Recession Briefing: Now, We’re in a Phase of Ambiguity

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

If the Great Recession has indeed relaxed its grip on American life, it has been replaced by something that might be called the Great Ambiguity — a time of considerable debate over the clarity of economic indicators and the staying power of apparent improvements. (New York Times)

92 percent of the top managers and directors at the top 17 companies that received TARP funds are still in their same positions. (The Big Picture)

Heather MacDonald writes that the recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. (Wall Street Journal)…

How to Get Prescription Drugs on the Cheap

Too bad sickness doesn’t notice when your health coverage runs out. When you’ve got a stubborn cough or an illness that just won’t go away, it doesn’t matter if you’re having financial trouble or if you’ve been out of work for the past year. You’ll still need medication if you hope to get better, and that medication doesn’t come cheap.

The average cost to fill a single prescription was $69.91 in 2007, according to a report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, an amount that adds up quickly for families with multiple children getting sick at multiple times throughout the year. And in 2008 alone, the average increase in manufacturer price for brand name prescription medications went up 8.7 percent.

Since the recession began, however, a number of programs have begun to fill the void for cash-strapped families and individuals—offering free or reduced prescription medications to those in need. With so many programs available, it’s not so much a matter of finding a program as it is finding the program that is right for you…

How to Haggle with Your Doctor

These days, everything’s negotiable – even health care, if you know how the system works. You may be able to negotiate a 20 percent discount or more on costs at the doctor’s office. A few pieces of advice:

Where to start:
Never try to negotiate a medical bill without getting a bit of background information. Read the details of your current or previous insurance plan to get a sense of what will and won’t be covered in your upcoming visit.

It’s also worthwhile to find out what Medicare pays physicians—since it is usually substantially less than what they charge private insurance providers or patients themselves—to perform whatever procedure you’ll need. This will help you determine the bottom floor of what a physician will accept. You can do this by calling the doctor’s office, asking for the procedure’s “CPT code,” and going to the American Medical Association’s CPT search engine to look up the typical payment for that procedure based on where you live. When it comes time to bargain, it’s perfectly reasonable to offer a payment that is 25 percent above the Medicare rate for services…

Recession Briefing 5.27

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

“The recession is cramping the style of hip-hop artists and wannabes — many of whom are finding it difficult to afford the diamond-encrusted pendants and heavy gold chains they have long used to project an aura of outsized wealth.” (Wall Street Journal)

During the first quarter of 2009, more bicycles were sold in the US than cars and trucks. While the Great Recession is hurting bike sales, they didn’t fall as fast as automobiles. (Huffington Post)

The majority of top economists believe the recession will be over by the end of this year. (Christian Science Monitor)…

Timothy Noah Calls Out Repubs on Health Care Shenanigans

Want to pay less for health care? You won’t if certain senators have their way. Slate’s Timonthy Noah follow the threads of some weird and wily arguments about health care today in his “Lemon Economics.” He calls attention to five senate Republicans who are planning to defend the private health insurance industry to the last breath and vow to block the creation of public plans. Noah catches these lawmakers in a specious argument: They are finally owning up to the fact that government health insurance programs like Medicare out-perform their private counterparts both in delivering benefits and in keeping prices down. But get this: The senate Republicans use that as an argument against them…