Heath Care Reform - Part 1

Wow, this thing is huge. I have been reading and reviewing all sorts of text and summaries on all kinds of websites run by all sorts of organizations.

First, let me say this. I am not against every American man, woman or child having access to health insurance or health care. However, I am not in favor of entitlements and give-a-way programs that allow people to create an entire lifestyle out of not working and living on government programs and handouts for their entire lives. There should be limits. For the most part I think everyone should earn his or her own way in life more often than not, but I digress.

So far, I can see there are probably some good things in this legislation, like not allowing health insurance companies to deny people for pre-existing conditions or dropping them if they get too sick and no longer allowing annual or lifetime limitations. I can also see some bad things, like the creation of so many new bureaus, committees, agencies, departments, task forces etc.

For the sake of this post, I am going to go touch on redundancy. Redundancy; exceeding what is necessary or normal or characterized by similarity or repetition.

Title IV, Subtitle B, Section 4101 – School Based Health Centers. In summary, his section creates and authorizes a grant program for the operation and development of School-Based Health Clinics, which will provide comprehensive and accessible preventive and primary health care services to medically underserved children and families. Appropriates $50 million each year for fiscal years 2010 through 2013 for expenditures for facilities and equipment.

Title II, Subtitle A, Section 2001 – Medicaid coverage for the lowest income populations. This section changes the eligibility and income standards to allow more low-income people, including children to qualify for Medicaid coverage.

Title II, Subtitle B – Enhanced support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Section 2101 – This section basically sets up additional Federal financial participation in the CHIP program with certain state requirements, certain tax credits and increases in outreach and enrollment grants by $40 million.

Are all of these ideas/programs good ideas? Sure, but do we really need three programs that are so similar? They all aim to serve low-income children. They all have a bunch of eligibility requirements, income guidelines and program coverage’s. I don’t disagree that children should be and need to be taken care of but does there really need to be 3 programs to do this? There could even be other programs for low-income children in this legislation, I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Why not make one program that “does it all”? Why does it seem that our government makes things much more complicated than they need to be? It seems to me all that really needs to be done is to set up qualifying income guidelines, ensure they don’t have or qualify for any other insurance (via parents or guardians) and be under age 18 and set up the program coverage’s. Why can’t it be that simple?

Having all of these redundant programs, people to administer said programs and all of the mandated funding will only cost the taxpayers of this country more money than it needs to. It could be so simple. It really could.

It boils down to this; how are all of these programs going to be administered when they are so complicated and overlapping and with so many exceptions and exemptions? It could be at the very least financially disastrous for our country. The consequences could potentially be so far reaching I don’t think any of us can even begin to imagine them all.

I once had someone say to me and I’m paraphrasing here - no law is ever perfect, so let’s just get it passed the way it is and deal with the problems later. That is probably ok when you are talking about local ordinances regarding issues like noise or junk car regulations. But do we really want that kind of attitude when it comes to the huge issue of health care reform when we are talking about trillions of dollars? I do believe I have heard sound bites of President Obama saying something like “Just get it done.” Is this something we can afford to just get done or do we want to get it done right?

It makes you wonder what is going to happen at the voting polls in November. I guess only time will tell. I can tell you one thing though, I will be at the polls on Election Day and I will cast my vote!

Commitment

I don’t know about you, but to me, commitment is commitment, plain and simple. If I’ve made a commitment of some kind, any kind, I will follow through. I’ve given my word or signed on the proverbial dotted line and I will stick to it.

Now, on the news lately (the Today Show for example) I have seen financial &/or real estate experts actually recommending that people who are upside down or underwater in their current mortgage, go out & buy a cheaper house with presumably a smaller mortgage and walk away from the current house and mortgage.

I have a problem with that. I have a HUGE problem with that. If these people are working and are still capable of making their mortgage payment they should continue to do so. Walking away to buy something cheaper, or bigger or different or whatever, is just wrong to me. They made a commitment! They signed a legal contract! Perhaps it makes sense when you consider the financial side of it. But….does it make moral sense? What are we as a Nation teaching people by recommending this? What are we teaching our children? I’ll tell you what we are teaching them. We are teaching them that when things get hard or when an agreement, contract or commitment no longer works for them, they can just break it. Just walk away.

What has happened to the value of commitment? What has happened to the value of a person’s word? What happened to integrity? What is happening to our Nation's moral compass?

I know that many homes have been “lost” to foreclosure for a variety of reasons, one being loss of income. I truly do feel bad for people in situations that are no fault of their own. But just walking away from a mortgage contract because you no longer like the terms is flat out WRONG!

The house market has ups and downs. We should all know this. I think with the housing boom of the mid to late ’90’s we all got a little spoiled. If you are upside down in your current mortgage and do not absolutely have to sell or move, sit tight, go to work, make your house payment and wait. Wait out the market. If you need or want to sell, well you just might take a loss. Personally, I would rather take a financial loss and keep my integrity and teach my children to do the right thing. If I don’t have my word or my integrity then I have nothing. What do you have?

About this blog

I decided to start this blog because of the current health care reform bill that has polarized the nation. (more on this later after I do my homework on the subject) I intend to write about my opinions on all kinds of things; political issues, social issues, pet peeves, kids and parenting issues, marriage, pop culture, reality TV... anything and everything that comes to mind that I have an opinion about – which is virtually everything! You may wonder why you should care about my opinion. Well, you don't have to. I just think it will be fun and interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks and where my thoughts and opinions fit into the grand scheme of things.

You may or may not agree with me and that is totally OK. I can agree to disagree if need be - I just hope you can too. My intention is to get people thinking and talking about important issues. I will probably toss in a few absurd, fun or lighthearted subjects as well, just for the fun of it.

I encourage people to comment on my postings, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just remember, these are my opinions and are not intended to hurt feelings - it's NOT personal. I reserve the right to remove any feedback that is disrespectful, vulgar, hateful or inappropriate for any reason. This is not the place to be mean or rude - respectful comments only please.

I also strongly encourage people to write to their local, state and federal elected officials using calm, decisive, factual and respectful words. The only way to have our voices heard by our representatives is to communicate with them in a reasonable manner. If more people participated in THEIR government maybe things would be different. Sitting around in a coffee shop, bar or anywhere else and complaining and griping about something changes nothing. If you want to change the way things are, you have to actually do something, write a letter, volunteer, work on something...anything, just DO SOMETHING POSITIVE!

I believe in participation in the democratic process – yes, that means voting. If you don’t vote, don’t let me hear you complain about political issues or officials, EVER!

I will do my “homework” on serious topics before I spout off on an issue of importance (for example – the current health care reform issue). If I don’t know something, I’ll admit it. There’s nothing I find more annoying than someone ranting and raving about a topic they know absolutely nothing about. You certainly won't catch me ranting and raving on this blog without first investigating the issue and finding out as many facts as I can. Opinions are great but without supporting facts they are just a bunch of idiotic drivel. That’s it in a nutshell.

I look forward to debating with you on the subjects I blog about!