Special Delivery - Every Piece, Every Day

The Postal Service goes to great lengths to stick to their mantra, "Every piece, every day".

The Peach Springs, AZ, Post Office has walk-in freezers for food destined for delivery to the bottom of the Grand Canyon by mule train. A string of mules accompanied by a wrangler on horseback makes the 16-mile round trip into the Grand Canyon six days a week. But for the USPS contractor the journey is much longer, picking up mail at Peach Springs, Arizona, and trucking it along 60 miles of a desolate road maintained by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. The road ends at Hualapai Hilltop, where the eight mile trail to Supai begins. No vehicles are permitted. The mule train will take almost anything you can stick a stamp on. Express mail? They just tie it on the mule and turn him loose and he runs all the way down.

Another Unusual Delivery Method — boat delivery on the Detroit River in Michigan. The JW Westcott is a 45-foot contract mail boat out of Detroit that delivers mail to passing ships while they are underway. The JW Westcott has its own ZIP Code — 48222 which is the only floating zip code. The mail is delivered to the appropriate ships (mainly lake freighters) as they transit the Detroit River, utilizing ropes and buckets.

Mangum, OK. boasts the longest route. A rural carrier travels 182.75 miles daily and delivers to 248 boxes. Could you imagine driving 913.75 miles per week to do your route? That's 47,515 miles per year! That's just crazy!

After hearing about these strange routes, I'm thankful for my rather mundane route and commend those going above and beyond to reach every home in America every day!

NALC Healthy Rewards

The NALC Health Benefit plans offer an online health assessment with rewards! The health assessment is a set of questions that helps you understand how you can improve or maintain your health. After you complete the health assessment, you'll get a customized plan to help you address any health risks you've identified as well as selecting one of three different rewards. Depending on your plan you can choose from a fitness tracker, dental discounts, and a voucher to waive copays.

When you're ready to take your assessment and start working on a healthier you, click here.

This same site will give you access to healthy rewards discounts and tons of other useful helth information. It only takes a few moments to sign up and its free! What are you waiting for?

UPDATE: I selected to fitness tracker after doing my assessment and just got it via Priority Mail. It was a Fitbit Flex!

Health Insurance Open Season

The 2017 open season is from November 14th - December 12th, 2016.

Choosing the right health insurance plan for you and your family can be overwhelming. There are a lot of different aspects to consider. First and foremost are the monthly premiums. Keep in mind that cheaper is not always better in this department. Sometimes you get what you pay for and cheap coverage could cost you way more in the long run.

Second, what are you and your family’s medical needs for the upcoming year? Surgeries, chronic illness, and specialist visits are just a few spendy issues that you may want to consider and compare plan coverage’s on.

Third, compare how much you will pay out of pocket for services. Does the plan have copays for doctor visits or will you be paying toward your deductible and co insurance? How much is the out-of-pocket maximum (the most you will pay out of pocket a year) Are there services that are not covered by the plan that you will need that you would have to pay completely out of pocket for? These are all things I suggest you compare when looking at plans.

Fourth, are your current doctors considered “in the network” for the plans you are looking at? You get substantially cheaper rates for using in network providers with almost all plans. All health insurance companies should have an online site in which you can check who is in network for them prior to signing up for the plan.

Last, do you take regular prescriptions? What are the copays or coinsurance rates for them? Are your prescriptions covered by the plan? Is your pharmacy in network for the plans you are comparing? Do they offer cheaper rates for mail order prescriptions?

I know the process is overwhelming. It’s better to start researching plans early rather than on the last day of open enrollment. Check out opm.gov. You can compare several health plans at once on there. It’s a great tool!

The NALC has three health plans as well. Since 1950, the NALC Health Benefit Plan has provided letter carriers and their families with first-rate health insurance. The NALC’s health plan is a natural choice—as the only health plan owned and operated by letter carriers; it pays particular attention to their health needs. And because NALC health benefit plan is a not-for-profit organization, its only focus is the health of its members.

Some of the benefits of the NALC plan are access to real live humans to answer your questions when you call. They cover foot orthotics (Most plans do not cover these). Free help to quit smoking including nicotine replacement at no additional cost to you. The High plan also has several additional benefits. Check out nalchbp.org. You can read plan details for each plan.

Regardless of whether you select one of the NALC plans or not, please take the time to research your options. Whatever you select, you are stuck with for another year. Just sticking with what you’ve always had could be unnecessarily costing you extra cash.