To confront America's health care crisis, we do not need more spending, more regulations or more bureaucracy. We do need to liberate every American, including every doctor and every patient, to use their intelligence, creativity and innovative abilities to make the changes needed to create access to low-cost, high-quality health care.
Health care spending per person varies widely across the country, but greater spending does not appear to produce better quality. A natural inference is that some areas of the country are less efficient in the use of health care resources.
The Massachusetts experiment in health care reform offers many lessons that are applicable to the current debate in Congress. The goals of the Massachusetts plan are similar to proposals supported by Democratic congressional leaders and the Obama administration: universal health insurance coverage through greater access to health insurance.
Energy use is the largest source of greenhouse gases released by human activities. CO2 emissions from energy use – including transportation, electric power, heating and cooking – account for 82 percent of the country's total. In order to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, Americans must change the way they use energy.
Products intended for use by children may not contain lead amounts greater than 100 parts per million (ppm) starting in 2011. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has ordered manufacturers, distributors and retailers to reduce the lead content of children's products from the current standard of 600 ppm.
Rising prices and security concerns raise important questions about America's energy options. Currently, the United States imports 66 percent of its oil – about 4.7 billion barrels per year or 9,000 barrels every minute. However, there are vast amounts of oil shale – a type of rock rich in kerogen, an organic sedimentary material – which can be converted into high-quality liquid fuels.
Some members of Congress want to raise excise taxes to pay for health care reform and energy technology development. Federal excises on tobacco and alcohol are often called sin taxes; others designed to pay for specific government services, such as gas taxes that fund road building and maintenance, are often called user fees.
The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programs has reached nearly $107 trillion in today's dollars! That is about seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the outstanding national debt.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) requires employers to allow employees to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for a serious illness, to care for an immediate family member, or following an adoption or birth. The FMLA now applies to companies that employ 50 or more workers, but during the campaign President Obama supported expanding it to cover businesses with as few as 25 employees.
Many people assume Medicare will cover most of their health care costs when they retire, and that Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, will cover them if they need nursing home care. However, neither program guarantees a low-cost ride through retirement.
About 82 percent of Americans receive drinking water via publicly-owned water systems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Many of these municipal and regional systems operate at a loss, meaning users' fees don't cover the cost of treating and delivering the water. Many water authorities are critically behind on maintenance. They lack the capital to update their water purification and wastewater treatment plants, or to secure additional water supplies to meet expected growth in demand.
Every year the Social Security Trustees publish a report on the fiscal solvency of the program. It details the program's unfunded liabilities, which is what the government will still owe after it uses current and future tax receipts to pay for current and future retiree benefits.
Socially responsible investing (SRI) is the practice of choosing stocks, bonds or mutual funds based on political, religious or social values. This investment strategy can be hazardous to an individual's portfolio, and if followed by state and local employee pension funds can adversely affect thousands of people's retirement incomes.
First developed by Germany during World War II, the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process offers America a chance to utilize its vast domestic coal supply, increase refining capacity, and produce a cost-efficient and clean fuel.
Since their introduction, vaccines have served as a cornerstone of public health in the United States and abroad. Vaccinating large numbers of people, especially children, has proven to be one of the most cost-effective options for enhancing and preserving life.
Congress and President Obama appear intent on pursuing two conflicting goals for public and private health care: reining in rising costs while also increasing spending in order to expand insurance coverage to more people.
A layoff does not have to involve losing your health coverage. Although there is no need to panic, you should not put off taking action. Here are 10 options to consider as soon as possible after getting pink-slipped.
Many of the nearly 46 million uninsured say they are unable to afford health insurance. Advocates of various state regulations claim their proposals would make health coverage more affordable. These regulations include mandates that employers offer their employees health insurance or that individuals obtain health coverage, and requirements that health plans and insurers cover specified benefits or accept anyone who applies for insurance.
Recent health care reform proposals have largely focused on achieving universal coverage through a combination of private-sector mandates, regulation of insurance premiums and expansion of government insurance. Proponents argue that adding more regulations and spreading costs across a wider insurance pool will make coverage more affordable. Reality belies these myths.
To counteract the recession that began in December 2007, Congress has passed foreclosure assistance, tax rebates, bank bailouts and $787 billion of stimulus. This spending will result in massive federal budget deficits and increasing government debt – projected to rise to $23 trillion by 2019. This amount of debt will hurt economic growth and burden future generations.
Medical care in the United States is derided as miserable compared to health care systems in the rest of the developed world. Economists, government officials, insurers and academics alike are beating the drum for a far larger government rôle in health care. Much of the public assumes their arguments are sound because the calls for change are so ubiquitous and the topic so complex. However, before turning to government as the solution, some unheralded facts about America's health care system should be considered.
One of the main causes of the 2008 financial crisis and current recession was subprime mortgages, which are home loans to borrowers with low credit scores, little or no down payment and high levels of debt. These borrowers have a higher risk of defaulting on their loans and are usually charged higher interest rates.
How can we control the rising cost of Medicare? Fortunately, there are an enormous number of people who have answers. These include most of the 44 million enrollees, 650,000 doctors and 30,000 facilities participating in Medicare. In fact, almost everyone who has contact with the system can produce examples of waste and inefficiency that could be eliminated
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will soon ban the most common light bulbs in the United States. New efficiency standards will require manufacturers to produce incandescent bulbs that use less energy per unit of light produced, starting with 100-watt incandescent bulbs in 2012, down to 40-watt bulbs in 2014.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires each state to evaluate every public school annually, and to make “adequate yearly progress” toward helping all students meet or exceed state standards in reading and math by 2014. However, each state defines its progress and creates its own tests. Most states measure academic achievement based on pass-fail tests that require students to attain a minimum score.