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• Yahoo! message board post by Andy Hopper. Full excerpt: I didn't read the article (Consumer Reports article), but one doesn't need to read Consumer Reports Magazine to have a valid view of HSAa. HSAs are intrinsically a "good thing" because they put the consumer in charge of his own health care decisions, including the budgeting. As long as Americans see paying for health care as somebody's responsibility (i.e., "free"), costs will continue to spin out of control. Now, if the argument is about the terms of the current HSA program, that's more constructive.
• Yahoo! message board post by Skip Bogard. Full excerpt: Save up then. Me and my wife went through $1.7 million dollars of total expenditures to treat her blood cancer for three years, which was diagnosed in Dec 2001. About $60,000 was spent out of my own pocket for co-pays and other out of pocket expenses.
  She sadly passed May 2005. It's almost been a year since she left 3 daughters & me. http://www.newsobserver.com/cgi-bin/nao/obits/show_details.cgi? id=95642
  Looking back at some of the costs, three days in the ICU costs about $70,000. We probably had to use it 4-5 times.
  One CT scan is about $3500...you get to pay 20% or $700. We probably had 15-20 of those over her brief 3 years of treatment.
  Well, I could go on. Let me just say...without insurance, she most likely would have only lived 3-6 months. 3 months vs. 3 years? 0.7 % of her lifetime vs. 7% of her lifetime?
  How would that happen you might wonder? Well, care to manage the cancer marching on wouldn't be managed in the ER. The ER just gives blood packs or treats the occasional infections caused by a weakened immune system...emergency stabilization treatment. Then, you'd get discharged with no cancer specialist meeting for your particular cancer. Now, if you're really lucky you might leave with a prescription from the oncologist on-call for your "chemo on a budget" treatment. But most oncologists-on-call would tell you just to come back & schedule a regular hours appointment.
  Assuming you saw either the ER/hospital oncologist-on-call or an oncologist during normal hours...the "Budget" cut-rate chemo treatments for a blood cancer most likely would have simply been $3.00/day worth of Dexamethasone, consisting of ten 4 mg tablets per day.
  These ten tablets are called "Dex pulses". They manage the inflammation caused by blood cancer in your bone marrow or swollen lymph nodes...and kill a few cancer cells in the process (the oldest cancer cells in her case would only get killed, but not the newest ones growing.).
  Instead, she received the "gold" standard of care. For example, she received a 3 agent chemotherapy (the standard of care for most all cancers is to use 2-3 drugs in a cocktail) called VAD. The "A" in VAD is a $12,000 drug that you need 4 times a month that can kill the newest cancer cells. The "D" in VAD is those $3.00 per day Dex pills...for about 20 days out of the month. A better treatment that allows most people to live much longer.
  It's your choice for your wife then if she should get the same cancer my wife got: the $60 treatment if you're on a HSA budget or the $12,060 treatment.
  Oh, btw...that $12,000 is for one month...you need 4 months worth.
  And then you get to have a $300,000 stem cell transplant after that. The transplant is the next step in the standard of care. But that's another story. Need to skip it? Well...pop some more Dex pills then...cause that's what you'll get! Until it stops working for you. Most all blood cancers eventually become resistant to treatments. And then you succumb.
  I have a lot of stories from spending 3 years attending to my beautiful wife and spending time with her at UNC & Duke hospitals.
  Like the story about the husband at UNC hospital who slept in the ICU waiting room for 7 months waiting for his wife to wake up out of a coma. The kind guy scrounged me up a pillow for the night while I waited for my wife to get out of the ICU. I got out of there after only 2 nights. Honestly, I don't know if he's still there...but he could be.
  He lost his job in month #4...and it was now month #7, so it didn't matter to him if he left the hospital. There was no where else he wanted to be except with his wife when she woke up. And continuation of his employer's insurance was out of the question. He could have tried to get other work & get on a group policy, but I don't think he was in the frame of mind to pursue it.
  Good luck then with your HSA. Every man & woman for himself or herself then...unless you're a couple that happens to stay together...

• "Communication targets" by "Dose of reality". Excerpts: I don't think it is a matter of conceit. The reason that this board (Vault) gets attention is that the standard for IBM marketing and consistency of propaganda is extremely high. There is a well staffed PR department that works as much, if not more so, on defense as offense. Any chink in the armor is a risk.
  The impact that we have is much less on the thinking of decision makers, and much more so on the following constituents:

  1. Prospective job applicants. While there will always be a stratum in the pool that will inevitably look up at IBM, due to their lesser talent level, skills, and job search capabilities, there is no question that the discerning, as well as the marginally "otherwise employable" applicants are getting the message and staying away.
  2. Current staff. Some have been awakened to the fact that this is not the way it should be, and many others have been jolted out of inertia to start their job search.
  3. Clients. It is not unusual for clients to search public domain information sources to try to peek under the veneer of marketing and proposal facades. This is real and palpable; glossy Powerpoint presentations aren’t.
  I have no fantasies about the dolts in Armonk coming to their senses based on ideas presented here. Their “handicap” has less to do with knowing what is wrong, and much more to do with the fact that the problems are too institutionalized for anyone to do anything about it, and their motivations do not go beyond personal and mutually beneficial greed. As long as IBM corporate governance is what it is, and as long as their vested interest in the status quo is as high as it is, change will never come from within.

• Detroit News: Don't revel in misfortunes of unions. Organized labor helps all workers; its hard luck damages middle class. Excerpts: The rash of wage cuts, plant closings and work concessions has been met with schadenfreude, a German word for taking malicious satisfaction in the misfortune of others. It comes from right-wing columnists, middle managers and even, unfortunately, some union members. They say blue-collar union workers are finally getting what they deserve. These sentiments are short-sighted. The loss of good middle-class jobs in Michigan's economy is a tragedy. And it can be seen in Gary, Ind., or Pittsburgh, where outsourcing also has damaged the backbone and financial underpinning of communities. [...]
  Many purveyors of schadenfreude seem to be younger, college-educated, nonunion, white-collar workers. Often they are the sons or daughters of union members who went to college because of the wages they now complain about. These workers often have or make less than union workers. There's a reason for this. As nonunion workers, they don't have an effective way to get better wages, benefits and working conditions. They opt to go it alone out of an ideological affinity that is detrimental to their own interests. Union workers can negotiate and create respect on the job and have a democratic voice in the workplace. These are American values. Don't complain because others have a union; complain because you don't.
• From the Job Cuts Status & Comments page:
  • Comment 4/16/06: I was contracted to IBM Global Services in Tucson, AZ for just over 5 years (ending in Dec 2005). After the first year I was motivated by talk of hiring me on as a regular employee... that never happened - instead I lost my paid holidays. After that my hourly rate was reduced 4 times in the following 3 years. I was making 20+% less when I left IBM than I did when I started. I slowly began to see the morale around me decline. I saw people that have been with the company for 20+ years lose their jobs (and retirement) because of 'downsizing'. In 2005 I was required to take 4+ weeks off without pay - "mandatory furlough". I guess that was IBM's way of saving money without actually reducing my pay for a 5th time. Thankfully, after 2 years of looking for work, I found a job where I am respected and treated well. There is life after IBM. I just can't believe I wasted 5 years of mine there. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 4/18/06: The Viewpointe Account offshored it's Windows support to Argentina in November 2005. Last month, in response to a question from an employee at a staff meeting, the PE for Viewpointe stated that the "future" direction of this account is to move into "Global Resource" alignment. He stated he did not have specific details what additional functions would be offshored, but that it WOULD be happening. He stated that it would probably happen in 2007. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 4/19/06: "GLOBAL RESOURCE" is the latest term to get rid of us. Our manager used that term at least 10 times today in the weekly meeting. Basically he said it's coming, your jobs are going, start looking. I hope when we all find new jobs that IBM goes down the drain! Global resourcing means they are sending your jobs to the other side of the globe. All of you listen to me, start looking now and leave as soon as possible. It would be nice if we could get a union in IBM but unfortunately too many people are looking for a job to do anything about our current job. Everybody has bills. IBM is a lost cause. Get out now. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 4/20/06: Without breaking a confidence lets just say this. During this conversation Qualxserv was mentioned before it was announced to the rest of team. The words that were used after this point were "With your skills, I strongly urge you to find another job, and as quickly as possible". Think very seriously about the next few points. Look what's already on the table in front of you, and put the pieces together. Your mileage has been cut. FT's (full timers) have been removed from field work and assigned steady state DSS work. Expenses have been slashed to the point of pain, no education money even though they make you fill out a plan every year an tell you its there. Education cannot be outside of your normal job function (limiting your career growth opportunities). No raises for the most part in the past 4 years. Dinged on stupid stuff for PBC ratings in 2006. Changing PBC rating criteria and not telling you what affects your ratings.
    Question: How many of you are sent a template for your PBC and expected to use it??? If so, did you ever take the time to read it? You are a drone and will cost less in the long run to be sold off to a contract firm, than to be paid by IBM for your benefits and salary and they know it. They can still charge the customer the same bill rate for you, while paying flat rate to Qualxserv. This lets them pocket the cost difference in your health insurance premiums and salary savings. I have been told also that an FT doing field work is a walking target. Qualxserv does the same thing we do, only for a flat, fixed rate. I hate to say this as I am tagging myself also, but DSS techs are not employees they are commodities. Think about how many techs you work with now that came as rebadges.
    With technology getting more and more efficient, fewer and fewer techs are needing to support it, let alone the Y2K paranoia that ran thru the business in the late 90's. Day to day tech operations will never be where it was....especially with all the pocket lining going on in corporate America as well as in our current political environment. IBM has already done this once before, and regretted it. Anyone remember TSS? However, I am afraid there will not be anything left to bring back this time. -Anonymous-
• From the General Visitor's Comment page:
  • Comment 4/16/06: I recently spent time talking to an engineer with over 25 years with the company and nearly two dozen patents to his credit. He was given back to back 3 year appraisals by his manager and sent packing! His manager was a citizen for only about a year according to the exiting doctorate engineer! This engineer was at the peak of his pension accrual period and had a son with expensive medical treatment requirements. He was in absolute shock and disbelief that an engineer with his record of accomplishments and length of time with the company could be treated so completely unfairly. If someone with a doctorate in engineering, multiple invention plateaus and numerous patents can still be considered an ‘unsatisfactory’ contributor, what does that say about the futures of the average employee without an extensive patent portfolio?
    Was the fact that he was in the peak years of his pension accrual period a factor? Was the medical costs of his son the deciding factor? What ever happened to this company that claims to be ‘sensitive’ to the needs of the community? If you work at IBM and don’t recognize that we need to organize and fight for justice, then what will it take? Wake up Ibm'ers! Bill Costine, East Fishkill, NY
  • Comment 4/18/06: Correction to my post: My IBM stock lost 20% of its value 4 years ago and has not recovered since. Sam Palmisano made $19,000,000 last year. Sam, you are not worth one dollar of the $19,000,000 (count em, 6 zeros)the stockholders paid you last year. Sam, go to HE%%. I hope you get booed off the stage at the stockholders meeting. You deserve it. Sam, you are an A$$. -Anonymous-
• Pension Comments page