon blanched as well-organized pickets fanned out across Los Angeles and New York, and only grew in intensity. It turns out, many union members say, that striking in Hollywood — at least short term — is not that bad. A lot of strikers say they are enjoying networking, taping YouTube videos, organizing theme days and dreaming up placard slogans.”
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