I’ve been banking with BofA for nearly 9 years. I’ve loved their service and nationwide access. It has been a joy banking with them until I discovered they are slowing draining my accounts with their fees.  The policy was updated on June 5, 2009 so watch your accounts too!

They’ve got a $35 overdraft or non-sufficient fund (NSF) fee….the highest in the industry! That one doesn’t matter to me because I always have plenty of cushion but it’s the principle.

What threw me over the edge was the $5/month fee they slapped on my savings account and $12/month on my checking account. Sure, hit us when we’re down. That’s the American way!

Let me know if you’ve been happy with your bank. Change is good. BofA can keep theirs.

Why?

1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.
2. Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.
3. Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.
4. Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.
5. Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.
6. Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.
7. Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.
8. Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won’t be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

Learn more from the WH.

As most readers know, I am the social media lead for Health.mil and today I want to give a shout out to the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) for opening up their doors to agencies, organizations and individuals to submit ideas and concepts with regard to psychological health or traumatic brain injury.

As the blog indicates:

Submitters are asked to include evidence for their submissions, as we are looking for evidence based tools. Two subject matter experts review all submissions and determine their relevance to DCoE’s mission and the level of evidence to support it. If the concept is relevant and has sufficient evidence, the reviewers determine what audience is appropriate for the submitter, and they are invited to share their ideas either in person or through teleconference/VTC.

This is a great step in creating a more open dialogue and pulling in the knowledge and experience to get the best ideas implemented.  I’d like to see DCoE open up the process even more by letting everyone see what has been submitted and have the submissions voted on by others in the health community.   We will get there.

If you have a concept or idea, go ahead and submit it here!

I am loving the new Skittles.com! Notice how the content disclaimer pops up before you can even access the site. How’d they do that?

I sure hope not! Gawker has some good analysis:

She talks about the 1.3 million jobs she “created” among people making their business selling goods on eBay. But most of those people were already in business, and just found a new sales outlet on eBay. How did Whitman help them? By raising listing fees and forcing them to use eBay’s PayPal, increasing her company’s cut of their sales. She also overpaid for acquisitions, including $2.6 billion on Skype, a voice-over-Internet startup which had little to do with the rest of eBay’s business.

Her career as eBay’s CEO, in other words, looks like that of a tax-and-spend liberal. A spokesman for Whitman characterized her as “retired and bored” just a few months ago. Any bets on how long before this quixotic attempt at politics, fueled by her $1.4 billion eBay fortune, ends with her being retired and bored once more?

You know she’s doing it for more power.

Sure, we need an economic stimulus and we need it fast. However, we need to make sure it is stripped of wasteful spending. Being a fiscal conservative, I’m with the Republicans on this one. Sorry, Mr. President, but it’s time to take charge and stand firm against wasteful pet projects that won’t do anything to stimulate the economy.

Here’s to the Republicans, who will certainly bring balance and debate to our great democracy.

Well, at my household that is. Verizon FiOS, being the greedy smucks they are, required a 2-year contract for our TV/internet package. We’re at the 1 year mark and the service has only worsened since it was first installed. Our DVR works a quarter of the time, wireless is out half the time, video on demand is out 3/4 of the time.

My family in Maryland has loved the service so what gives Virginia? Too much demand?

Verizon, you have one year and counting to improve your service or I’m going back to COX. And I never thought I’d say that but COX was an outstanding service provider in comparison.

The FEMA Administrator will be on Twitter on Monday, Jan. 12 to discuss the direction of the Agency.  I hope he lets us know whether he thinks FEMA should stay within Homeland Security or be a stand-alone entity.

The Press Conference Deets:

When: Monday, January 12, 2009 from 3 – 3:30 pm EST
Where: FEMA’s Twitter profile
Who: FEMA Administrator David Paulison

I will be listening!

After a rough trip to Texas this past weekend to visit my dying grandfather and my Alzheimer’s stricken grandmother, I’m excited to head off to sunny Florida for the rest of the year to visit more family and friends.

Life is way too short to put the family on the back burner, especially during the holidays.

Many wishes of love and peace for 2009! And to our Troops, thank you for all that you do day in and day out. I hope you get to spend time with your families this year and many more to come.

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