As the Sept. 30 deadline approaches for adopting a Fiscal Year 2009-2010 state budget, there is considerable angst among the political class about the agreement House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, which is characterized as a "cuts-only" solution to the massive gap between the amount legislators would like to spend and the amount of taxes and fees the state expects to collect (a.k.a. "the deficit").
The Mackinac Center's ongoing efforts to get public schools, municipalities and legislators to post spending online for public inspection was highlighted by WEYI-TV25 today.
More than 50 conventional public school districts now post their checkbook registers online. Three aditional districts, two charter public schools and the city of Portage all recently did the same, according to the Center's "Show Michigan The Money" project.
Every so often I find signs that charity care is not yet dead. For example, the Injured Riders Foundation gives financial and other support to people (usually young adults without insurance) who are injured while snowboarding, skateboarding or otherwise engaged in “action sports.”
Michigan median household incomes grew by 1.7 percent, according to a release today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Adjusted for inflation, Michigan incomes fell by 2.4 percent. Overall, the national median household income decreased by 1.3 percent.
Unlike much economic news in the past decade, a number of other states are sharing in the downturn. Big states like Florida and California did especially poorly, pulling the national average down. Michigan ranked 47th in growth, beating Indiana, Montana and Florida. Twenty-seven states had lower real median household incomes than in the year before.
The Citizen Patriot reported that Mike Sharp, president of the Jackson Commercial Contractors Association, urged the school board to adopt the policy so that local contractors can help the district pass a $16.6 million bond issue in November. The money would be used for major building renovation and upgrades.
What’s been working at keeping insurance premiums under control? Nothing that’s being discussed in Washington these days.
StateHouseCall contributor Merrill Matthews, along with Ray Ramthum, laid out some numbers in an op-ed published by Investors’ Business Daily.
The site Health Care Horse Race reports that there are 564 amendments to the Senate Finance bill. Read here for an assessment of the good, the bad and the ugly. Or at least the bad and the ugly. I haven’t seen anything good yet.
Cross-posted from State House Call.
Perhaps the most odious part of any health reform is the requirement that you buy health insurance.
Anthony Gregory, a research analyst at the Independent Institute, says there are several reasons why a mandate may be unconstitutional.
There is of course the Tenth Amendment, which we’ve discussed on this site before. But there’s also the right to privacy, the Fourth Amendment (secure in your papers and house), the Fifth Amendment (self-incrimination) and the Thirteenth Amendment (involuntary servitude).
Data released last Friday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that for the second month this year, Michigan was burdened with an unemployment rate exceeding that of Puerto Rico. Michigan’s rate was 15.2 percent while Puerto Rico’s stood at 15.1 percent.
In an ongoing debate in the Los Angeles Times with Larry McNeely, Michael F. Cannon makes a point that ought to be heard more often: “Democrats in Congress are taxing workers to pay off insurance companies. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) just proposed $774 billion in subsidies for private insurers. (Somehow, that’s supposed to be more moderate than House Democrats’ $773 billion in subsidies.)”
The Home School Legal Defense Association has offered several criticisms of H.R. 3200.
As a group, home-schooling families are small in number, but they are used to being politically active. Add a few more groups to the mix and you have some powerful opposition to a government takeover of health care, whether through a “public option” or merely increased regulation.
The Chicago Tribune has a feel-good story that is also a bit creepy.
Lilly Jaffe is a girl who lives in suburban Chicago. She has been treated since infancy for Type I diabetes, which requires injections to deliver insulin. Recently, however, researchers discovered that she has a rare condition that could in fact be treated by oral medication.
The Washington Supreme Court has struck down a law in that state meant to curb the number of medical malpractice lawsuits.
As an AP account put it, “The state Supreme Court has unanimously thrown out a 2006 law that requires an injured patient to get a certificate of merit from an expert before they can sue for medical malpractice.”
How many people are without insurance in your state, and can they afford it? The Georgia Public Policy Foundation breaks out the numbers for Georgia, and provides a link to a nifty data tool that provides some answers — or at least estimates from the Census Bureau.
Reviews roll in for the Baucus version of health reform, released yesterday.
Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute divides the outline into good, bad and ugly. The good is that the plan takes a step toward regional or national sales of health insurance and calls for co-ops rather than an outright government corporation that sells insurance. The bad is composed of Medicaid expansion, cuts to Medicare Advantage, and an employer mandate. The ugly includes a “heavily punitive individual mandate” and new regulations that may — the language of the outline is unclear — require changes to what people already have in insurance. (So much for “if you like your insurance you can keep it.”)
The Pelican Institute, a Louisiana-focused organization, says that health reform “based on President Obama’s principles” will cost the state significantly.
Specifically, economic growth will be 4.3 percent lower over a 10-year period than it would otherwise be. In addition, “the current net present value of funding health care reform based on President Obama’s priorities will be $4,427 for every person in Louisiana.”
State-by-state figures are not released until Friday, but today the state released August employment and unemployment figures. After decreasing in July, Michigan's unemployment rated inched back to 15.2 percent.
This was similar to the national trend, where the rate increased from 9.4 to 9.7 percent.
So you’ve seen the news. The Senate Finance Committee has come out with its version of a government takeover of health care. On the plus side, no “public option” (aka, government-run health insurance company).
But there are a lot of negatives.
How does the plan pay for all this? First there’s an excise tax on high-dollar insurance plans. This actually isn’t the worst feature of the bill. You can make the case that some high-dollar plans are actually very expensive pre-paid forms of medical care that the tax code should not underwrite. And any plan to create a personal tax credit so that people can buy insurance on their own would likely affect the same people as this excise tax would.
Current Medicaid law lets some people in Medicaid get home and community-based services (HCBS) rather than having to go to a hospital, clinic or other institution. Understandably, it’s more attractive to patients, though not necessarily cheaper for taxpayers.
Uh oh. Looks like one potentially useful reform in Florida isn’t going anywhere fast. From the Palm Beach Post:
“Florida Health Choices, pushed as a solution to the state’s high rate of uninsured last year by Republican House leaders, still has no insurers or businesses signed up.”
Maybe this next item tells us that we have little to fear from more government in health care, since we’re already being watched. Or maybe it tells us something else. The Los Angeles Times says that California has updated a new database meant as a tool against drug abuse.
There’s nothing quite like your doctor being in the UAW, isn’t there?
At the risk of overreaching, may I present to you the case of Michigan day care workers. The state of Michigan gives low-income families subsidies for day care. A state agency, in conjunction with the United Auto Workers, claims that these subsidies make day care providers — even those working independently out of their homes — state employees subject to a collective bargaining bargaining agreement, and of course, union dues.
We need a massive health reform effort, complete with 1,000 pages of federal legislation, because insurance companies cancel policies when people get sick. This happens all the time.
Right?
Well, it’s a powerful story, but it doesn’t happen all the time. In fact, “recissions,” as they are technically called, usually happen because the person with insurance lied on the application. At least that’s what the insurance companies say.
President Obama makes another promise: “I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need.”
No bureaucrat? Sorry, Mr. President. It’s already happening. Michael F. Cannon relays a report from a bureaucrat working within the government agency that runs Medicaid and Medicare. Cannon concludes, “If the president thinks it’s a good idea to give the federal government more power to ration medical care, he should say so. It’s a defensible position. But to claim that’s not what he’s proposing, or that the government doesn’t do that already, is a ... oh, what’s the word ...?”
I just opened up an e-mail from a major airline and got this pitch:
Have LASIK at participating LasikPlus centers and earn up to 25,000 miles. At LasikPlus, you’ll experience the latest advances in laser eye surgery technology. Schedule your free exam today to determine if LASIK can help you see your life and your travels in focus.
