Health care

kristy2078

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With the health care reform stalling, I have been brainstorming a bit for writing up some new ideas to send to Obama or someone on his administration. It's a huge war between capitalism and socialism. So a couple ideas:

1. All minors are covered under a federally funded health care program (until age of 18 or high school graduation, whichever comes last). When a minor turns 18 or has graduated from high school, he/she has to be enrolled on his/her parents' insurance from 18 until 26. This will keep him/her covered while starting an adult life without parents without getting sick, going into medical debt, etc right off the bat. At 26 (or earlier if desired), he/she can choose his/her own insurance.

2. If any minor has a disability, he/she remains in the same health care program for life. If an adult is later diagnosed as disabled, he/she is qualifed to be covered by the program if he/she isn't already covered by private insurance or workplace insurance.

Ideally, I would prefer a national health care program for all no matter what income or condition, but this concept is not gaining points in DC. So, I figured it's better to have all minors covered and let private insurance companies cater to adults, plus have all disabled people be covered. I personally believe that a lot of people who apply for SSI/SSDI could potentially get better and return to the worforce if they had proper medical care. If someone applies for SSI/SSDI, he/she has to wait two years after starting SSI/SSDI to get on Medicare. Why allow their conditions to get worse during those two years?

So if all minors are covered, schools then can get 100% federal funds for evaluations and certain services and all adaptive equipment. As it is now, the government is NOT fulfilling a law that requires the feds to pay 40% of special education costs.

When the costs of medical care for minors and disabilities are out of the way, private insurance then has reduced costs and then can decrease their premiums, deductibles, etc. for their adult clients. Capitalism and socialism can co-exist and compromise.

What do you think?

EDIT: Oh and the third idea is to allocate all of tobacco and alcohol sales tax money to health care.
 
...Oh and the third idea is to allocate all of tobacco and alcohol sales tax money to health care.
Then, the more people smoke and drink, the more revenue for health care? Does the mean people would be encouraged to drink and smoke because that would provide more money for heath care? But that could backfire because with more people smoking and drinking there would be an increase in health problems, which would use up the extra revenue. :hmm:

Or, if people are encourage to cut back or quit smoking and drinking, then the health care revenue would increase.

I don't think it's a good idea to link health care revenue with tobacco and alcohol use.
 
Then, the more people smoke and drink, the more revenue for health care? Does the mean people would be encouraged to drink and smoke because that would provide more money for heath care? But that could backfire because with more people smoking and drinking there would be an increase in health problems, which would use up the extra revenue. :hmm:

Or, if people are encourage to cut back or quit smoking and drinking, then the health care revenue would increase.

I don't think it's a good idea to link health care revenue with tobacco and alcohol use.

Actually, the fewer people who smoke or drink, the lower the health care cost would be. 90% of lung cancer in men/80% in women is caused by smoking. Treating lung cancer takes about $40,000 (more or less, depending on severity, duration, type of treatment, etc), and 203,536 people were diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, costing a total of $8.14 billion in the US. Tobacco revenue alone was $16.6 million and alcohol revenue was $5.8 million in 2008 (total $22.4 million).

And besides, the revenue is only a small part of funding. The rest will have to come from other taxes. If someone is dumb enough to ruin their health, they may as well just pay a tax on their consumption of alcohol and tobacco and support the care of their fellow smokers and drinkers.
 
Wirelessly posted (BB Curve 9300)

Oh, I missed the part about the tobacco/alcohol revenue paying for only the diseases of smokers and drinkers. Would they have to prove the causes of their diseases?

How about using food taxes to pay for treatment of obesity-related diseases?
 
I like the Idea but how about using 10% of the state lottery money for it also
 
Wirelessly posted (BB Curve 9300)

Our state lottery profits go to the schools. I don't think the school people want their money used for other things.
 
I like the Idea but how about using 10% of the state lottery money for it also

why? that's crazy.

Why should I pay for other people especially with my winning money? 10% is ridiculously high.

10% of current Mega Millions ($43 million) is $4,300,000. Even billionaires don't pay that much in taxes.
 
Wirelessly posted (BB Curve 9300)

Our state lottery profits go to the schools. I don't think the school people want their money used for other things.

Funny, our lottery profits go to the schools as well, and the really sad part is, the schools are losing money so fast they have to lay off teachers and support staff and somewhere I read they may close more public schools.
 
Funny, our lottery profits go to the schools as well, and the really sad part is, the schools are losing money so fast they have to lay off teachers and support staff and somewhere I read they may close more public schools.

it's probably for the best. if they're bleeding dry and they can't make do - then it means that government-runned program has failed them and private school is probably the best for these students for now.
 
it's probably for the best. if they're bleeding dry and they can't make do - then it means that government-runned program has failed them and private school is probably the best for these students for now.

Most parents can't afford private schools. These are even more expensive than public schools.

The reason the public schools are bleeding dry is that their towns have been voting on lower and lower budgets due to the economy. I would recommend cutting some office admin (who needs that many secretaries?), minimize how many sports teams a school has (who needs that many teams for one school?), etc. Oh and kick the federal ass and get them to pay the full 40% of special education costs as required by law.

Part of the cost increases is hiring specialized staff to deal with high risk students, rowdy students, etc. A teacher cannot do it all these days, and it's not fair to the teacher or the students for the teacher to lose instructional time when a student acts out. Communities should also take on more responsibility and create programs for after school so students are less likely to be out and about doing drugs or something.
 
Oh, I missed the part about the tobacco/alcohol revenue paying for only the diseases of smokers and drinkers. Would they have to prove the causes of their diseases?

How about using food taxes to pay for treatment of obesity-related diseases?


Well, no not just for related diseases but for health care in general. After all, smoking around people can also cause respiratory problems, ear infections, and drunken driving can cause physical harm to other people in an accident. It's not really that simple to just keep various sources of funding separate for specific conditions.

While it is true that obesity is caused by eating too much, it's true only for some people. Some others get fat because of a medical condition. You also have to look at socioeconomic trends; low income people are more likely to purchase low nutrition processed foods because these items are cheaper and coupons are rare for fresh or frozen produce (rarer for fresh). So, I would advocate for no tax on fresh and frozen produce but institute a low tax rate on certain processed foods. By 'certain', I mean things like candy, potato chips, cookies, salt, etc, because things like bread and pasta and milk may be necessary for some people's survival.
 
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