Kennywood cutting back operating days -- raising prices

Hmm. I guess that makes me the Lawrence Welk Liberal. Or maybe the Dvorak Democrat.

LOL! :)

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Arthur Bahl said:
Kennywood will be open that Friday evening at 5PM. They get decent attendance on the Friday evening before Labor Day because there is no school the next day.

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They should get good attendance EVERY Friday, since there's no school on Saturday.

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Brian Noble said:Despite being a hippie, I believe I can convince most libertarians that many social services are in their best economic interests: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

That's what happens when you learn your macro economics as an undergraduate at Berkeley.

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Or even when you're an ECON major at UF....but only if you have a soul... :)

Seriously though, why's is SO hard to comprehend that health insurance for *everyone* makes the entire industry more cost effective...

I may not have stayed at the Holiday Inn Express last night, but I've been heavily involved in financials side of the healthcare indutry for about 15 years now...and trust me, taxpayers, when I say that an insured person accessing healthcare for prevention, costs YOU less in the long run than an uninsured person whose ONLY interaction with heathcare occurs in the ER...

*** Edited 11/3/2006 4:30:33 PM UTC by rollergator***

Assuming coverage means people would access preventive healthcare, of course.

Do numbers exist that show the how many people there are that would like preventive healthcare but can't get it vs the number who have access, but don't use it? (because that'd be a fun one to look at)

Stretching my hardest to find a disagreement here...work with me already! ;)

Perhaps a more interesting way to ask the question is: what is the visit sensitivity to co-pay level?

For example, in the past, my carrier reimbursed the full cost of my annual flu shot. This year, they reimbursed all but $5. Does that $5 make a significant difference in the set of people receiving a flu shot?

(And, yes, I got mine. I teach a class with 230 college students who drink too much and sleep too little, and have the immune systems to show for it. ;))

Yeah, that works too.

I guess I just have a general belief that things average themselves out over the long run - especially in a case like this. I really do see what Gator is saying (and again, buy into it to a degree), but I can't help but wonder if in the end, it would all work out close enough to the same based on the fact that coverage does not instantly equal care.

But what do I know? I have no qualifications as a numbers guy and healthcare is truly one issue I have little-to-no interest or concerns in - I'm just trying to hang with the 'big boys' and look smarter than I am.

In this case the questions interest me more than the answers. :)

Man Gonch, that would be an intriguing data analysis that someone could likely perform, use of healthcare vs. insurance coverage. I wonder if I could talk one of our MPH (Masters in Public Health) candidates into looking at that? :)

One of the prolems in getting that kind of data (other than the obvious HIPAA regs and hosptials' overwhelming paranoia of releasing that info)...is that, VERY much like getting good data about the realities of drug use in America, no one currently MAKING money the way the system is operating NOW wants to fund research that very well *might* show that they're NOT doing what they're PAID to do...

...and, as you'll see after reading Freakonomics, peoples' *perceptions and beliefs* about their behavior is ultimately belied by looking at their ACTUAL behavior...

People really do THINK they believe lots of things...when you ask them, they'll TELL you....then when you look at how they ACT, their beliefs are VERY often contradicted...I trust data... ;)

*** Edited 11/3/2006 5:48:21 PM UTC by rollergator***

I'm probably asking for it, but I have to say it...when SF did this last year, almost everybody started screaming for Shapiro's head (even more than usual). Now, it's no big deal? Can someone explain that to me? I'm seriously curious.

Because $31 gets you in the door, where KW does not overcharge for food, or even charge for parking.

Oh. Well, that's true.

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Touchdown said:Because $31 gets you in the door, where KW does not overcharge for food, or even charge for parking.

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...and Kennywood doesn't sell season passes that tell you the park will be available to you... ;)

Wait, don't get me side-tracked...this thread is supposed to be about universal healthcare coverage...what's Kennywood have to do with it? :)

*** Edited 11/3/2006 8:12:01 PM UTC by rollergator***

Here's an interesting twist for you. They had a story in our local paper today about outsourcing health care-- but not in the way you think. Some health plans are paying people to go to India and other Asian countries for certain treatments and operations because it's cheaper than the same procedure here in America.

Just to keep things on topic, they may not have had to cut those days at the end of August if school didn't start until after Labor Day like it used to in PA.

Could be. If I recall correctly, MiA extended their August hours in '06 because Michigan schools changed to a post-labor-day start, statewide.

They were talking about doing the same thing in PA. I'm sure if they did, we'd go to full operation on that last week of August.

People talk about the minimum wage increase like it's a big friggin' deal, but it's basically a cost of living increase. IIRC, it hasn't been raised in 10 or 11 years.

$5.15 to $7.15 is just a 3% increase, and that's a standard cost of living adjustment.

I can't see people getting bent out of shape because minimum wage goes up but you don't get a raise to reflect it. Yeah, but you've gotten raises in the mean time.

Am I the only one to whom $7 doesn't seem like a whole lot of dough?

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rollergator said:
...and, as you'll see after reading Freakonomics, peoples' *perceptions and beliefs* about their behavior is ultimately belied by looking at their ACTUAL behavior...

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I'm going to have to wait a few more weeks. I have it on good authority that Santa will be bringing me a copy of Freakonomics.

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kpjb said:
Yeah, but you've gotten raises in the mean time.

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Actually, no. I haven't seen a raise in 4 years because "the economy just doesn't permit it."

In fact, I had my position eliminated last november because the owner of the company figured out that paying an IT consultant on a T&M basis was cheaper than having a full time IT manager and "in these tough times you have to cut corners".

Sure, $7 isn't a lot of money when you have a real job, but when you spend 6 months looking for work every single day and have everyone tell you "we're sorry, but the economy just doesn't permit the expense of any new employees at this time", it would seem like more than I brought in on unemployment.

Thankfully, I have a new job working for a consulting company, finally back in my field, but I just started so I won't be seeing a raise for a long while.

Freak is a quick read, but a good one. It's not much more than an evening or two, but it'll cause you to *think* for a while.

Sounds like I have to add to my reading list. (I'm currently reading "Lies My Teacher Told Me", which isn't the newest of tracts out there and has a definite liberal slant, but I still find it engrossing)

Another PA park with a price increase -- Dorney is going up to $37.95. Does anyone remember how much it was this year? I believe that it was $34.95 this year but I am not sure of this.

Also -- do they have anything new? Waldameer and DelGrossos will be offering more in return for their price increases. Waldameer has the new drop tower and DelGrossos has the looping coaster. Still no word on changes at KW but is doesn't look like much will happen there. Maybe the Bayern Kurve or the Swing Around will return but I can't see anything more than that for 2007.