A recent item in the news (NY Times, July 15, p. B6) that has drawn attention is the finding of an analysis by Consumer Reports that the price of organic products has risen 47 percent higher than that of conventional foods. (The CR did note their result was a bit skewed by things like organic meats which cab be a factor two higher than conventional).
This is useful to note given that at the same time "almost every consumer says he or she wants organic - but the recent for no purchase is the price". Which makes about as much sense as wanting one's cake and eating it too. The fact is, because of the rigorous controls and regulations imposed on organic foods the prices are bound to be higher.
In fact, despite the costs consumer demand is accelerating. As noted in the piece (ibid.): "Sales of organic products grew 11 percent last year to $43.3 billion or roughly four times the growth in sales of food products over all according to the Organic Trade Association."
There is a good reason for this: more and more Americans are opting to ingest a much lower toxic chemical load - which is typical for conventional products - as well as leave out the GMOs, which as my friend John Phillips observed have been associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. See e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/03/alzheimers-epidemic-fro-eating-gmo.html
As a person who only recently has begun to eat organic, in order not to add even more toxic chemicals to the ones that may have incepted with my cancer, I'd like to examine some of these. Before getting into particular regs let me note that the amount of land allocated to organic farmland currently is tiny. According to the Times piece (ibid.):
"In the most recent government tally, in 2011, organic farmland used for grazing was less than 1 percent of crop land in the United States."
Some of the specific regulations directed at all organic products (ibid.):
- Organic growers are prohibited from using all synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and instead must rely on practices like crop rotation, cover crops and composted manures to enrich the soil and prevent insects and weeds.
- Federal regulations also prefer the use of organic seeds which ae hard to come by, while prohibiting the use of any and all genetically engineered seeds, microbes or sewage sludge. (The latter use finally exposed in the book, 'Toxic Sludge Is Good For You')
- Forever after organic growers must file a management plan with their certification agency and keep meticulous records to maintain that certification once it has been achieved.
Organic growers interviewed in the article further pointed out that labor costs can be up to three times what they are for other ordinary crops. This is because weeds must be eliminated by hand rather than just spraying herbicides like Roundup.
The biggest challenge of going organic, according to at least one grower interviewed, was "the three years growers must spend managing land in transition under organic regulations before crops grown there can be designated organic."
The very nature of the stringent rules governing organics as cited, ought to make people realize that if their food is pretty cheap it's not likely organic. This is important because a lot of confusion remains on the differences for example, between natural and organic. As I noted earlier (Jan. 5 post):
Natural" generally refers to foods that have no preservatives or anti-biotics. Generally, you have to look beyond the wrappers with the healthy leaves and trees on them to the actual contents. If you see a lot of chemical names - which you can't pronounce- then it's not really "natural".
"Organic" (according to the USDA) means producers must keep out most synthetic pesticides and certain fertilizers and that animals used to produce these foods (e.g. chickens) are able to get outdoors year -round and aren't given anti-biotics. In addition, organic means rigidly non-GMO.
It is clear then that 'natural' foods will always be cheaper than organic because the regulatory obligations are a lot less. Basically, producers need only meet relatively weak conditions compared to organic, to be called "natural".
If you eat "natural", "that's fine. Just don't believe it will be the panacea to get you to a lower chemical load and fewer health problems in the future.
Showing posts with label Consumer Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Consumer Reports. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Monday, September 30, 2013
The Finer Details of Obamacare (Part 1)
With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act set to be operative from tomorrow, there may be many details prospective buyers are still not aware of. In this post and the next, I’d like to try to fill in some of the blanks – also provide some advice and traps to avoid.
First, if anyone has paid compulsive attention to the political news, and especially anti-Obamacare PR from the Right (i.e FOX) you've probably bought into the dire predictions of "rate shock," i.e. the supposed sky-high health insurance premiums to be inflicted on Americans starting next year, when the new health care law starts requiring everyone to have health insurance or pay a fine. Make no mistake that these fears are all off the mark, over blown. In the 11 states where 2014 health insurance premium information is available, the average price for a plan with a middle range of benefits is coming in at $321 a month, 18 percent lower than the impartial Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated it would be, according to a report released not long ago by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Second, these premiums are for much better coverage than consumers can purchase on the individual market in most states today. For instance, they must all cover mental health care, maternity care, and prescription drugs, essential health benefits that are absent from a lot of plans being sold to individuals today, This is a biggie, no matter what the Tea Baggers and Ted Cruz have to say! Best of all, the vast majority of people buying these plans through their state's new health insurance Marketplace (they're opening for business Oct. 1 nationwide) will receive a break on costs in the form of a new kind of tax credit that they can use right away to offset part of the premiums.
Now, let’s examine more of the details, as also made available in a new report from Consumer Reports. Org.
1)The early market reforms, such as requirements for a minimum Medical Loss Ratio and for review of proposed rate increases of 10% or greater, have clearly created value for consumers.Further, data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) shows that the average premiums for employer sponsored insurance increased by only 3% from 2011 to 2012, the lowest rate of increase observed since the data series started in 1996. However, the major changes in the rules for individual and small group insurance will begin in plan year 2014.
2) Information on proposed premiums in the individual and small group markets has recently been made available by selected states, and it is now possible to move from theoretical arguments to data-driven analysis. This shows, for example, that for healthy young adults, who have the highest uninsurance rate of any age group and the lowest awareness of the coming reforms, premiums will be even lower. That's because the law allows younger adults to be charged lower premiums than older customers pay. In Los Angeles County, which according to HHS has more uninsured people than any other county in the country, a 25-year-old can purchase one of these mid-range plans for $174 a month, before subsidies. Young people ought to be breaking down the doors to get this insurance!
3) While the Tea Baggers have made much of the low initial penalties ($95 the first year)- and hence the "benefits" to the young of not signing up - they aren’t saying how the penalty costs will escalate reaching $2,585 per year by 2025. It therefore makes good sense to buy insurance in the initial stages – especially when financial support is also available.
4) In the eleven states for which data are already available, the lowest cost Silver plan in the individual market in 2014 is, on average, 18% less expensive than ASPE’s (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation’s )estimate of 2014 individual market premiums derived from CBO publications. The lowest cost silver plan available to small employers in 2014 in the six states with available data ( New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, District of Columbia, Washington, Oregon) is estimated to be 18% less expensive, on average, than the average premium that small employers would be paying for a pre-Affordable Care Act silver plan trended forward.
5) These preliminary rates may be further lowered before health plans are offered in Marketplaces this fall.
-- (*Marketplaces” are also known as “American Health Benefit Exchanges” or “Exchanges” as defined by and established in Section 1311 of the Affordable Care Act. In addition, Marketplaces may be established and operated by a state (State-based Marketplaces or “SBMs”), by the federal government (Federally-facilitated Marketplaces or “FFMs”), or by the federal government with state participation (State Partnership Marketplaces or “SPMs”)
Next in Part 2 - More Details: Who Is Paying, Benefits for Young Males and Possible Missteps
First, if anyone has paid compulsive attention to the political news, and especially anti-Obamacare PR from the Right (i.e FOX) you've probably bought into the dire predictions of "rate shock," i.e. the supposed sky-high health insurance premiums to be inflicted on Americans starting next year, when the new health care law starts requiring everyone to have health insurance or pay a fine. Make no mistake that these fears are all off the mark, over blown. In the 11 states where 2014 health insurance premium information is available, the average price for a plan with a middle range of benefits is coming in at $321 a month, 18 percent lower than the impartial Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated it would be, according to a report released not long ago by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Second, these premiums are for much better coverage than consumers can purchase on the individual market in most states today. For instance, they must all cover mental health care, maternity care, and prescription drugs, essential health benefits that are absent from a lot of plans being sold to individuals today, This is a biggie, no matter what the Tea Baggers and Ted Cruz have to say! Best of all, the vast majority of people buying these plans through their state's new health insurance Marketplace (they're opening for business Oct. 1 nationwide) will receive a break on costs in the form of a new kind of tax credit that they can use right away to offset part of the premiums.
Now, let’s examine more of the details, as also made available in a new report from Consumer Reports. Org.
1)The early market reforms, such as requirements for a minimum Medical Loss Ratio and for review of proposed rate increases of 10% or greater, have clearly created value for consumers.Further, data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) shows that the average premiums for employer sponsored insurance increased by only 3% from 2011 to 2012, the lowest rate of increase observed since the data series started in 1996. However, the major changes in the rules for individual and small group insurance will begin in plan year 2014.
2) Information on proposed premiums in the individual and small group markets has recently been made available by selected states, and it is now possible to move from theoretical arguments to data-driven analysis. This shows, for example, that for healthy young adults, who have the highest uninsurance rate of any age group and the lowest awareness of the coming reforms, premiums will be even lower. That's because the law allows younger adults to be charged lower premiums than older customers pay. In Los Angeles County, which according to HHS has more uninsured people than any other county in the country, a 25-year-old can purchase one of these mid-range plans for $174 a month, before subsidies. Young people ought to be breaking down the doors to get this insurance!
3) While the Tea Baggers have made much of the low initial penalties ($95 the first year)- and hence the "benefits" to the young of not signing up - they aren’t saying how the penalty costs will escalate reaching $2,585 per year by 2025. It therefore makes good sense to buy insurance in the initial stages – especially when financial support is also available.
4) In the eleven states for which data are already available, the lowest cost Silver plan in the individual market in 2014 is, on average, 18% less expensive than ASPE’s (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation’s )estimate of 2014 individual market premiums derived from CBO publications. The lowest cost silver plan available to small employers in 2014 in the six states with available data ( New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, District of Columbia, Washington, Oregon) is estimated to be 18% less expensive, on average, than the average premium that small employers would be paying for a pre-Affordable Care Act silver plan trended forward.
5) These preliminary rates may be further lowered before health plans are offered in Marketplaces this fall.
-- (*Marketplaces” are also known as “American Health Benefit Exchanges” or “Exchanges” as defined by and established in Section 1311 of the Affordable Care Act. In addition, Marketplaces may be established and operated by a state (State-based Marketplaces or “SBMs”), by the federal government (Federally-facilitated Marketplaces or “FFMs”), or by the federal government with state participation (State Partnership Marketplaces or “SPMs”)
Next in Part 2 - More Details: Who Is Paying, Benefits for Young Males and Possible Missteps
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Got a Smart Phone? Fine! BUT Are You A Smart User?
The SmartPhone is the latest and greatest techno-wonder that almost every American consumer believes s/he needs to own. (I don’t, but then I have a fine desk top on which I do most of my work.) Anyway, a recent piece in Consumer Reports (June, p. 19) discloses most SmartPhone owners know litle or nothing of protecting their interests and security when they use the device. The article shows most people don’t even take basic precautions and in many ways are ripe for the plucking- their IDs, their privacy, their online security. Some of the issues, problems:
- Too many apps, most too intrusive
The good news is that 48 million users stopped installing them because they requested too many privileges. (This followed a 2011 UC-Berkeley study that studied hundreds of Android apps and found 1 in 3 asked for more privileges than needed)
The bad news is that while malicious apps may not lurk around every corner they’re often difficult to spot. Consumer Reports notes that one survey suggested that for 1.6 million users “what seemed to be a well-known brand name app was actually a malicious impostor”.
Advice for those who want to install any apps:
1) Install few or NO apps
2) Choose apps from a reputable brand and make sure their reviews include no credible security complaints
3) If the app uses sensitive personal info make sure it can’t be used without entering password
4) Don’t use the phone to store sensitive data like PINS or passwords
Additional precautions include:
1) Set up a Screen lock and unless you have an iPhone 5 use a pass code that contains more than four letters, numbers and symbols
2) If you use a lot of apps be sure to add a security app.
3) Back up all important data, especially as last year alone 7 million smartphones were irreparably damaged, lost or stolen and never recovered.
All of the preceding apply with special force to children with these devices. CR projects that upwards of 5 million pre-teens will use smartphones this year but in so doing they “may unwittingly disclose personal information or risk their safety."
Every pre-teen user needs to be savvy and know the safety protocols expected!
- Problems with Mobility-Size
One of the main draws of smartphones is their compact size, utility and mobility. But the latter can be a major downside if users-owners aren’t careful. Some aspects of mobility to be aware of with reasons to exercise caution:
1) Smartphones’ small size makes them easy to steal or lose. Owners nomadic transports of them also leaves them liable to a startling variety of mishaps – from dropping them on a subway, to being stolen with the owner tracked - or even ID theft, using data left on it.
2) Smartphones often contain lots of information people would prefer to keep private such as contact lists, text messages, phone numbers and appointments. With all these in play many owners consider their phones irreplaceable, yet almost 70 percent of owners haven’t backed up their data.
3) Smart phones routinely accept texts and photos sent from other phones or the internet. Text messages can also contain addresses of malicious websites. Others can add unexpected charges to one’s phone bill.
4) Smartphones’ very small size complicates enhanced security. The small screen makes It cumbersome to type in the combination of at least SIX letters, numbers and symbols, i.e. that reasonable security requires. (Some phones do offer password alternative, but only 8 percent of owners use them)
Other issues of which users need to be aware:
1) WiFi “Hot spots”: Hot spots are public locations where WiFi is available, i.e. hotels, retail shops and airports. Before using ANY app to do business at a Hot spot, make sure you’ve checked its privacy policy to make sure any wireless transmissions are secure. (Privacy policies aren’t always clear about security practices) According to one security specialist frmo Electronic Frontiers quoted in the CR piece: “Most consumers don’t realize that when they’re transmitting information over an open Wi-Fi network it can be intercepted.”
2) Don’t fall for text spam. They often contain malicious software or lead to a bogus site. Word to the wise? Don’t click on any unfamiliar messages.
3) Turn off location tracking. It may be a pain, but disable it unless you need it (such as for driving directions)
4) Clean out the old phone before recycling it. That means you remove any memory card and aim to restore the phone’s factory setting.
From the above one gathers that smartphone security is no better than the weakest link in a chain that includes the manufacturers, buyers and WiFi networks available to users. Once owners do all they can, it’s up to the smartphone makers to hold up their end. One major new refinement would be the ability to swipe a smartphone’s info clean if it’s stolen and moved to a remote location. Hopefully the next generation will have this feature!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)