I'm just curious about Rhode Island (Providence, Newport: appointed, health insurance, attorney)

[Visvaldis]

I've spent most of my life in Chicago and have traveled to many places in the US. In your area I've been to Boston (only 2 days) and New Hampshire.
I don't plan to relocate to Rhode Island, but maybe I'll visit some time.
Lately, I am very curious about the state and the people. Admittedly, I know next to nothing about your state. Sorry.
Instead of reading about Rhode Island, I'd like to hear from residents, about anything.
Do you travel much to Boston, or to New York? What's the weather like? Judging from the interesting coastline, there must be much to see and do at the ocean shore. What is Providence like? What do people do on weekends? What cultural events happen in Rhode Island? What are some great places to visit? Is Rhode Island mostly flat, or are there hills? Does everything orient on Providence? What is country life like?
I could probably think of hundreds more questions, but this should be enough for a starter. I am thankful to everyone who responds.

[movingtolou]

Providence is great. They have done such a good job with that city, and it has seen such a resurgence since the 90's...there is a great water-fire celebration on gondola's through the city... with RISD and Brown, lots of young people...and Newport & mansions are beautiful (I actually got married at Rosecliff Mansion). I think most New Englanders travel easily between New York/ Boston/ RI/ Connecticut/ they are all so close to each other...

[emilybh]

Also Newport was the first major seaport of the 13 colonies before Boston was. Newport is also known as the sailing capitol of the world as the first America's cup race and many that followed were always held here. Newport, among the sailing crowd is thought to be one of the nicest places to sail in the country. Newport is steeped in history.

One thing about Rhode Island that get's on my nerves is the Rhode Island accent that so many of the native Rhode Islanders have. They don't pronounce their Rs at the end of words. It makes them sound unintelligent. For example, instead of saying Newport, they say Newpwat. Or for Cancer, they say Cansa.

The state is very poorly run. There is a lot of corruption. The taxes are extremely high. Schools are very poor considering teachers are among the highest paid in the country -- we certainly don't get our tax payer dollar's worth - THAT's for DARN SURE!

The health insurance market is TERRIBLE here U nlike most of the midwest where you have modern reforms in place that make your state one where insurers like doing business which means you have a wide choice of carriers and insurance plans. Here, things are SO bad we have only one other health insurer here besides our state based Blue Cross company. Our elected and appointed officials are SO stubborn and seem to want to be different from every other state and in their attempt make things better, they just make things worse. To show you just how stupid they are, they gave up a perfect opportunity to end our state's health insurance crisis, where two national carriers committed to returning to our state ( that would have doubled the number of carriers and probably very quickly would have cut health insurance rates in half). Other states in crisis like this SEIZED the opportunity to have carriers return to their state..... but not RHODE ISLAND. Rhode Island is very unique. Many Rhode islanders have probably never even been outside Rhode Island, yet most are very friendly although unsophisticated, and mean well.

[skytrekker]

I have to disagree with emilybh regarding health care

Universal or single payer health care will pass much faster in Rhode Island and the rest of New England states then the deep and central south, and the plains states- where there is much stronger opposition to reform then In RI. Remember, Massachusetts was the first state to really try and make true reforms- do not look for it elsewhere out of the north east and the west coast anytime soon-unless the federal government mandates it.

[gamsauer]

Originally Posted by emilybh

Also Newport was the first major seaport of the 13 colonies before Boston was. Newport is also known as the sailing capitol of the world as the first America's cup race and many that followed were always held here. Newport, among the sailing crowd is thought to be one of the nicest places to sail in the country. Newport is steeped in history.

One thing about Rhode Island that get's on my nerves is the Rhode Island accent that so many of the native Rhode Islanders have. They don't pronounce their Rs at the end of words. It makes them sound unintelligent. For example, instead of saying Newport, they say Newpwat. Or for Cancer, they say Cansa.

The state is very poorly run. There is a lot of corruption. The taxes are extremely high. Schools are very poor considering teachers are among the highest paid in the country -- we certainly don't get our tax payer dollar's worth - THAT's for DARN SURE!

The health insurance market is TERRIBLE here U nlike most of the midwest where you have modern reforms in place that make your state one where insurers like doing business which means you have a wide choice of carriers and insurance plans. Here, things are SO bad we have only one other health insurer here besides our state based Blue Cross company. Our elected and appointed officials are SO stubborn and seem to want to be different from every other state and in their attempt make things better, they just make things worse. To show you just how stupid they are, they gave up a perfect opportunity to end our state's health insurance crisis, where two national carriers committed to returning to our state ( that would have doubled the number of carriers and probably very quickly would have cut health insurance rates in half). Other states in crisis like this SEIZED the opportunity to have carriers return to their state..... but not RHODE ISLAND. Rhode Island is very unique. Many Rhode islanders have probably never even been outside Rhode Island, yet most are very friendly although unsophisticated, and mean well.

I like the RI accent. Much better than a southern accent.

[Visvaldis]

Thanks to everyone who posted so far. I read them all with interest. For years I thought that the people in RI are similar to those in Mass, including the accent.

[quickdraw]

I live in Vermont, but I've been to RI often. I believe its one of the hidden gems of the US. Providence is a fantastic city, like a small Boston without the traffic and parking headaches. Rhode Island has beautiful coast and small towns with locals, not transplanted professionals from somewhere else. The small RI towns remind me of small southern NJ towns. Lots of colorful characters. The location is great, close to Boston and a few hours from New York the Berkshires and southern Vermont and NH. If I could relocate anywhere on the east coast I'd strongly consider RI. Only drawback for me is the lyme disease. We're a dog family and we'll always have 3 or 4 dogs.

[mr2448]

Originally Posted by Visvaldis

Thanks to everyone who posted so far. I read them all with interest. For years I thought that the people in RI are similar to those in Mass, including the accent.

we are nothing like Massachusett residents and they are diverse themselves.
Our accent is a cross between New England "yahd" and New York "dees and Dose". Don Bosquet, a Rhode Island cartoonist, has spent years making fun of our language and peculiarities. He is the absolute authority on the Rhode Ilsand language and way of life. Asking for a "cabinet and grinder" in Rhode Island takes on a whole new meaning.

Mark

[emilybh]

Originally Posted by skytrekker

I have to disagree with emilybh regarding health care

Universal or single payer health care will pass much faster in Rhode Island and the rest of New England states then the deep and central south, and the plains states- where there is much stronger opposition to reform then In RI. Remember, Massachusetts was the first state to really try and make true reforms- do not look for it elsewhere out of the north east and the west coast anytime soon-unless the federal government mandates it.

Skytrekker, the problem is Rhode Islanders have a MISERABLE track record when it comes to reform. You only have to look at what people have to pay for health insurance here AND to look at the number of health insurers that aren't already based here to see that. It is DEPLORABLE! We have only one outside insurer besides the one that is based here. There is NO INDIVIDUAL MARKET. That was COMPLETELY destroyed by so-called Rhode Island "health care reforms" . Individuals can't go through agents and actually have a choice of companies and plans to choose from the way they can in just about any other state (except Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Maine and Vermont which are also TERRIBLE states when it comes to health insurance availability and affordability). Individuals in Rhode Island have to take the crumbs that Rhode Island Blue Cross leaves for them which is about twice to three times as expensive as what they could be paying for the exact same coverage if they lived in nearby Connecticut or New Hampshire -- the only two states with governments in New England that have a clue when it comes to GOOD health insurance reform.

Skytrekker, with all due respect I KNOW what I'm talking about. I've met
with all the powers that be in the state. I know what the insurance industry thinks of Rhode Island. I know what it would take to get carriers back to the state but our leaders don't want to do what the majority of the country does, evidently. They have other ideas which they think are better. THIS IS THE PROBLEM. They've always thought this way and its just been making things worse and WORSE. Our legislators and our regulators and our Governor need to follow what their counter parts in successful states do and not continue to only have their eyes on Massachusetts. That is like the BLIND LEADING THE BLIND.

Additionally Rhode Island is OVER-REGULATED when it comes to the health insurance industry. Most normal states have just one department, regulating the industry, the department of insurance.But that is not enough for Rhode Island. Evidently Rhode Island is such a "big" state, Rhode Island "needs" the Department of Health (with its own insurance division) and the Department of Attorney General (with its own insurance division) and a separate "health insurance commissioner"....besides the department of insurance which in Rhode Island is a division of the Dept. of Business Regulation.

Rhode Island has 4 times the number of regulatory bodies regulating the health insurance industry as any other state!!!!! It is the laughing stock of the health insurance industry!!!!

Additionally, rather than making his own health care policy, the Governor is evidently letting Chris Koller, the health insurance commissioner, make policy decisions! He is actually letting Commissioner Koller design insurance plans for RI Blue Cross and United Healthcare and force them to offer them! For a Governor that is supposed to understand business, he certainly has shown he does not understand the health insurance business to allow this to go on.Needless to say, NO OTHER STATE IN THE COUNTRY allows their insurance commissioner to design insurance products and force carriers in the state to offer them. (If you ran a business, would you like the government to force you to sell a product it designed?) By the way, this plan which is supposed to save small businesses so much money if they sign up for it -- is actually MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than plans that the two carriers already had and have had for a long time.

In my opinion having Commissioner Koller spend his time on this was a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. Instead he should have been told to go study high risk health insurance pools (similar to what the auto industry uses for high risk drivers) until he really understands how they work enough to realize that RHODE ISLAND NEEDS ONE and study Experience rating versus Community rating until he understands why Experience rating would work better in Rhode Island and study how and why managed care companies are different from non managed care companies and why Rhode Island ought to join the other 49 states and treat them differently. He should also be studying filing regulations and discovering that most other states allow carriers to file rates and start using them. If the rates are too high, the attorney general can then go after the carrier and tell them to cease and desist using them. This is called "file and use" and it work much better than "file and approve" which sometimes takes carriers 2 years before rate changes are approved --- which only ends up costing the consumer more money and higher premiums.

After our health insurance commissioner saw for himself that these measures do in fact WORK much better than anything Rhode Island has had in years and years, all that would be needed would be to dust off Senator Cote's Bills that were created back in 2004 that include all of the above (minus the Experience Rating in the small group market), sit down with the Atorney General and the Dept of Health and tell them,"this is the way it is going to be from now on (period)". Advise the legislature to pass them, (because I think this time, the legislature wants carriers back and relief for their constiuent more than more regulations to make the environment worse).

When there is virtually no health insurance crisis going on in 80% of the rest of the country, there is NO REASON to have universal healthcare. However maybe the federal government should step in and force stubborn states or stupid states, whatever the case may be, to do what obviously works in the majority of the rest of the country. Rhode Island would be one of those states forced to change. It is almost as if, Rhode Island has an obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to making the the health insurance industry worse. It just can't help itself. It doesn't GET IT that the way
to make it work is to leave it alone and let the private market work. Rhode Island can't seem to keep its regulatory paws OUT of things and it just keeps mucking it up!

Sorry folks but that is the undeniable truth! Go to Rhode Island Association of Health Underwriters and see for yourself if you don't believe me. It's been in the papers. Everything is documented. You can even read the legislation and see outside carrier positions on Rhode Island and what it will take to get them back. You can even read testimony to the Senate Health and Human Services committee where two carriers said they'd return to our state if these reforms were passed. Rhode Island had the opportunity, and Governor Carcieri, if he'd sat down with regulators and told them to go along with this(like he promised he would but never did),to end our healthcare crisis three years ago, but he blew it! You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

[remember-voltaire]

wow

you certainly know your stuff when it comes to this