It's Monday. My least favorite day of the week. So, it seems fitting I write about my least favorite thing: numbers.
One-third: That's a popular fraction this week in a couple of different polls. According to one, that's the percent (34) of people who told Bankrate they refused to sign up for health coverage despite PPACA's individual mandate. Now while a 66 percent success rate for the administration might sound bad, consider a couple of other numbers. As in, 57.5 percent, the number of eligible voters who participated in the 2012 presidential election. Or, 53 percent, the chunk of Americans who actually pay federal income taxes. Or, 61 percent, the portion of private sector companies who offer their employees' health coverage.
72: The percent of people happier than Pharrell with the state of health care in America, according to the experts at Gallup. Keep in mind that the caveat here is that these are the people who actually have insurance. Take that away and the satisfaction level plummets to 33 percent. Of course this is like asking hobos about the housing market. Or food stamp recipients about the state of fine dining in the inner city. It's almost offensive to even ask. Or maybe it's a referendum on the state of emergency room care…
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11,000: The number of steps I take a day, on average, which works out to be somewhere between five and six miles. At the risk of sounding too much like my counterpart Ms. Mayer (without the feel-good Disney ending), I jumped on the Fitbit bandwagon myself a couple of weeks ago. For starters, after my depression diagnosis a couple of months back, the doctor's second piece of advice was to get some exercise. And the Fitbit seemed to a great way to monitor it. And, besides, my wife already had one, so I thought it would be the supportive spouse thing to do. I guess the target is 10,000 steps a day, so that's not a problem for me. And, in fact, I'm looking forward to my first trade show with the thing next week. I should be able to blow my high score so far out of the water.
Which brings me to…
2: Number of weeks left until the 10th annual Benefits Selling Expo. It's a pretty shameless plug, I know. But, in case you had us confused with anyone else in the business, this is the only show we do all year. We're definitely more of a "quality over quantity" crowd. So if you want to get the most bang for your travel buck this year, you should join us in Colorado Springs. And if you're still unconvinced, consider this: It will be the highest show you attend all year (in more ways than one). So, sign up here.
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