I haven't read the recent Arizona Immigration Law, as a matter of fact, my primary source in regards to the law is Facebook with a little NPR thrown in. I think this qualifies my opinion as uninformed.
Illegal immigration is a problem. I think most Americans would agree with that. Where the issue lies is how to fix the problem. How do you bring together the contrasting opinions of "someone needs to do the jobs most Americans don't want anymore" and those who want to start building concrete fortresses around the borders? Arizona seems to think they found the solution.
According to my undoubtedly reliable source, the new Facebook group "1 million strong against Arizona Immigration Law SB1070," the law makes it a crime to be in the country illegally. Immigrants unable to produce documents proving their legal status could be arrested and jailed for up to six months. It also makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them. The big fear is that this will encourage racial profiling.
I find several flaws looking at this interpretation of the law. First, are all people who hire day labor really going to be required to check legal documents confirming legal residence? How will this be enforced, and should it be enforced? Second, isn't this entire concept discriminatory? If you look like you might be an illegal resident you had better have your papers or you will be arrested? Does anyone else see a parallel with Nazi Germany?
My moderate and uninformed opinion is this: Arizona you have probably gone too far. While no one else has been willing to take a firm position on illegal immigration there is a difference between taking a firm position and taking a crazy one.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Take Stock In Schoolhouse Rock
Was I the only one confused about the odd path the health care bill took during its legislative life? I swear the house voted on it eight times. It seems so much less complicated when it's shown in a cartoon.
Tea Party Pontificators
Erin Prince Anderson from Philadelphia sent me this gem. I was always suspicious of the tea party and now I know why. They're just like me, uninformed, except that instead of taking a moderate view toward things they don't know they go radical. I love the Disney themed, cyclopse clown suit at 1:11 (To get a full view of him double click on the video and watch it on youtube). If you take away the reference to the "funny stuff," he actually makes a pretty good point.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Health Care Class Five Hurricane - Part 2
Continuing where I left off on the last post, the new health care legislation is going to cost someone a lot of money, and by someone what I really mean is the rich. Sacrificing the money of the wealthy might be worth it in my eyes if this plan actually cuts the cost of medical care. It's insane how much hospitals charge. I recently looked at the itemized bill of someone who broke their leg and it was ridiculous. They charged over $200 for a pair of crutches! I saw the same exact pair at Walgreens for $24.95. Judging by the way they charged for a night stay at the hospital you would think it was a luxury suite on top of the Burj Dubai. No wonder insurance companies charge so much for coverage. Hospitals charge them a fortune and they have to pass it on to us. I'm sure insurance companies get a hefty discount on hospital services but even with a 2/3 reduction it's still highway robbery. If the mandate reduces the number of people using emergency rooms for unpaid primary care by 30 million, as it claims, it makes sense to me that it could reduce costs. As for the hoards of illegal immigrants who will not be covered by the plan and who will continue to use emergency rooms for primary care, hopefully they won't negate all of the cost cutting potential the plan seems to have.
Numerous other factors contribute to high health care costs as well. Many patients on health insurance plans see the doctor too often and receive unnecessary treatment because the patients don't see a significant, direct cost to themselves. The way in which doctors are paid is also a mess. Doctors have an insentive to treat patients unnecessarily because the more procedures a doctor performs, the more he/she gets paid. This is in addition to every hospital feeling like they need to purchase the latest technology to keep up with their peers. All these extra costs get passed on to the average person buying insurance. Does the new legislation address these issues? I have no idea. If it does I haven't heard about it. It makes me wonder -- How many of these problems does the bill need to address to make a real difference in cost? Does anyone know Steven Leavitt's number?
Republicans certainly don't think the bill will lower health care costs. I find this ironic since I'm pretty sure that doing nothing won't cut costs either (excuse the double negative), which is exactly what Republicans did during the eight years of Bush. They chose Social Security reform over health care reform. Social Security Reform tanked -- thank goodness in light of the financial collapse -- and the health care problem grew to where we find it today. 45 million or so uninsured is a big problem that Republicans let slide.
In the end, I'm luke warm about the legislation but I hate the timing. Since I am inherently selfish, I have no problem with taxing the rich. I just wish Obama would have made the economy and our skyrocketing debt his first priority and saved health care reform until later. Some may say it was now or never or that health care and the economy are so intertwined that one cannot be fixed without the other, but I don't buy it. I think our economy's biggest problem is our debt and this bill will cost a lot of money. In my judgement, this health care cage match ends in a draw. Both sides lose. Democrats shouldn't have launched this during touch economic times and Republicans shouldn't be so annoying. Stop calling everyone a socialist!
Thus concludes my uninformed review of health care. You are probably thinking, "Reading this was a total waste of my time. This person has no idea what he's talking about" and you are probably right. But that's the beauty of the blog. It's a snapshot of the thoughts of the average uninformed American. Please feel free to share your uninformed opinions on the health care. To have something posted on the site, email your comment to moderateanduninformed@gmail.com. Otherwise, use the comment box below.
Numerous other factors contribute to high health care costs as well. Many patients on health insurance plans see the doctor too often and receive unnecessary treatment because the patients don't see a significant, direct cost to themselves. The way in which doctors are paid is also a mess. Doctors have an insentive to treat patients unnecessarily because the more procedures a doctor performs, the more he/she gets paid. This is in addition to every hospital feeling like they need to purchase the latest technology to keep up with their peers. All these extra costs get passed on to the average person buying insurance. Does the new legislation address these issues? I have no idea. If it does I haven't heard about it. It makes me wonder -- How many of these problems does the bill need to address to make a real difference in cost? Does anyone know Steven Leavitt's number?
Republicans certainly don't think the bill will lower health care costs. I find this ironic since I'm pretty sure that doing nothing won't cut costs either (excuse the double negative), which is exactly what Republicans did during the eight years of Bush. They chose Social Security reform over health care reform. Social Security Reform tanked -- thank goodness in light of the financial collapse -- and the health care problem grew to where we find it today. 45 million or so uninsured is a big problem that Republicans let slide.
In the end, I'm luke warm about the legislation but I hate the timing. Since I am inherently selfish, I have no problem with taxing the rich. I just wish Obama would have made the economy and our skyrocketing debt his first priority and saved health care reform until later. Some may say it was now or never or that health care and the economy are so intertwined that one cannot be fixed without the other, but I don't buy it. I think our economy's biggest problem is our debt and this bill will cost a lot of money. In my judgement, this health care cage match ends in a draw. Both sides lose. Democrats shouldn't have launched this during touch economic times and Republicans shouldn't be so annoying. Stop calling everyone a socialist!
Thus concludes my uninformed review of health care. You are probably thinking, "Reading this was a total waste of my time. This person has no idea what he's talking about" and you are probably right. But that's the beauty of the blog. It's a snapshot of the thoughts of the average uninformed American. Please feel free to share your uninformed opinions on the health care. To have something posted on the site, email your comment to moderateanduninformed@gmail.com. Otherwise, use the comment box below.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Health Care Class Five Hurricane - Part 1
I think the behemoth of complexity that is the new health care legislation is an appropriate place to start this blog. Who really understands the health care bill anyway? It seems like only those with a PHD in economics and a massive amount of free time have a fighting chance. According to Politico, the health care bill was a laughable 1,990 pages! That's like reading the Old Testament twice, except even more boring (Sorry Obadiah). I think it's safe to say that only a select few individuals know what the bill actually contains, not to mention understnads how it will effect our country. Apparently, student loan reform was somehow shoved in there, which makes no sense. How is the average American supposed to sort through this? I think it's impossible, unless, again, you want to read the entire thing and freshen up on econometrics. I only know what I've read on Yahoo News during my boring moments at work and what I've seen on the national news -- that is when I make it home by 5:30pm, which is almost never. The following is my uninformed opinion about the new health care legislation. I apologize in advance for how obnoxious, repetitive and rambling my thoughts are.
The bill seems to have some good parts to it. It forces insurance companies to cover sick people (Isn't that what they're supposed to do in the first place?). Those with pre-existing conditions can now get insurance and those who get sick can not be dropped by their insurance provider. Is there really anyone who thinks those are bad ideas? These seem like no-brainers.
Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be all home runs. One controversial flash point is the insurance mandate. The mandate will involve a fine for those who refuse to purchase insurance. This doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me, but then again nobody likes the government pushing them around. The idea of the government forcing everyone to get insurance seems a bit too Big Brotherish, even if it is in everyone's best interest. Hopefully the mandate will stop the "I use the emergency room for primary care and can't pay" people who help make hospitals ridiculously expensive. Everyone goes through gaps of insurance coverage but depending on free medical service from emergency rooms screws everyone over. The hospitals take the hit and then pass it on to their paying customers. Does that justify an insurance mandate though? Tough call.
The most troubling portion of the bill to me has to be the funding related to the mandate. There are government provided subsidies to help the financially troubled meet the mandate and purchase insurance. This seems like a good idea (Who doesn't want to help out the poor?) but won't this cost the government loads of money? There are a lot of poor people out there. Are we the tax payers really going to subsidize millions of people's insurance? It sure appears that way...
Now I know that we are not exactly coming off the most fiscally responsible Presidency with George W at the helm. He spent money like nobody's business. Iraq and Afghanistan alone cost us somewhere near a bizilion dollars, not to mention the bank crisis and bailout that insued in his last year as President. Obama is inheriting a financial mess, no doubt about it. I feel bad for the guy. One would think, though, that instituting an expensive social program at a time like this would be irresponsible. It makes no sense, barring some crazy economic theory. Unless John Meynard Keynes comes back from the grave and explains to me why we should spend loads of money while we're in mountains of debt and fighting off a wicked recession, I think it's a bad idea.
Inevitably someone is going to get hit with higher taxes. Rich people... I'm sorry but this doesn't look good. It's sure looking like the majority of the burden will fall upon those who benefit the least from this legislation: those making over $250,000 a year. I'm fine with this now, seeing as I would have to make over eight times my current salary to hit that threshold, but if I ever make a lot of money I'm going to be PISSED! Until then I'm down...
This concludes part 1 of the Health Care Hurrican. This subject is so vast that the act of typing out a mere half of my uninformed thoughts has taken me the better part of a work day. Please post any comments you have on the subject or any fact corrections. Being uninformed, I really have no idea whether what I said is actually right.
The bill seems to have some good parts to it. It forces insurance companies to cover sick people (Isn't that what they're supposed to do in the first place?). Those with pre-existing conditions can now get insurance and those who get sick can not be dropped by their insurance provider. Is there really anyone who thinks those are bad ideas? These seem like no-brainers.
Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be all home runs. One controversial flash point is the insurance mandate. The mandate will involve a fine for those who refuse to purchase insurance. This doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me, but then again nobody likes the government pushing them around. The idea of the government forcing everyone to get insurance seems a bit too Big Brotherish, even if it is in everyone's best interest. Hopefully the mandate will stop the "I use the emergency room for primary care and can't pay" people who help make hospitals ridiculously expensive. Everyone goes through gaps of insurance coverage but depending on free medical service from emergency rooms screws everyone over. The hospitals take the hit and then pass it on to their paying customers. Does that justify an insurance mandate though? Tough call.
The most troubling portion of the bill to me has to be the funding related to the mandate. There are government provided subsidies to help the financially troubled meet the mandate and purchase insurance. This seems like a good idea (Who doesn't want to help out the poor?) but won't this cost the government loads of money? There are a lot of poor people out there. Are we the tax payers really going to subsidize millions of people's insurance? It sure appears that way...
Now I know that we are not exactly coming off the most fiscally responsible Presidency with George W at the helm. He spent money like nobody's business. Iraq and Afghanistan alone cost us somewhere near a bizilion dollars, not to mention the bank crisis and bailout that insued in his last year as President. Obama is inheriting a financial mess, no doubt about it. I feel bad for the guy. One would think, though, that instituting an expensive social program at a time like this would be irresponsible. It makes no sense, barring some crazy economic theory. Unless John Meynard Keynes comes back from the grave and explains to me why we should spend loads of money while we're in mountains of debt and fighting off a wicked recession, I think it's a bad idea.
Inevitably someone is going to get hit with higher taxes. Rich people... I'm sorry but this doesn't look good. It's sure looking like the majority of the burden will fall upon those who benefit the least from this legislation: those making over $250,000 a year. I'm fine with this now, seeing as I would have to make over eight times my current salary to hit that threshold, but if I ever make a lot of money I'm going to be PISSED! Until then I'm down...
This concludes part 1 of the Health Care Hurrican. This subject is so vast that the act of typing out a mere half of my uninformed thoughts has taken me the better part of a work day. Please post any comments you have on the subject or any fact corrections. Being uninformed, I really have no idea whether what I said is actually right.
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