Hello world, what a week this has been. I started out giving tentative agreement to work for Ameriplan then immediately got curious about what the reality of Discount Medical Cards are all about. That prompted an investigation into all things relating to DMC or discount medical cards. The more I studied, the less I liked Ameriplan. Why? It's a pyramid. The moment the kit came in the mail, I knew it.
With my growing aversion to Ameriplan was an increasing passion about DMC's in general. What are they? Do they work? Which ones are the best? Are they regulated, and if so, how? Most important of all how does this fit into my spiritual goals?
Spiritually speaking, work is an important part of life. It touches on obedience and service. Work has to be honest. The single most important part of a life lived with any integrity is that the work we do be honest. And, if you sell something, then you had better sell something honest. Also, it must, must, must be something that betters lives in some tangible way.
During the past week I have studied State Attorney Generals' websites, Medicare/Medicaid websites, every discount medical card imaginable websites, and sites that review cards and make comparisons. I read a paper published by the Kaiser Family Foundation on the subject of discount services in health, made a dozen or more phone calls to as many different companies or agencies. In short, I am on a mission.
Sometimes you pray for something, and when the answer comes it's not what you expected. I didn't expect to develop a passion for helping the working poor have access to at least some form of discount for health services. After a quick trip to the Nelson County Free Clinic, run in a vacant public housing apartment, I found that all the people who were there had jobs, but no insurance of any kind. Two of them work at the Kroger just up the street from me.
The real discovery for me this week is that I do have a passion for affordable health. No, discounts are not insurance, and you have to pay at the time of service, but for heaven sake, and I do mean heaven's sake, a discount helps. Is that not a type of spiritually fulfilling work? Helping those who need help, and as a by product, help myself.
The blog suffered because I did nothing else this week except educate myself to overflowing. Now, I'm heading out for the rest of the day, just to see the light.
Holy God
Holy and Mighty
Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.
1 comments:
Pyramid scheme
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange
of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually
without any product or service being delivered.
Pyramid schemes have existed for at least a century. Matrix schemes use the same
fraudulent non-sustainable system as a pyramid; here, the victims pay to join a
waiting list for a desirable product which only a fraction of them can ever
receive.
There are other commercial models using cross-selling such
as multi-level marketing (MLM) or party planning which are perfectly legal and
sustainable. Most pyramid schemes take advantage of confusion between
genuine businesses and complicated but convincing moneymaking scams. The
essential idea behind each scam is that the individual makes only one payment,
but are promised to somehow receive exponential benefits from other people as a
reward. A common example might be an offer that, for a fee, allows the victim to
sell the same offer to other people. Each sale includes a fee to the original
seller.
Clearly, the fundamental flaw is that there is no end
benefit; the money simply travels up the chain, and only the originator (or at
best a very few) wins in swindling his followers. Of course, the people
in the worst situation are the ones at the bottom of the pyramid: those who
subscribed to the plan, but were not able to recruit any followers themselves.
To embellish the act, most such scams will have fake referrals, testimonials,
and information.
Although pyramid schemes have been declared illegal in many countries, they
still persist in various forms, nowadays usually by having a cover business, a
product or service.
You wasted your time if your research came to this conclusion. You're
right. God forgive you for your gross actions and display of lack knowledge,
experience and research skills. If you researched anything, then you know you
are to use quotes, references to your sources comments and their titles. Oh,
that's right, you don't know who you spoke to and forgot to get the permission
to quote them. Great research, dude. Your wrong. but welcome to come back
next Friday and make a wimp of yourself. See you then!
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