The Chinese Drywall Issue

Drywall brought in from China and commonly known to as "Chinese drywall" is creating quite a stir. But I also discovered from my own office manager that no less than 9 various countries- including the USA - ended up actually making faulty drywall and US builders were purchasing and importing them into the United States. So although individuals' drywall are recognized as Chinese drywall, I prefer to call them defective drywall instead.

Defective drywall was imported to the United States in massive amounts in the course of the housing boom between 2004 and 2008. It appears that when the importation of defective drywall first started, nobody realized how many issues it would trigger. I challenge builders to open the doors of their imported containers full of Chinese drywall and not detect the smell. That alone should have raised a red flag!

Over time those drywall begins to emit toxic fumes and odors that smell like rotten eggs. As if the smell isn't bad enough, a lot of people have turned out to be ill from chemicals found in drywall from those nations and houses themselves are falling apart with the defective drywall. For example, copper plumbing are corroding and appliances are breaking down, all consequently of your defective drywall.

Determined homeowners have submitted claims regarding the complications associated with defective drywall with their insurance agencies only to find that the issues of defective materials employed in construction will not be covered in their policies.

To add insult to injury, the insurance policies on properties constructed with defective drywall are then canceled, especially here in Cape Coral. To complicate matters further, other insurance agencies don't want to sell policies on properties built with defective drywall, so desperate residence owners are left without insurance coverage on their properties. Since it is needed to have insurance on houses that are not completely paid for, this puts property owners in a real emergency and some of them even lose their homes simply because of this situation.

The number of properties with these drywall in Cape Coral is huge. This is due to the fact that, between 2002 and 2006, Cape Coral was an under developed area where people from south and north Florida came to buy cheap land, build on it quick and flip those properties. They use their own home equity to do so. What happened is builders were quickly sold out with drywall, making them to look elsewhere for that product, coming most of the time from foreign countries back then.

Replacing defective drywall may perhaps seem to be the main remedy to this difficulty, however such a solution is neither inexpensive nor straightforward. Depending on the size and development of the household, the two quotes I got from a contractor ended up roughly around $20,000 for each 1,000 s/f of home. Not only these drywall need to be replaced but the isolation also should be replaced. Plus, all copper pipes and electric wired have to be fixed too.

Most with the households that possess defective drywall had been built in Florida, but other states, including Colorado, had been also produced with those same drywall. Right here, in Cape Coral, whenever I show a few homes to prospective buyers, I get a lots of concerns to address in regards of defective drywall. I hope the public will find their questions answered here.

Find out the Cape Coral Chinese drywall issues at my Cape Coral Real Estate site.

Corporate Wellness Becomes CEO Issue - How to Reduce Workplace Health Costs

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 companies to consider making workforce health a CEO issue and adopt strategies to promote prevention and wellness. After several years of double-digit rate increases for health insurance, companies are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have employees take more responsibility for both costs and health choices. A majority of companies surveyed feel that the best way for reducing costs is financial incentives to encourage employees to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Nearly 100% of employers surveyed say that health costs will be a critical or significant concern over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More employers are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA's or HSA'S, wellness programs, and expanded disease management programs in order to control ever-increasing health care costs.

Failure to deal with these issues could be disastrous for an employer. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, "I think that we have built a health care machinery we can't afford. I think we are choking the economic engine of America." In his October 2005 newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil stated, "I think rising health- care costs are becoming the major economic issue in our nation". Obesity costs California businesses billions of dollars each year. Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect medical costs, worker's compensation, and lost productivity. California has experienced one of the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.

According to California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, "The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it is an economic crisis." What is frightening is that most people do not even realize that they are obese, which is defined as only 20% above normal weight. There is a great need for additional education on weight and resulting diseases, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can result in a significant return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Although many employers have attempted some form of wellness program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing. In many cases, the healthier employees participated for incentives, such as gym memberships, but those who needed it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Companies are looking at ways to encourage more employees to buy into the wellness movement.

A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing Group titled, "Healthier Employees; Healthier Bottom Line: Engaging Employees is the Missing Link in Managing Health Care Costs," drove this point home. This session provided actionable advice on how companies are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee engagement. It also highlighted how you can create an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential impact for your organization.

Employers can simply no longer ignore the issue of their employee's unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to reduce health costs, absenteeism and lost productivity. Employees also benefit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and professional lives. The alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the business.

Contact me if you want a link to the broadcast.

Michael Framberger was a health insurance professional in California for 28 years, including regional manager for Blue Cross and is the author and creator of the "Get Happy - Get Healthy - Be Wealthy" system.

Michael lectures internationally on Personal and Corporate Wellness and is President of Michael Framberger Seminars, Inc., and National Corporate Wellness, Inc. which offers workplace wellness programs and employee health services to businesses, and connects the benefits broker/agent, HR/Risk Manager & business decision maker with appropriate Insurance providers to show the rewards of a properly designed wellness initiative. For more information see: National Corporate Wellness