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Beware of the Preventive Health Care Bogeyman
I work for a large state university system, which has recently initiated a large preventive health care benefit program. If this is what prevention programs will be like, such a policy move should be reconsidered. I view this program as a gigantic waste of money. Some of the PR around this program bases it support on the assumption that what people need to take care of themselves is a "nudge." The allocation of money for this "nudge", however, takes away money from health care rather than encouraging it. Employees have been asked to voluntarily take part in a health assessment questionnaire. This questionnaire includes questions on why certain steps have not been taken to improve one's health. The questionnaire introduces statistical bias and is invalid; there is nowhere on the questionnaire where a person can state that one cannot afford the cost of the copays. So, for example, if a person wants to lose weight and can't afford the copays for visits to the primary care physician, specialist and nutritionist, there is nowhere on the form where this becomes apparent. The person is assumed to need a "nudge," whereas the real need is lower copays. Upon completion of the questionnaire, the employee is given a $75 gift certificate. The employee chooses from a list of vendors participating in the program. Most of these vendors are large chains selling discretionary items. Target is the only business on the list that sells food. Although this is a preventive health program, there are no health food stores on the list. There is also no vision care chain, dental group or hearing aid company on the list, so the employee cannot use the $75 towards the copays for these health care needs. The $75 can be used towards university gym fees, but since it doesn't cover the full amount, it will not help staff members afford the fee. There is no provision for the employee to use the $75 to pay for the copays for 5 office visits. Also, there is no provision for employees to use the $75 for necessities such as housing, gasoline or car repairs. There is no way a person can direct the money into paying for child care or elder care. There are some pharmacies accepting the card, but it is already cheaper to use the university pharmacy in many cases. This means that a huge amount of money allocated as a health care benefit is actually being diverted for employees to purchase discretionary items at large chain stores that do not provide any health-related products or services at all. Most people I know are choosing Target in the hope that the gift card can be used toward the purchase of food (if there is no exclusion in fine print). Another "benefit" offered by the prevention plan is access to health coaches 24 hours per day by phone. There is no way a person call and get a counselor 24 hours a day if one has an argument with one's spouse or experiences workplace stress or is exhausted from caring for an elderly parent. But there are those health coaches 24 hours a day for all of those preventive "emergencies." When our society is being told that there is not enough money to provide people with health care, I think we have to very careful about what the money is being spent on and whether the existing funds are being directed to where the real needs are.
Is there anybody out there? Roger Waters
According to the Office of Tax Analysis, the U.S. individual income tax is "highly progressive," with a small group of higher-income taxpayers paying most of the individual income taxes each year.
Treasury Department analysts credit President Bush's tax cuts with shifting a larger share of the individual income taxes paid to higher income taxpayers. In 2005, says the Treasury, when most of the tax cut provisions are fully in effect (e.g., lower tax rates, the $1,000 child credit, marriage penalty relief), the projected tax share for lower-income taxpayers will fall, while the tax share for higher-income taxpayers will rise.
The White House has announced it will lobby Congress to pass legislation making most of President Bush's tax cutting measures permanent.
Source: U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis
I take it you support my proposal to tax the movement of money Fox.
Are You Rich? $92,000.00 Puts You in Top 10%
The Tax Foundation ^ | The Tax Foundation
Posted on 01/07/2003 3:32:10 PM PST by Weimdog
Newest Data Show High-Income Taxpayers Earning and Paying More
Top 25 Percent Paid 84 Percent of Income Taxes; Top One Paid 37.4 Percent
According to preliminary data released by the Internal Revenue Service and a new Tax Foundation Special Report, the top-earning 25 percent of taxpayers earned more than two-thirds of the nation's income (67.3%) and paid more than five out of every six dollars collected by the federal income tax (84%) in 2000. There were 32 million tax returns in the top 25 percent, all with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $55,225.
The top one percent of U.S. taxpayers (annual income over $313,469) made 20.8 percent of the income earned in 2000 and paid 37.4 percent of the total federal individual income taxes collected that year. This fraction of the tax burden paid by the top one percent - well over a third of the total - is up from 25.1 percent ten years earlier in tax year 1990.
At the other end of the income spectrum, the bottom 50 percent of the nation's taxpayers earned only 13.0 percent of all income in 2000, but they paid an even smaller fraction of the federal individual income taxes collected - 3.9 percent.
The data come from Tax Foundation Special Report No. 118, titled, "Who Pays the Federal Individual Income Tax?" by economist David Hoffman.
"Americans at the upper end of the income scale continue to bear an increasing share of the total federal individual income tax burden," observed Hoffman. "In a progressive tax system like ours, economic growth inevitably results in a steady shifting of the tax burden up the income scale. Although the current economic slowdown did begin in 2000, the annual growth rate for that year was still 5 percent, so a higher percentage of tax collections came in from high earners."
As the table shows, the top five percent of income earners (adjusted gross income over $128,336) and the top 10 percent (adjusted gross income over $92,114) both pay a significantly greater portion of federal individual income taxes than they did a decade ago.
Howard Dean is first
Thankful to Thankful for Dean
Want my Country Back
9:28 pm est
galloping crud
Fox and Rooney
hammer toes
LOL ~ despite my joining in on the curses, I love bfa and its bloggers. My monetary support will resume when the blog gives times again and the servers are synchronized.
♥'s
9:36 pm est
impacted wisdom teeth (if any exist)
Phil, that tops 'em ALL!
9:36 pm est
Phil, I can't get into my email, but I may be bringin kid3 to IA first week of March. Weather depending, I'll come up from Iowa city and see you.
9:41 pm est
Obama being introduced by Gov. Jim Doyle (WI) on C-Span.
sleeping on the couch for 3+ years
The truth is most folks don't ever want to be ill but when they do get ill or injured they deserve to have quality care that is affordable and is accountable to everybody. It is grossly ignorant and negligent of any healthcare provider who assumes or any healthcare program that is based on the assumption that most folks enjoy illness because they do not. If you take all the politics of money, engines of profit, contract negotiations and stocks options out of medicine what you get is quality healthcare that is affordable and accountable to all. Then it doesn't matter if the person seeking care is a minor, widowed, retired, a working or non-working adult.
Whiplash?
dust bunnies
food poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance#H...
The Greeks and Romans introduced the origins of health and life insurance c. 600 AD when they organized guilds called "benevolent societies" which cared for the families and paid funeral expenses of members upon death
Hey Donna :-)
10:55 pm est
You're too goddamned lazy to research your own party's delegate selection & state convention rules
Actually, mainefool, I've been pasting and linking to facts about the superdelegates all along while you have stood upon your self-made pedestal and shed heat without light.
I know you don't like being contradicted in front of everyone, but you'll just have to learn to live with it if you're going to shoot off that oversized mouth of yours around here.
toenail fungus
sleeping on the couch for 3+ years
------------
This one tickled my funny bone even though it probably wasn't so funny, thankful. :-(
----------
I guess disgusting ailments will be popping up until this damned blog is fixed. Is there anyone running this blog?
:-D great curses happening. Like everyone else, I'm more interested in some fixes.
11:31 pm est
diverticulitus
yeah, it wasn't so funny vb, but did end up freeing me to a whole new life ;-)
11:32 pm est
oh, and just for Fox.... a pox. and anal warts.....for squatting on firsties and spamming with Bush propaganda.
Listening to Jimi Hendrix albums here, about to call it a night as I may be driving tomorrow...
♥'s to all
Kindness is free!
new thread
http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/23884...
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Videos of some of the 64 House Healthcare Heroes standing strong for a public health insurance option
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver
Congressman Lloyd Dogget
Congressman Keith Ellison
Congressman Bob Filner
Congressman Phil Hare
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
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