Archive for September, 2007
Thoughts on health care reform
Honestly I haven't paid a WHOLE lot of attention lately to the ins and outs of who is saying what about health care reform. But I've been in a couple of conversations online about it lately, and as I've thought about it, this realization occurred to me:
Health insurance doesn't need to be tied to a person's job. At all. Car insurance isn't, so why should health insurance? (Life insurance SOMETIMES is, but people still have the freedom to purchase inexpensive policies privately.)
We would be able to shop around. Most of the time, an employer chooses one plan. And all the employees have that plan or none at all. Sometimes you might have an employer that has different plans with the same health insurance company (some employees might elect to use a POS plan versus an HMO plan, for example), but it's still the same company and still a limited choice. If we eliminated the employer's involvement, everyone would be able to purchase a policy from whatever company he/she wanted.
It would put everyone on an even playing field. An employer "feels" a premium less then a self-employed person does, even if the premium is the same. Individuals shopping around for the best deal would result in lower premiums. I wonder how often an employer shops around for the best deal. I'd say that more often than not, they just pick something without trying to get the most coverage for the least amount of money. Therefore, premiums remain high.
Individuals would be able to choose the plan that is right for them. Not all health plans are created equal, and different ones are better for different situations. A relatively healthy family would do fine on a high-deductible, catastrophe-only plan with super cheap premiums. But a family with chronic health issues would need something different, say, a plan with higher premiums that has a $10 copay for office visits and prescriptions. Neither plan is "better." They are simply different. But they are better for the different families. If an employer chooses one over the other, one of the families will not have its needs met insurance-wise. But if they were able to shop around on an individual basis (like car insurance!), they would have the freedom to choose the plan that is best for them.
They would not be paying for the risk factors of their coworkers. Under the current system, when an employer is purchasing a health insurance policy for its workers, it is quoted a premium based on the age, risk factors, etc. of its employees at the time. If a company has young, healthy employees, its premium for the same plan from the same health insurance provider will be cheaper than the premium quoted a company full of older, sicker employees. And consequently, a young, healthy worker at the company full of old folks will pay more than he would if he worked at the company full of young folks. Removing health insurance as a "job benefit" would enable a person to pay a premium based on HIS/HER risk factors only, not some person he/she works with.
If someone stops working for a particular company, he can keep his insurance. There won't be any more of this 30-day waiting period garbage after a person starts working for a company, which typically means new insurance. No more COBRA, which is a DRAMATIC increase in the price of premiums from the employee's point of view, since now the employer is not contributing anything to the premium.
To quote Paula in one of the conversations I've been having:
Everyone gets that money in their paycheck and then shop for health insurance just like they would car insurance. Buy what meets your need. Shop around - I bet prices would start coming down, hospitals and doctors would need to be competitive - and by that I mean in price and service. Think about it - your employer may be paying $1,500 a month for gold-plated coverage for your family - and if you are like most people, you don't get sick that often. Wouldn't you rather find a plan that costs, say, $700 a month and pocket that other $800 after taxes - every month?
The amount that you did pay in premiums would, of course, be tax-deductible - just like it is for employers.
YES YES YES. No longer would there be this huge discrepancy between what an employee pays for health insurance and what a self-employed person pays for health insurance. They would now be on a level playing field. They would both now be paying for their premiums themselves. Employers, no longer being in the health insurance business, would be able to pay their employees what they were formerly paying the health insurance companies. Self-employed people would no longer be punished for not being employed by someone else.
Do I think this will "cure" the health care crisis in America? Probably not. But I do think it would help a lot, WITHOUT resorting to the federal government getting into the health care business.
It appears that Mike Huckabee has been thinking the same sort of thing.
I knew I liked him. LOL.
New blog
I set up a blog just for our homeschool, so that I can journal what we do so our family can see.
http://razorbackacademy.homeschooljournal.net
Life as an ancient Egyptian child
G informed me this morning that history this year is "cooler" than history last year. LOLOL. We are currently studying ancient Egypt in Year 1 of Tapestry of Grace. C and L are doing Lower Grammar (3rd and 2nd grades), and one of their projects this past week was to make an Egyptian paddle doll similar to ones that ancient Egyptian children would have made and played with. Here they are with their final products:
These were relatively easy to make. It just took several steps due to paint needing to dry. G is doing Upper Grammar works since he is in 5th grade, and he is planning to make an Egyptian death mask. (Of course, since this thing looks relatively involved and requires paper mache' LOL!) The three of them are in the process of creating a salt dough map of an imaginary place that shows different geography landforms.We have all learned so much just in the few weeks we've been doing this! We used TOG last year, but it was the classic year 2. Still good, but I am REALLY liking the Redesigned!!!
In one of the readings to C and L, the book said something like, "No one really knows why the Egyptians switched from making pyramids to burying their pharoahs in the Valley of the Kings. And I'm thinking, "Duh, Moses led all of Pharoah's slaves out of Egypt, so there wasn't anyone left to build the pyramids!" It's just neat seeing how history all fits together and how God is involved in it ALL. That's the whole point of TOG anyway.
Now this is a first.
My phone company has an online chat feature through which you can contact customer service. I am trying to use that feature since the baby is asleep next to me on the couch.
I am on HOLD. On chat!!!
Who’s up for a good debate?
Are you as interested as I am in a Lincoln/Douglas-style debate by Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson? Mr. Thompson mentioned that's what he's interested in. Mr. Huckabee would like to take him up on his offer. Do you agree? Go co-sign the letter encouraging Mr. Thompson to schedule the debates with Mr. Huckabee!
A father’s love for his son.
The children discovered an 8-point buck just on the other side of our chain-link fence. Bow season started on Sept. 1. Perfectly legal for dh to shoot.
G: Get it, get it!
C: I want some deer meat!
L: I wanna try some!
J (with big, watery eyes): Please don't kill it, Daddy. He's a good boy.
Dh put away his bow.
(OK, the lack of freezer space helped in the decision.
)
Week 1 of school. Done.
WHEW. You'd think I'm schooling 4 with an almost 3yo and 2.5mo on the side or something. I knew things were going to be busy, but NOT THIS BUSY!!! I'm POOPED!
Here is our schedule for this fall:
Good heavens. Are you as tired as I am just looking at that?
Well, as cram-packed as it is, it has gone reasonably decent this week. The tricky part is making sure I wake the baby at 6:30 to nurse. Otherwise it just sort of throws the rest of the day off since she's not ready to go down for her nap on time.
Some other struggles we've been having are C being used to playing whenever he wants and me getting motivated to do school after naptime LOL. C is NOT crazy about having to do school pretty much all day, and wow are we working on that attitude. Ei yi yi. If he finishes something early he can take a short break, but typically he spends so much time at the beginning balking and complaining that he eats up his free time afterward. So. Working on that.
We are still finishing up stuff from last year, but we should be starting into our "correct" grade level stuff in the next month or two. We use BJU HomeSat for math, reading, spelling, and English. Still love it.
Oh yeah, J uses it for K4 and K5 as well. We are doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology I for science, and I really think it's going to be great. We did astronomy last year, and my kiddos loved it. They have really gotten into bugs and birds lately, which is very handy since that is what Zoology I is about!Last year we did Year 2 in Tapestry of Grace, but I got a glimpse of the Redesigned year plans and decided that is what I want.
So we are doing Year 1 this year. I tell ya. So far I have felt more "together," and I think the kids have learned more in 3 days than in all of last year LOL! The classic version is great, don't get me wrong, but the redesigned is just so much easier to work with. I am SO pleased with it!!! G is doing upper grammar, so I've been having him read his assignments on his own while I read aloud to the lower grammar kids (C and L). Anything we can do together we do, but I'm trying to get him to be more independent, so I'm working with him on how to manage his time with the reading. I'll probably have to remind him this weekend that he has some things to read, but that's OK. He's still learning. All in all, a pretty decent week. Tiring, but OK.
