Amen... blandry and Steve,

You guys bring to light proof of the MBA Evolution that shows the conversion of the old mantra "the customer being right and important" to Today's mantra "The best value for labor provided". The paradigm shift changes the focus from quality production of goods that result in slow growth and increased value through volumes of loyal customers, to short term gains for stock holders. (When you apply stock to someone's compensation it's only natural that they focus on this.)

I recently spent over three months "Taking a Greater Hand in my Healthcare" because the large insurance institution's developers hadn't taken all customer's situations into account. We deal with a chronic disease (MS) in our family and when my employer eliminated everything but the High Deductible plan I needed to open an HSA. Since I'd had one in the past but closed it out 4 years ago when we switched to my wife's lower cost plan there was no way for me to open it back up. Sounds easy enough but I escalated my calls to the help desk and finally had to tailgate at the insurance company to get escalation to someone who said they thought they could help me. Things with the HSA have finally turned around but I now understand what "Taking a greater Hand in my HealthCare" REALLY MEANS.

Once a company begins to focus on short term gains they group improvements by statistics and not customers. If you're not the million dollar monster in the room it is difficult to have your problem heard or attended to. It is up to each of us as consumers however to keep bringing this to the forefront. That's why here in the States we now have an advocate at the cabinet level. (Though talk about taking the position of Sysiphus.)

An ironic sidenote on my problem. I opened my case with their helpdesk on November 3rd 2010 and heard back from the supervisor they escalated my issue to on 1/10/2011. The information she had to resolve my problem was still wrong.