Lists of grocery-shopping tips have become commonplace in economic coverage in the past couple of years.
But Consumer Reports brings a fresh eye to that old staple, with a relatively new list of 13 ways to save at the grocers. The list includes some well-worn and valuable advice — such as focusing on the unit price — but has some fresher ideas about ways to consider the store’s strategies of where it places certain items in making your choices.
For example:
Look high and low: Supermarkets are in the real-estate business, and prime selling space includes the middle or eye-level shelving. Vendors sometimes pay retailers hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in slotting fees to take on new products or display products prominently. There are differing schools of thought on slotting fees, with critics contending that they stifle competition and boost prices. In any event, check whether similar products on top or bottom rungs are less expensive.
Eye end caps: Some shoppers assume that products on aisle ends are on sale, which is why those displays can boost sales by a third. But end caps can highlight items about to expire or those that aren’t a bargain. At an A&P near our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters, we spotted an end cap loaded with Pepperidge Farm cookies, all at full price. The end-cap tie-in is another trick: Related items are featured, not all of them on sale. Take the Tostitos display we saw at Stop & Shop. The chips were on sale; salsa and dips weren’t.
Will you — or your kids — be looking for a summer job?
It’s a good idea to get an early start, this year more than others. Surveys show employers are expecting more applicants and planning to hire fewer of them, so you’ll want to get a jump on the competition to have the best shot at summer employment.
A survey by the employment web site SnagAJob.com found that more than three-quarters of employers said they’d fill summer positions this month, according to a Money Magazine story.
The piece offers this advice:
Besides culling classifieds, calling camps, and contacting family friends, your child should search Teens4Hire.com and SnagAJob.com for jobs above minimum wage ($7.25 as of July 24). Also have him check local government sites: The stimulus plan set aside money for 1 million summer jobs for youths.
And suggest that he pop into discount stores and fast-food chains, which are weathering the recession and may be hiring. To increase his appeal to employers and his earning potential, have him offer to pick up afterschool or weekend hours before school’s out, says Ivan Charner, director of the AED National Institute for Work and Learning.
Bartering is back.
At least that’s what a spate of activity at online sites suggests. With people in penny-pinching mode, offers to barter for everything from used cars to professional services to weekends at lake homes are booming at web sites like craigslist and U-exchange.com.
Craigslist.com, the online classified site, posted the following item at its blog in April:
As we’ve seen during down economies in the past, growth in usage of the “barter” section of craigslist is accelerating, up more than 100% in the last year alone.
Here’s a couple examples of ads posted by Spokane-area residents recently, looking to make a trade:
I’m a biographer. If you’ve been wanting to get grandma or grandpa’s story told for future generations, this is your opportunity. Finished product includes their story on paper and in .mp3 format! Wants a week at the lake….
I am a professional Interior Designer w/ 5+ years experience in healthcare environments (clinics and offices), commercial, and residential design. Currently employed at a studio downtown. I have access to materials, contractors, and can work out getting products at cost. (Wants) Dental Services (cosmetic)- I’m getting married July ‘09 and dream of smiling for the big day.
Is the recession fundamentally changing Americans’ attitudes toward money?
A recent survey conducted for CNNMoney.com found that a lot of people think so: Ninety-four percent said the recession will have a lasting effect on the way they manage their finances. Nine in 10 people said they’ve already changed the way they handle their money.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
We’re not just cutting our bills, we’re rejecting materialism. We’re placing safety and intrinsic rewards like relationships and personal growth ahead of profit. We’re embracing family and community and asking how we can help others, not just ourselves.
“We’ve hit a hard pendulum swing,” says Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University in Houston. And he, along with many others, believes the changes in the nation’s core values could last for decades.
Simplicity is a kind of corrollary to frugality — people often talk about both values at the same time.
The blog Unclutterer focuses on clearing out the clutter and getting organized, and as a result it often touches on issues that relate to saving money and being more efficient. Today, it’s hosting a long post from writer Gregory Go on the seven benefits of getting rid of your “crap.”
Among them: saving money, help others, create more space, and save time. Here’s an excerpt:
The stuff you don’t need anymore might be useful for someone else. Donating your unused stuff is a fine way to up your charitable budget without using cash.
Bonus: Giving your stuff away helps the environment. If old toasters, hair dryers, and books are handed around to different people, less stuff would need to be produced. Give your old stuff a new lease on life with a new owner, and save the planet at the same time!
In the next couple of months, a lot of high school and college students will be looking for summer jobs.
And some of those jobs are going to provide young people with horror stories they can tell the rest of their lives. Whether it’s a job that’s brutally hard, miserly in pay or just stultifying — we’ve all had those kinds of jobs, and those of us who had them just for a summer are lucky.
(Of course, finding any kind of job right now is tougher, with more people out of work. So it may be harder than usual for teens to find work this summer.)
But I’m interested in hearing from readers: What was your worst summer job?
Everyone’s noticed the upward creep in gas prices.
After plummeting from record highs late last year, prices have inched upward ever since January. That’s true across the board, but of course it’s often the differences in prices among regions that attract our attention — the steady difference of 15 to 20 cents a gallon between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene is the one that most often catches our attention.
Spokane’s prices are averaging $2.29 a gallon for regular unleaded, according to AAA. That’s up 22 cents from a month ago, and it’s 20 cents higher than Coeur d’Alene’s average. That’s a pretty typical difference in recent years — a year ago, it was a 16-cent spread between the cities, and when gas prices reached record levels last July, the spread was 12 cents.
Experts have said the difference results from a combination of factors: lower gas taxes in Idaho, generally higher wholesale gas prices as it’s pumped west from refineries in Montana, and the possibility that Washington gas retailers may have to raise their prices a bit to make up for business lost of Idaho.
Here’s how Tim Hamilton, executive director of Automotive United Trades Association, an Olympia-based non-profit that represents independent gas retailers, explained that final point to the Spokesman-Review in 2007.
”
dealers are forced to increase their margins to cover the loss of business from the transfer of sales from one side of the state line to the other,” he said, noting that an increased retail margin can add from 1.5 cents to 5 cents to the cost per gallon. “We call that a ‘death spiral’ in the gasoline business,” Washington said. Hamilton
Credit or debit? There’s more to this question than some of us realize. Writing at the blog Wise Bread, Paul Michael poses a question it hadn’t really occured to me to ask:
Being someone who hates the word “credit” I have always opted for “debit” and proceeded to enter my PIN number. But have I been doing it all wrong?
Michael dissects the difference between the two kinds of cards, which use different networks and offer different levels of security. If you choose credit, it costs the stores more — but it sends more to banks, which provide incentives like reward points. If you choose debit, there’s a less liability protection, but it’s cheaper for the stores — who might, in a charitable view, pass back some of the savings.
You may have heard of the Misery Index — a measure developed during the 1970s that essentially adds the unemployment rates to the inflation to come up with a larger picture of the economy.
Now there’s the Happiness Index, developed at Mainstreet.com. It’s a similar kind of thing — it takes a state’s non-mortgage debt, bankruptcies and unemployment rate and comes up with a measure of that state’s fiscal happiness.
The bad news: Washington and Idaho are scoring low on the Happiness Index, at Nos. 42 and 43, respectively.
Top of the list is Nebraska, followed by other Midwestern states. At the bottom was Oregon, though the indexers cautioned that the fortunes of any given state could change:
There are some interesting trends that can be gleaned from the Happiness Index. Not surprisingly, many of the states that experienced a boom during the housing bubble have more recently fallen by the wayside with increased foreclosures and debt.
Just as the U.S. economy evolves, so too will the MainStreet.com Happiness Index. Although Oregon currently falls at the bottom of our list, the state is well positioned for a boost in the future due to its potential for an influx of green jobs.
The opposite case can be made for Nebraska, which could fall from the top of the list with time. Its economy relies heavily on corn production, which is subsidized by the government to create corn ethanol - an alternative energy source. But the future of corn ethanol is uncertain.
There’s a lot of grim news for college students lately.
Tuition — which has been rising faster than inflation for years — is getting ready to take off even more, as states battle huge deficits. Families are struggling in the recession and having a harder time paying for school. And now comes a new report that shows students are putting their educational costs onto credit cards more often — typically the most expensive option available.
The report from Sallie Mae says almost 30 percent of college students report using a credit card to pay tuition in 2008. Ninety-two percent used a card to buy books or cover other educational costs. Both are sharp increases over the last survey, in 2004.
It adds up to an ugly picture. Here’s the take of one writer at Wallet Pop:
“It’s likely that 2009 (card debt) could look a little bit worse,” says Marie O’Malley, Sallie Mae’s director of consumer research.
A little bit worse. Let’s see: The economy has absolutely hit the bricks over the past year, and student loan availability has dried up — along with the home equity that so many parents were using to help kids pay for college. Meanwhile, college costs have continued to rise and endowments and state aid have plunged.
It could be a little bit worse than a little bit worse. It could actually be a lot worse than a little bit worse. It could be downright terrifying. Add in the fact that students are entering one of the toughest job markets in history with those credit card balances — at usurious rates that are increasing even more — and Gen Y’s post-collegiate financial picture could be a real doozy — not to be a Chicken Little or anything like that.
It’s starting to be the season for one of the region’s great economic “sports” — garage sales.
A lot of people pursue the sales with a passion that easily matches that of the weekend golfer: gathering the ads, mapping a route, and hitting sale after sale for the best buys. Now that the weather’s starting to warm up, so will the sales.
Of course, the recession gives the practice a little boost too, for both buyers and sellers. People might look to buy more used items at a discount these days — or they might be looking to sell off more old stuff to raise a little extra cash. If you’re in the latter camp, here’s a link to a page that rounds up a lot of advice for the garage seller:
Garage sales are work - a lot of hard work, but the returns more than justify the effort. Whether it’s advertised as Patio, Carport, Yard, Porch, or Garage-a-Rama, people will come and buy. Clean out your closets and ANYTHING that is useless to you or you don’t want - put it in the sale. Don’t throw anything away. People will buy just about anything. You’d be surprised. What is one person’s trash is another’s GOLDMINE!
There’s a fantasy a lot of us have, once we’ve accumulated a house and cars — and the payments that come with them — and filled the house with stuff.
The fantasy involves getting rid of it all and living a blissfully simple life, traveling from place to place with a backpack full of Russian novels and peanut butter, sleeping on couches and buying day passes to museums. Or something like that.
Elizabeth Sanberg, writing at Wise Bread, is coming at this from the other side — she and her husband radically simplified their lives. And now she sees some downside to the “anti-stuff” approach.
For nearly 4 months while traveling I lived out of a carry-on size backpack. Since returning to the States in late January, I’ve been wearing the same 4 sweaters and living in a semi-furnished apartment. A bed, couch, and table were included. My spouse and I got by with 2 towels, 4 forks and spoons, 4 plates, and 4 glasses borrowed from my parents.
The typical hallmarks of this recession are well-known: unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies…
Now you can add beards — at least for some men. The rise of the “recession beard” has drawn commentary in some quarters, and now there’s a contest for the best recession beard at WalletPop, the frugal-living web site. The rules are pretty simple: to enter, a man must be unemployed and bearded.
WalletPop attempts to answer the question: why beards?
The consensus opinion seems to be that unemployment offers the beard grower a greater level of freedom to experiment with his appearance. Many workplaces frown on facial hair, and those that allow it often have rules about length and cut. As unemployment releases the worker from the strictures of the office, the theory goes, he can use his newfound freedom as an opportunity to explore his chin locks.This theory explains a lot, but barely shaves the surface of the phenomenon. It completely ignores the evolutionary power of whiskers. Facial hair is a visible, outward sign of one’s masculinity; by growing beards, unemployed workers suggest that, evidence to the contrary, they have not been “unmanned” by their recent job troubles.
At a time when it’s extra painful to do so, some companies are providing new perks to workers in an effort to build loyalty.
It’s the exception, to be sure. But a piece in the Wall Street Journal notes that some companies are adding relatively low-cost, high-appreciation benefits for workers — such as child care assistance, concierge service and expanded health care.
At a time when a large percentage of workers are seeing cuts in pay and benefits, why would companies spend more? Here’s the WSJ’s Sue Shellenbarger:
The answer lies in these companies’ unusually long-term view and in the refreshing note of optimism that underlies it. Employers’ staffs are already lean, the thinking goes. Eventually the economy will rebound. If companies lose more workers, they fear being too understaffed to cash in when that day comes, Ms. Sladek says.
That’s a real risk: A study cited last year in Harvard Business Review said even a small layoff shocks and demoralizes survivors so much that many walk out the door at the first opportunity, raising voluntary quit rates an average 31% above previous levels.
I’m starting to think we’re kidding ourselves a little bit, when it comes to coffee.
Is any daily habit more subject to the whims and attentions of our suddenly rediscovered frugality? Is any item more likely to be suggested as a way to save than giving up the “$4 latte”?
When I saw the news that more Americans were making their coffee at home — just as I’ve started doing — it made me wonder if for some of us it isn’t just a bit of tourism in the frugal lifestyle — an act that’s more symbolic and transient than a true change of direction. A little thing that we’re using to bluff ourselves into thinking we’re changing more than we are.
One writer at Wise Bread argues true frugality involves more than simply seeking good deals and small savings. But first, here’s a clip from the Reuters story about the coffee survey:
Of the people who said they had drunk coffee the previous day, 83 percent said they had made it at home — up 5 points compared with year-ago figures.
“The coffee industry as a whole doesn’t seem to be suffering at all, seems to be recession resilient,” said Mark DiDomenico, director of Customer and Consumer Insights for Sara Lee Foodservice.
“Gourmet coffee is where we saw some of the decline,” said DiDomenico, who presented the survey results on the convention’s final day.
Daily consumption of gourmet coffee, which includes espresso-based drinks, fell to 14 percent, back to levels seen in 2007, he said. In 2008, this category was at 17 percent.
Google has started a new web site that gathers all sorts of advice for saving money, called Tip Jar.
The suggestions come from readers and frugal-living websites. People can contribute their own ideas and vote on their favorites from other people. You might have heard some of these ideas before — use the public library, shift to CFL lights, etc. — but others might be useful and new.
Here’s a random selection of tips.
“Drive your car longer. The buy new versus used debate often overlooks the most important factor–how long you own your car. Drive it as long as you safely can for substantial savings.””Simulate a Low Flush Toilet: If you don’t have a new, water-saver toilet, you can simulate one by putting a clean brick, or a sealed plastic bottle filled with pebbles, or a weighted mason jar, into your toilet tank.””Use Power Strips: Even in sleep mode, your computer, DVD player, and other electronic devices use some energy. By plugging them into power strips, and then turning off the power at the strip, you use less electricity.””Stay married. Divorce will wreck your finances and your spouse’s finances.””Master the thirty day rule. Whenever you’re considering making an unnecessary purchase, wait thirty days and then ask yourself if you still want that item.”
Lots of people have stopped investment in their retirement accounts lately — or at least shifted their accounts dramatically toward the slow and safe bets.
And we’ve all heard the gloomy estimates about how long it took the market to recover from the Great Depression — until 1954. But a column in today’s Wall Street Journal should give a little hope to those of us who haven’t stopped putting money into stocks through a 401(k) or some other system of “dollar-cost averaging” — investing the same amount each month, no matter what. That means when the market is down, you buy more shares, and when it’s up you get fewer.
Brett Arends argues that investors who used dollar-cost averaging during the Great Depression bounced back within a couple years — a great comfort to those of us who have stuck with the retirement strategy we had before the downturn.
When the market turned, those who stuck quietly to their plan got repaid quickly. Forget that stuff about 1954. According to Ibbotson data, someone who dollar cost averaged was back on level terms by 1933. And by 1936 he had doubled his money (though the crash of 1938 then knocked him back to evens for a while).
If you buy a lot of food in bulk, you’ll naturally need to freeze some of it.
But a lot of us are uncertain about freezing certain foods, like dairy products and vegetables. Erin Hufstetler, at Frugal Living, has a post today outlining the variety of sometimes surprising items — such as milk, eggs and tomatoes — that can be frozen.
Here’s her suggestion for freezing eggs:
Whole eggs: Mix the yolks and egg whites together. Then, pour the egg mixture into an ice cube tray, and freeze. Two cubes is the equivalent of one whole egg.
Egg Yolks: To prevent thickening, stir in half a teaspoon of salt (or one and a half tablespoons of sugar, if the eggs will be used in desserts) for every one cup of yolks. Then, pour into an ice cube tray and freeze. One cube is the equivalent of two egg yolks.
For a long time, a lot of us shared some assumptions about the economy.
Real estate won’t lose value. Life insurance isn’t a good investment. A near-perfect credit score will get you the best interest rate.
But this recession is turning a lot of those “truths” on their head. Kiplinger.com outlines 10 financial myths that have been exposed by the sour economy. Here’s one:
MYTH 2: Real estate behaves differently from other investments. Call it a bubble instead of a boom if you like, but it was supposed to be “proof” that real estate returns don’t strongly correlate with the returns of stocks and other financial investments. The message: Rental properties or real estate investment trusts can make money despite drops in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index or the Nasdaq. Wrong. REITs lost 38% in 2008 because the credit crunch and overly aggressive expansion plans hammered profits and dividends. REIT returns used to have little correlation with the stock market. Now they closely track it.
Truth: Real estate won’t overcome other risks when credit problems are harming all investments.
Kiplinger.com’s latest “15-minute Tip” has some useful advice for people who’ve been getting those sometimes indecipherable notices from their credit-card companies lately.
As a lot of us are learning, the notices often leave a little to be desired when it comes to a full explanation of what’s actually changing. They might notify you of your new interest rate, for example, without bothering to specify exactly how much higher it is than your previous one.
So here are a few ways you can take charge and force a little accountability, courtesy of the Kiplinger’s piece, authored by author and financial expert Jennifer Openshaw:
Everyone’s got their mind on money these days — how to get it and hang onto it.
But some strategies just aren’t worth it. A piece at WalletPop examines 10 bad ideas for raising some money — with No. 1 being taking a 401(k) loan.
Don’t do it!! Your 401(k) is not a piggy bank. That money is for your retirement and retirement alone! So unless it’s an absolute emergency, do not touch it. Even though you’re paying the money back into YOUR account, you still have loan payments to make. Those loan payments may very well eat up the money you COULD have used to contribute more money to your 401(k). Plus you’ll pay back that loan with money you’ve already been taxed on… and then when you finally withdraw it at retirement, you have to pay taxes on it again! Double taxes. What a waste!
Are your kids worried about the economy?
You may assume they’re not. But if you are, chances are decent that they’re feeling your anxiety and wondering what’s going on. Teen-agers, especially, are mature enough to be scared — and to be given some straight talk about your situation.
A report from Money magazine says that an up-front discussion with your teenagers is a chance to allay their fears and teach them values about economic life.
The biggest question on your kids’ minds is probably: What does this mean to me? Answer this as straightforwardly as you can. “You don’t want to convey anxiety, just the facts,” says Gresham, who specializes in financial issues. Start with what’s not at risk: their allowance, say, or your ability to pay the mortgage. …
Then say what could be vulnerable: your job, for example, or your ability to cover all their college costs. Tell them exactly how you plan to cope. “You can’t just say, ‘We’re going to be okay,’ ” says New York City psychologist Marlin Potash, who focuses on money and relationships. “You must explain why you’re going to be okay.”
For people who are feeling the direct effects of the recession — whether it’s a foreclosure or a drop in pay — this year’s tax season brings some changes.
The New York Times has collected a list of 10 tax tips for people hurt by the economy. Among the suggestions: Scour your circumstances for potential deductions, such as:
If you’re on the hunt for a new job, many of your costs may also be deductible, as long as you itemize your deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. Deductible expenses include résumé paper, printing, travel expenses, long-distance calls and faxes, postage, even meals and lodging expenses. But job expenses are considered a miscellaneous deduction, which means you can only deduct costs that exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income. Since other expenses can also be included in the miscellaneous bucket — from tax preparation fees to work uniforms — be sure you’re including them all, said George Jones, a senior tax analyst at CCH.
When the national economy zigs, Spokane’s sometimes zags. Or at least lags — showing less intense highs and lows than elsewhere during the recent housing bubble and subsequent recession.
It’s been true with foreclosures and bankruptcies, which have been going up here, but not to the degree seen nationally. Now, though, as foreclosures are dipping nationally, they’re showing a jump in Spokane.
RealtyTrac, a national firm that tracks foreclosures, reports today that foreclosures are down 10 percent nationally from December to January. Here’s an article at SmartMoney that cautions us not to get too excited about that.
Month-to-month comparisons can … be misleading, says Andres Carbacho-Burgos, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com. Short-term fluctuations can be too volatile for long-term conclusions to be drawn. “A three-month moving average might tell you a bit more about the underlying trends in foreclosures,” Carbacho-Burgos explains. (Moody’s Economy.com uses quarterly statistics from the Mortgage Bankers Association in its housing reports.)
In fact, compared with January 2008, foreclosure activity in January was up 18%, making it the 37th consecutive month with year-over-year increases, according to RealtyTrac.
The New York Times regularly compares home values around the country with its “What You Get For … “ series.
Today it plugs in $600,000 and include a visit to Schweitzer Mountain — where that money will get you a three-bedroom, three-bath, ski-in, ski-out condominium.
This unit was completely renovated and customized by its current owner, a woodworker and former professional skier from Norway. All interior wood was locally milled and hand-hewn.
Downtown Sandpoint, flanking Lake Pend Oreille, is about 25 minutes away. The town draws snow-sports enthusiasts in the winter, and boaters and fishermen to the lake in the summer. Amtrak trains run through Sandpoint on their way to Chicago and the Seattle area; and Spokane, Wash., has an international airport about two hours away.
It’s become a cliche of recession journalism: the how-to list for saving money on food.
But it’s understandable. Food is one of our biggest expenses, and you can approach it in so many different ways. Today at WiseBread, there’s a post offering suggestions for how to save money and eat healthfully. One thing the piece insists on is that you don’t have to eat lousy food to save money — which is good, since some of us would probably go into debt to eat good food.
If you’re on a budget, you can still eat well–all it takes is imagination and a sense of adventure. Invest in spices to liven up your meals. Experiment with sauces. Prepare them in large quantities, and freeze or preserve them. Make your own stock and freeze it in containers that will be ready when you want soup or stew. Curries, stews, and stir-fries are great ways to stretch meat or use leftovers.
Try macaroni and cheese with real cheese and whole-wheat or vegetable pasta. Even something as simple as a peanut-butter sandwich can be healthier with whole-wheat bread and real, old-fashioned peanut-butter. Yes, that’s right; comfort food can be healthy!
If there’s one money-saving suggestion that comes up again and again, in a huge range of circumstances, it’s this: You can negotiate prices on much more than you might imagine.
Most recently, I was surprised at how many consumer advocates and others say it’s a good idea to try to bargain even with your doctor — which sounds a bit extreme on the face of it, but which surveys show works the majority of the time.
In a post at Wise Bread, Nora Dunn writes about using negotiation tactics to get her cell phone bill and credit card rates lowers. As she puts it:
Truly – you can negotiate just about anything. Just because a website advertises specific rate packages does not mean that you cannot bend the rules. I recently signed up for internet access with a new supplier; in so doing I researched the packages available online, and then called to ask if they had any promotions available. Between the two people I talked to, I saved over $400 in posted connection fees, received 50% off the posted monthly rates, and got a $10 monthly reduction in my telephone bill too. None of these discounts were posted online, and I don’t believe they would have become available to me if I had not asked.
This may be a little macro for this blog, but CNN.com has put together a good Q-and-A about the economic stimulus package. If you’re trying to get your mind around some of this stuff, it’s a good place to start.
The post starts with a question that a lot of us have asked: Instead of giving huge sums to banks, why not give $10,000 to each family in the country? Wouldn’t that stimulate the economy?
Two economists answer. One, Lakshman Achuthan, managing director, Economic Cycle Research Institute, is dubious about the $10,000 plan.
“The government could give money to you or me, and that would create demand, which could be a very good way to break the recession. But you and I are not very confident about the economy, and if you think about what I’ll do, there’s a good chance I’m going to save it.
But the government is looking to have that money get spent and to have it multiplied somehow. Our economy is based on people spending money. So people saving money doesn’t help.”
Kiplinger.com often posts quizzes as a way to provide information about a range of financial subjects. It’s an engaging and interactive way to pick up information about topics from investing to tax deductions.
Today there’s a quiz up about retirement, which opens with this question:
Your 401(k) balance took a big hit in 2008’s market meltdown, but you’re more than ten years away from retirement. You should:
A - Stop contributing to your retirement plan
B - Transfer all your money to cash
C - Defer investment decisions until the market rebounds
D - None of the above
How often would you say you make an actual decision about your health care?
I mean an active decision — as opposed to simply following what your doctor or pharmacist or health-care pro suggests at the moment? As health-care costs rise and employers cut benefits, individual consumers are being handed an ever-greater share of the responsibility of paying for care. Consumer advocates suggest they ought to take a greater role in decision-making, as well — questioning fees, seeking alternatives and challenging decisions. Here’s the way an article in the AARP magazine puts it:
This harsh reality is starting to translate into a kind of revolutionary fervor among some Americans. “Our health care system clearly isn’t working,” says William Schwied, M.D., M.P.H., an 85-year-old retired physician who has organized hundreds of California retirees in a grass-roots effort to fight for a better health care system. “The only way we’ll see change is for people to take to the streets,” he says.
999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201
P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210
Main switchboard: (509) 459-5000 • (800) 338-8801
Newsroom: (509) 459-5400 • (800) 789-0029
Customer service: (800) 338-8801
© Copyright 2009, The Spokesman-Review
69°
