Solution Providing Affordable Health Care For Every American At The Lowest Cost

The words universal health care envoke a lot of emotion on both sides of the political isle. Having the government provide health care to every person can look like "the best and right thing to do for Americans at all cost" for some and "the scariest thing in the world to think about having the Government run health care" on the other.

I have a solution to this issue that provides the benefits that both sides are looking for without alienating one side too much. What you would call a great middle of the road fix for health care in America.

• The government would cover all essential medical costs (e.g. no elective surgeries) of an individual that exceed $10,000 in a given year (or resulting from a common ailment, i.e. breast cancer costs would be covered for the same individual for their lifetime once they reach $10,000 in initial costs).


• Government would either subsidize or pay for any and all preventitive health services that would be limited to one service per person per year. Examples of this would be a yearly physical or pre-natal care.


• Government would allow every American to have a Health Savings Account (HSA) slightly modified however to fit this plan.


• All contributions to the these modified HSAs would be tax deductible if the individual contributes or provide a 100% tax credit to the business if the individual's company contributes (distributions can be used for any immediate family member's health care costs)

What happens essentially is that individuals just have to cover the $10,000 cost themselves out of pocket or via an HSA or buy a health care policy that covers only the first $10,000. The cost of an insurance policy like that should be minimal because there is no big payout risks for the insurance companies which would make it very affordable for everyone to buy. And all health insurance companies providing this coverage would not be allowed to turn anyone away which again is not a big concern because they would be limited in their liability.


The benefits to this plan are across the board:

• No American would have to go bankrupt because of high health care costs


• Cost taxpayers less money than full Universal Health Care


• Promotes good health practices like preventative care


• Drives down and cotrolls inflation of health care costs


• Encourages contribution from businesses


• Nice retirement nestegg for those who stay healthy


• Affordable health care for everyone


• Less Government intervention

Please share this post and lets start a grassroots effort to reform our health care coverage in America.

No More "Worst Since Great Depression" Talk

Well, I guess I get my chance to say I told you so. My previous post on Worst Recession Since Great Depression said that Obama will change his tune once he got his Economic Recovery bill passed. I just hope all of his positive talk will now help spur on some consumer confidence that will help us get out of this recession.

Worst Recession Since Depression - Obama Has It Wrong For a Reason

Unless you have been hiding underneath a rock, you know the US along with most of the world is in a difficult recession. Many people have said this is the worst economic crisis since the great depression...and they would be wrong. And that includes Barack Obama...but he has a reason for what he says. Like most politicians, they have to exaggerate in order to convince whoever they are talking to that they are right and you should listen to what they have to say. I don't mind the tactic but his strong wording of this problem is making things worse. Recessions are partly psychologically driven...well, probably mostly. His talk of Great Depression causes great angst for those people that either don't understand the workings of the economy or are caught up in the horrible side effects of a deep recession and are having trouble seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

We are in a hard recession...I am not denying that. But based on all of the figures (jobs and GDP being the most relevent), we are not worse off than we were in the 70's and 80's recessions. Obama uses jobless numbers for his figures instead of percentages because based on the latter, we are not as bad off...but those big numbers sure are scary and they are bigger than many of the past recessions...but we have more people working these days so of course the numbers will be larger.

I predict that Barrack Obama will greatly reduce his great depression mentions once the stimulus plan is passed and signed into law...which looks like will happen today. That is because I think he is using this strong talk (even though it is making things worse) to help get his ideas of what we need to help the country passed. If he doesn't stop this kind of talking, he runs the risk of elongating this recession and that would be very bad news for him in 2012. Whether he stops or not, don't fear because we will get out of this recession.

While I didn't vote for Obama, I do like a lot of what he says. The reason I didn't vote for him is because I either didn't trust he would follow through or would not be able to follow through. But that is neither here nor there.

I hope he heads my advice and stops going on about the worst recession since the great depression because it is hurting America. I have a feeling though, if he does stop in order to allow consumer confidence to come back, that he will definitely bring it back up again in 2012 when he tells the American public that he got us out of the worst recession since the great depression. Don't believe it...because it is not the worst and the President (any President) has little to do with getting us out or even getting us in to recessions for that matter. Keep doing what you are doing, take care of your family, have fun with your friends and work hard or work hard at finding a job and that is the best thing you can do to keep America running. God Bless!

Envelope please...and winner of cutest baby ever is...

Cole Thaddeus Whitworth


Now I might be a little biased but I think he is a hands down winner of the cutest baby award. Let me know if you think so too.

This picture was taken by a friend of ours, Jen Verde, who is starting up her own baby photography business.

Sifting Our Tax Dollars Down The Drain

I was visiting my in-laws this weekend in Galveston. Luckily their house was spared from major damage when hurricane Ike hit last year. When I saw huge trucks loading up with sand on the beach, I asked them what was going on. Apparently, they are digging up the entire beach on Galveston Island about 3-4 feet deep, loading them into trucks and taking them to the end of the beach. When at the end, they are putting them through sifting machines to clean out debris and then loading them into trucks and taking them back to the beach and putting it back. I am not sure how expensive this huge operation is (there were tons of heavy equipment up and down the beach) but I am not sure that is the best way to spend money rebuilding Galveston. Good job spending our tax dollars, Texas government.