Health Insurance

Health insurance reform is a bane to everybody. Small businessmen and the self employed see it as yet another regulation by government. Businessmen who insure themselves and their employees see it as a not insignificant expense. Health insurance costs begin at around $6.00 per hour worked. In some circumstances it is as much as $15.00 per man-hour. Many employees forgo health insurance because the premium cost is often half or more of their take home pay.

Some claim the employer fails to pay more out of greed, but in most cases, he is paying about as much in wages and benefits as he can afford. The simple fact is his goods and services could become priced out of the market. It is one of the biggest reasons why we are losing manufacturing and even service sector jobs to overseas providers. They work with a lower wage and benefit cost.  We decry the use of slave like and child labor, but we continue to buy the products they produce.


The problem is that we argue for "free trade" but honestly we want it by our rules. What are our rules?  First we have a minimum wage. How do you compete with the minimum wage. I think everyone believes the minimum wage we have here is too low to live even frugally on. This is not an argument against the minimum wage, honestly I think it is too low. This said, it is way higher than the international market we are competing with.


Most wage earners who make near the minimum are uninsured or using public means such as Medicaid, CHiP, and Medicare.  When we move people off the public assistance insurance source we send them onto the public hospital route. This is unpaid care. What do I mean hospital route? It means using the ER as their primary care provider. In some cases hospitals provide this care by certifying the patient as needy. In other cases the patient is given care (some places give full care and others give only immediate necessary care) and the patient is billed and bullied for payment they cannot or will not pay for. This makes a mess of our emergency care system and is much more expensive than routine primary care.

I wish I knew how to make this happen short of large-scale government support or worse so government mandates that raise the expense he pays for labor (through insurance premium cost) with marginal if existent increases in income.

If anyone has a suggestion, it would make for great discussion even if it gets shot down by the realities of it all. I am looking for your suggestions or comments.

If I had a Billion dollars...

What is a billion dollars? It is a thousand million. The one hundred-seventy-three billion we (the US treasury) loaned the AIG group is nearly six hundred dollars for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.A. The federal debt is over $7.000 for each of us. Where does it stop. Put into perspective, the federal debt is $45000 per family of five. If that were a car at 5.0% interest the monthly payment would be $850.00 per month for 5 years put over 20 years it still be would be $300.00.If we did no more deficit spending or borrowing.

I need a job

Eight years ago someone told me to get anywhere i needed a degree. At forty-two, I went back. I finished a degree plan from my twenties. Political Science. It was the quickest way to finish (4 long semesters) while working forty hours a week. I did OK. 3.0 Wish I could have done better, but time was a killer.

In the meantime as the economy soured, the demand for degrees became more in the realm of a specific degree. I looked mid career to those hiring entry level people and lacked true management experience to those who would be considered mid-career.

Update,... I have a job. I need a special purpose......

A proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States of America

Subject: AN amendment relating to eligibility, terms, and limits for service in the Houses of Congress of the United States.

A person may serve up to 4 full terms of two years in the lower house (House of Representatives.) in his lifetime.He also may not stand for election after having served  7 years  in the house..

A person may serve up to three full terms of six years in the upper house (the Senate)
He also may not stand for election or reappointment after having served a total of fifteen years in the Senate.

For a person to be eligible for election to the Lower House he must have lived in his district for three years immediately previously and must have been present in his district either 275 days in the year previous to filing for the election or an average of three-hundred days or more over the previous three years. Current Incumbents of the US House seeking reelection are exempt from this qualification.

For election to the Upper Chamber, a person must have  must have lived and worked in his state for three years immediately previously and must have been present in his state either 275 days in the year previous to filing for the election or an average of three-hundred days or more over the previous three years. Current Incumbents of the US Senate seeking reelection are exempt from this qualification.

Upon the Decennial Census based reapportionment,an incumbent member of the House of Representatives may seek reelection to the same seat he currently occupies
 or one that either represents the incumbent's home of record from the previous term or an adjacent district that 3/8th's or more of the district's residents were in said Representative's previous district.

60 Thousand dollars

What is a family income of sixty thousand dollars a year?

$7000 in Federal income tax.
$5400 in a car note
$2500 in Car insurance
$3900 in Health insurance
$12000 in Housing
$5000 in Utilities
$2250 in fuel (18K miles)
$7800 groceries
$1800 clothing
$5200 Misc medical, dental, etc
$2400 in household insurance
$4750 for EVERYTHING ELSE

This is in TEXAS what about California or New York? 

Credit Scoring

If we cut off all the thumbs of America's babies, thumb sucking would cease. So a good cure for the scourge of thumb sucking would be amputation of the opposing thumb. Sounds really stupid. Sure, it would cure the problem, but it is not the best or even a reasonable solution.

Credit scoring works on a similar idea. The idea is the score indicates the risk. When the risk does indeed pan out then it must be true.

NOT so fast. The problem is just like payday loans, the higher the cost, the less ability one has to pay the note. You pick something to buy on  credit (a car, a home, or just a vacation) you apply for credit. Generally you can find someone who will finance you. The problem is that it may cost immensely more. So a person who has to pay a larger payment each month has more problems paying than someone with a smaller one? That in itself is logical.

I am not advocating that banks and finance providers blithely loan all the money they have to anyone with no REGARD TO RISK. There are two things that would help everybody No "not this amount" or even no "not any amount." This has to be tempered by decisions based on loan officers training and instinct. Often people with EXCELLENT Fair Isaac Scores default. Sometimes those with 4-hundred-somethings default. With the same income and  monthly payment amount, the reason the one with the better score does better is simply that he can get more credit to help him through the rough spots. The guy with the dismal score just has to take it on the chin and get behind. 


In a nutshell, I believe the accuracy of the FICO scores is more about the debt load the marginal or bad FICO score puts on a borrower than the predictability of the score.

My Visa Whine (Ongoing) E1 and H1 status

We have HUGE numbers of foreign doctors, nurses, and technicians. Are they smarter, more motivated, or more dedicated to study than their  US counterparts? No.

While federal grants, loans, and other financial aid do a good job of paying for education including very basic housing and living expenses, very few students from families of modest means manage to get through without working part of full-time. At the point that they reach graduation the idea of more school is mortifying. The process for getting into medical school is daunting. Even then many very qualified candidates are turned down due to the limits in the capacity of our medical schools. We don't have the capability to train more doctors here.

Now to nurses. Our problem in nursing is even worse. The biggest problem is that our brightest students do not even consider nursing. Why? It is still viewed at the high school level as a vocational program. Here in Texas the majority of the nursing programs are still in our community colleges. There are BSN and Even MSN programs, but still most beginning RN's are taught through vocational departments at our community colleges. Nursing students as a whole are older. They are the back to school types. RN's with 5 years of experience make 60K a year or more. Teachers make 40. A whole lot of Junior attorneys make less.

It is true we need more Doctors, Nurses and even engineers. We need to be training US students for these jobs. The key is be able to create capacity we need to pay teachers as much as they would make in practicing their craft. How do we pay for that? Clearly the flow of state and federal funds are stretched to their breaking point. The cost of a degree is outstripping the ability of the students to repay. Lenders are hesitant to loan students more as their education concludes as it is. Obviously higher tuition is not the sole criterion.

Here is a big part of the answer. Make the entities hiring these immigrants pay 10% of their total compensation or $20,000 per year whichever is greater.  Literally have the imported labor pay for the next generation of students. It may create a reduction in the availability of providers, but I think it would create a training thrust to offset it after only a year or two. My bet is that part of the reason they hire these professionals is as much about making more money as it is about having more providers.

We have to reduce the number of highly paid immigrants. To do this we have to train qualified American students!