Health Care Debate

As the health care debate heats up and Congressional voting commences, I have a few comments.

First, I never thought I would say this, but Obama's most recent speech about Health Care was actually quite inspiring. He does a great job when he has a prepared speech, but struggles when he is put on the spot. I think he should stick to prepared speeches and he may have more success.

There are a number of issues that cause a lot of contention. I must say, this administration's attempt at showing us Americans how we are going to pay for this new plan is at best lousy. The new proposed bill from the Finance Committee has a price tag of $856 Billion over 10 years, with mysterious ways of paying for it. Sure, why don't we go into more debt and tax businesses and individuals more to provide free health care to the poor. There has to be a better way. Can no one come up with one?

Instead of increasing taxes on the rich or on businesses, why don't we go after people who are abusing the tax system and under-paying their taxes. Cash companies such as restaurants and laundry mats will show yearly losses on their income statements, and not report their cash in take. This is tax evasion that is obvious, but the IRS seems to turn a blind eye. Many of these small business owners have large houses with big mortgage payments, nice furniture, big TVs but all the stuff is bought by illegal cash or used as a business deduction. How is a Big-Screen TV in the business owner's home, a business expense for a laundry mat anyways? I am sure we can squeeze a few hundred million dollars in revenue by going after companies and individuals who are stealing from the IRS.

With all this debate of about a public option, I have though about it and decided that if done the right way I am not actually all that opposed to the "public option." It does have to be a free market proposition, but it is acceptable to have government oversight and regulation. I think a co-op of some sort, where Health Care providers in each state can bid for business of people who do not have access to company health benefits, would work out pretty well. It all has to do with costs. The average family health insurance plan costs $13,000 per year. At almost $1100 a month for a family that is a huge chunk out of a family's budget if a company does not support the employee.

As an idea, why can't we just get away from company sponsored health plans the way they are currently set up, and add the cost of insurance to the salary of the employee. Each family can then choose for themselves what insurance company to buy health insurance from. The government can offer tax breaks to help offset the costs for lower income workers, even exempting health care income (the average $13,000 employer health care cost) from regular, medicare, and SS income tax requirements. That can be tax free income to families so they can pay for their own health insurance. As Obama has pointed out we need competition.

Right now, employers pay a lot of money and spend a lot of time and resources working on the health benefits of their employees. By eliminating this from businesses, they can increase productivity as time is not taken away from the actual work that is supposed to be done. In my place of employment, our HR department spends a lot of time working on the health benefits of employees and works closely with our health insurance provider. This time could be spent elsewhere. Time is taken up in meetings and seminars about benefits. All time that could be spent increasing productivity.

The extra money will increase the total wages of a family and if it is possible to shop around for coverage that may cost less, a family's disposable income will rise. They would be able to spend it on other things that could boost the economy, but it could also be used to pay for any co-pays or out of pocket expenses. It could be used as a sort of health spending account that everyone gets. A tax free way to pay for health insurance premiums, co-pays, out of pocket health costs, prescription and over the counter medicine, vision care, dental care, and maybe even life insurance (I think the insurers would not mind if more people got life insurance, right?) You can add gym memberships as well.

As it stands now it is the employer that shops around for coverage but often the employer stays with the same company for many years, possibly forgoing cheaper options because of the time it takes to switch from one provider to another. By adding 40 million more people to the insurance companies list of clients that should increase their profits and enable the to lower costs.

There are many regulations limiting how many insurance companies can sell insurance in a State, but if we can increase the number of competitors in the industry it is possible to decrease costs due to increased competition for the business. Health Insurance companies have an oligarchical power over pricing, which does not help in reducing costs. This is one reason why the government wanted to have a public plan, because of the lack of competition in the insurance industry.

So, if we can increase competition to decrease costs and eliminate employer sponsored insurance coverage and just pay workers more (preferably an increase in the salaries by the cost of insurance the companies no longer have to pay), it will be possible, I think, to solve this problem.

I do think it will be important to give enough incentives for everyone to buy health insurance. Tax breaks work and creating legal requirements to have insurance may work as well. We do it for car insurance, why not do it for a much more important Health Insurance? You will have the right to NOT pay for health insurance and maybe pocket the extra income, but if you are sick you pay the full price, whether through payments plans, wage garnishments, tax levy's or any other form of forced payment. If you have no insurance and you use the emergency room you need to pay for it. The whole bill. It is unacceptable to abuse as system where doctor's and medical professionals cannot refuse care, but you can refuse to pay for it. That is outright stealing. If you are someone who foregoes the responsibility to have health insurance (especially if the government and companies assist in helping you pay for it) you should have to pay the full repercussions of not being responsible. If that ends up bankrupting you then so be it.

We need to eliminate lifetime caps in coverage and the should-be-illegal practice by the health insurers to drop coverage whenever they see fit (especially when a patient needs that coverage most). The things many insurance companies do should be illegal. To drop coverage on a cancer patient because of some fine-print legalese or some business decision is unacceptable. As long as you pay your premiums and are as honest as you can be you should be afforded all the benefits that come with your health insurance coverage plan. There should be no life-time caps. If I pay my insurance premium I should be covered. If my insurance covers for cancer, they should not be able to stop coverage because the cancer treatments cost too much. That is a breach of contract, if not a legal breach then most definitely a moral breach. It should be illegal to drop coverage for any reason as long as premiums are being paid. In fact, Health insurance companies should be the one's to step up aid as their customers suffer the most, not kick them while they are down. I would like to see an insurance company that can find the business sense to stay profitable but be able to go to the bed side of a man dying from cancer and say that they will do all they can do to help him. Wouldn't that be a health insurance company you would like to be a customer of?

There are many things we can do to make things more affordable for all Americans. I hope our leaders are smart enough and responsible enough to do things right.

Health Care and Taxes

I do not think there are too many people in this country that would be opposed to some kind of health care reform. The amount of wasted money is outrageous. Hard working Americans that do not get health care because they cannot afford it, while those who sit and do nothing and get paid by the government to watch T.V. get at least minimal health care. There is a disconnect in this country in terms of health care.

The problem is this, how do we pay for it and how do we start to reform such a major issue? It has been tried before, time and time again to no avail.

It is true we have a President who is willing to do something about the problem. That is nice, except I disagree with what he wants to accomplish.

The topic I want to write about is in regards to my favorite objection: taxes.

The main way to pay for this reform that our President is striving for is to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. He proposes we tax those who make more than $200,000 a year. My issues is that this dollar amount is not that rich. You are middle class in New York City or Los Angeles. if you are a Doctor, you are paying off $160,000 in debt or more. The people who make these dollar amounts are the successful people in our country. The people that make our country the most competitive and the most successful, and the people that provide the most productivity in this country. They are the ones that buy the luxury houses, the cars, go on vacations, and already pay the bulk of the taxes. Something seem out of whack here. Why are we going to tax the doctors or pharmacists who provide this heath care?

We will deter people from becoming doctors and pharmacists who will provide the care we are trying to pay for. If a college student, already in debt by $200,000 is contemplating going to medical school, the almost insurmountable added debt load of another $200,000 is daunting enough. Doctors are already over-worked and slowly becoming underpaid, for what they do. As their pay decreases, hours go up, and debt load from tuition increases, it becomes less and less lucrative to spend an additional 8 or 10 years before making a 'good' salary. Then, once you get their you lose 50% of your pay to the government.

Wait a second? What is going on? I feel this is outrageous as we contemplate increasing taxes on people who contribute more than 80% or more of the population. It is backwards. Why do we not do anything about the tens of millions of lazy Americans who do nothing but take from those who produce. That is what has to stop and those are the people we must get the money to pay for the health care. Take away benefits from those who do not deserve it and you will be surprised how much money there will be left to pay for health care on the hard working men and women whose families suffer because despite their hard work they cannot pay for their health care needs.

Instead of going after the productive, let us look to the useless people who take and never give. It is time for them to give. No more entitlements, no more free everything.

Let's fix these banks. Let's fix this economy.

I am not a professional policy maker and I am not an economist.

But, I am a thinker and have had enough education and experience that
I think I can fix this economy, at least better than our current leaders are doing.
Then again, I do not think at this point anyone can make it worse.

First, it is necessary to understand how this economy works. Yes, there are
things such as employment, national productivity (GDP), company earnings,
personal spending, commodity prices, etc. However, a lot of how this works
is behavioral. I think people need to be studying behavioral economics to fix this
situation.

There was a lot of hope with Obama coming into office. Even I was hopeful. After all,
Hope and Change is why he won, and what we heard for almost 3 years. Suddenly Obama
wins and is quiet until he takes office. Once he is in 'POWER' he comes out, not with Hope and Change, but with Doom and Gloom. Where is the positive President we were hoping for? Where is the Fearless Leader who will take us back to prosperity? He is nowhere to be seen.

The Stock Market is often a measure of confidence. There is a large group of people who invest, and they are considered a gauge of the confidence of the people. Right now it stinks. There is no confidence in our future. Each time policy makers speak, especially the President, the market goes down. Each time there is a bailout the market goes down. There is no end in sight.

Right now the Administration is lacking in credibility. Obama has not done yet what he promised, except threaten to raise taxes and spend gobs of money. Congress has no bi-partisanship. There is continued bickering among all the Congressmen and Senators, worrying more about their own projects then the people who voted them in.

It seems that half the nominees of Obama either have tax issues or withdraw their name before confirmation. I have never seen something like this before. The Treasury in particular cannot even fully staff themselves, amidst one of the greatest financial tragedies of American History. No one wants to work for Geitner or Obama.

So, with all this going on it seems no one has confidence that the people elected will save us from this awful mess we find ourselves in.

Here is what they can do.

1) Be Positive. Yes, things are bad, but look at history. Learn from history. Teach the history. Things are bad, but not that bad. We are not as bad even as we were in 1980 - 1981. Things are not as bad as during Vietnam or World War II. Things have far to go before we reach something like the Great Depression. Things are still okay. We are still watching cable T.V. while talking on our I-Phones. We are going to McDonald's and shopping at Walmart. Could you do that in the Great Depression? I think we over exaggerate our current plight.

2) Fix the banks.

How?

Temporarily hault the need for Mark-To-Market accounting. Right now a lot of the banks assets are marked to $0, even though they still have some value. After all, many of their toxic assets right now are homes that have value.

Because of the accounting system they much mark the asset to $0 because right now there is no market for these toxic financial instruments. If it is temporarily changed to Mark-To-Model it is possible to have the assets valued.

If the government creates a private/public capital fund, creates the model to be used for the accounting, and have the banks sell the assets to this fund at the model value these toxic assets could be taken off the banks books with a value above the current $0.

This will stop all the write-downs and in fact there could be write-ups. A stipulation can even be put in place to ensure that if the value years from now does not reach the model value that at that point the banks can cover the funds loss on that value. This will give a few years for the banks to recover before possibly having to pay for any value discrepancies between the market and model values.

In many cases the fund can make a large amount of money as the value of the assets increases. After all, it is not like 100% of houses will go in default or 100% of home owners will stop making their payments.

It is said that if this is done there could be bank stocks that could more than double in one trading day. That would be a boost of confidence in the market.

3) Stop unnecessary spending.

All this talk about fixing health care is going to kill this economy. The stocks of hospitals, HMO, and pharmaceuticals took a deep dive this past week as the fear of Obama's policy finally hit one of the so-called safety stocks (especially the drug stocks). It will cost $100 Billion a year to do what Obama wants. It will decrease profits for 100s of companies. It will hurt the economy in the short run. Yes, it will help in the long run, and I agree we need to overhaul the health care system in this country. However, not now. Talk about it after we have recovered and can afford it.

The current proposed 2010 budget is appalling. A $3.6 Billion budget is unacceptable especially when it will need an increase in tax of the wealthiest Americans to be successful. That announcement has increased the decrease in confidence of our economy. Last time I checked it is the wealthy and upper middle class that already shoulder the largest burden of the taxes, and many of these individuals are the ones that move the stock market, make the jobs, spend the money, and feed all the people who don't work in this country. Bad idea in a recession President Obama, but then again I guess you did not read what they did after the Stock Market crash of 1929 and during the Great Depression. I think he believes that FDR saved our country by spending money and doing all the projects we learn about in history. However, if you actually read the history things did not get better, but often got worse. It was World War II that saved us and kick started our economy. I hope it is not a war that saves us this time, but good prudent and intelligent policy.

A Whole Bunch of Money Spent

Can you fathom all this money the government is spending. I do not argue that
to some extent it is necessary due to the horrible economic situation we are in.
However, do we need to spend THIS much money? With so many "so-called" smart
people we have running our country is it not possible to find a more efficient way to
complete this successfully?

The over $800 stimulus plan is a virtually uncountable some of money. If you were to
spend $1 Million every day since the Birth of Christ you will still not have spent all of the
stimulus package.

The thought that these greedy and sleazy politicians reaction to the complaints of the 'pork'
in the bill is that it is only a couple of percent of the bill so it is okay. What in the world are these
greedy and spoiled politicians thinking? Yes, maybe one of the pork projects is only 0.01% of the bill, but that could still be $80 Million. Wait a second, last time I checked the total amount that my immediate family will ever make in our lives is probably going to be less than that. The total income of the apartment complex I live in (including the apartment complex corporation) will not make that much in one year (or even 5 years). Every dollar counts, and until the politicians in Washington realize this, our country will never be great.

All politicians need to be held accountable, and I would say that any politician still working for pork barrel spending should be impeached, for he/she is violating the responsibility and trust that they were elected to uphold. It is no better than Gov. Blago in Illinois. Something to think about next time you vote for any public official.

The Stimulus Package

Well, I have been silent for a while, but here I go.

Did you know that the $787 Billion Stimulus Package signed into law is so big
that if you were born at the time of Christ, and spent $1 Million every day through
the end of 2009, you would have spent about $733 Billion. In fact we could go until
the year 2160 and still not quite reach it. That is a crazy number, and to think they spend
a measly month and a half coming up with it.

By the way, the bill is over 1100 pages long. I am not quite sure if anyone actually has
read the whole thing yet, or at least not the whole thing before they passed the legislation. Again, what a crazy idea.

Don't get me wrong, I am for 'A' stimulus package. This package that was passed will have to do (since it is already signed into law). I am just disappointed that there is so much stupid waste in the bill. Again, don't read this the wrong way since I am all for re-sodding the National Mall (to make it pretty for all the tourists). It is fine with me to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for STD prevention and birth control. I am okay with many of the 'wasteful' spending, as long as they are bills of their own. These are not things you spend money on when you are trying to avoid the biggest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. Come on people!

We elected Obama to change Washington. To come in with new ideas, new ideals, and new politics. However, it is all the same as before. Nothing has changed. How is this any different than Bush? In fact, because of Obama's lack of speed in fixing anything, and his lack of leadership over his own party has caused things to get worse. The economy is in a tailspin and Obama is hanging out smoking is cigarettes, and riding on Air Force One and calling it a 'spiffy ride.' We said this before we elected him, that this is not a job that has the wiggle room for 'on the job training.' I am afraid his training will cost the country's prosperity.

A stimulus package is great, but it is not the end all, be all plan that people hope for. When it comes to averting a depression or severe recession I think the sentiment of the people is key. Right now you have Obama leading the charge that the world is coming to an end unless we pass the stimulus package, fix the banks, fix housings, etc., etc. The man who rode the wave to victory with the message of hope and change is strangling the psyche of the American people. All of this negativity breeds more negativity. People lose hope, stop shopping and investing. Businesses brace for the worst and cut costs and employees. Without some positive energy our country is doomed to fall further into what quite possibly could be a world wide Great Depression II. I hope not, but I see nothing from our Leaders and Politicians that would prove that wrong. When will Washington finally learn? When will they get the message? When will they actually serve the interest of the common good and the American people, instead of themselves and their own reputations and wallets? I do not know, but I fear it will be never