Taxes: Show me the Money!

Wouldn’t it be nice if taxpayers like you could easily find out how your state government spends your money? Wouldn’t it be great to go to one simple website where you could search for spending by keyword, similar to a google.com search? (From NTU)

We certainly think so, and the Show Me the Spending Coalition is working to bring user-friendly state spending databases to a computer near you.

Shouldn’t Delaware’s citizens be able to track and check our state spending which continues to increase at twice the rate on inflation???

Check out Show Me the Spending Coaliton’s web site here.

How can anyone say education in Delaware has worked???

IN DELAWARE …

4 out of 10 high school freshmen don’t graduate with their class.

Half of black and Latino students drop out.

5 of 10 white high school graduates go to college, and only two earn degrees.

3 out of 10 minority students enter college, and only one earns a degree.

A third of high school graduates who go to college end up in remedial classes.

Please read 50 Ways To Make Delaware A Better Place To Live for a better way. They are found on this blog under the 50 Ideas Delaware and Education categories.

Retirement plan could prove a winner

The idea, promoted by the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution, is the “automatic IRA,” which would:

Enable workers (particularly those with low-incomes) in small businesses who have no employer-sponsored plan to put aside regular savings in an IRA through the power of the automatic payroll-deposit system used by 401(k) plans.
Further, employers could make participation automatic when they hire workers so that they would begin making regular payroll contributions unless they formally ask to opt out.
A few major design factors promise to make this idea popular with both businesses and workers, says Lambro:

The plan would result in little or no cost to employers who would be exempt from costly rules and regulations that govern 401(k)s and other retirement plans.
Businesses would be offered a tax credit in the first two years to encourage them to offer such plans and help them adjust to any administrative costs.
It would principally benefit moderate- to lower-income workers — the 58 percent of the workforce that does not participate in any retirement plan, people who tend to have less education, do not save on a regular basis and usually work for small businesses.
The savings rate in our country, especially among this large uncovered part of the workforce, is abysmal, says Lambro. This idea would dramatically turn that rate around, helping millions to build wealth and some measure of retirement security.

Source: Donald Lambro, “Retirement plan could prove a winner,” Townhall.com, April 12, 2007

Survey Finds Little Relief From Health Benefit Cost Increases Expected

Employers do not expect a decline in the rate of health benefit cost increases any time soon. Meanwhile, they continue to invest in on-site medical clinics, call-in medical help lines and employee health appraisals to control those costs. These are among the major findings of a forthcoming survey conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the National Business Group on Health.

The survey of 573 large employers reveals that annual median increases for health care costs will remain at 8 percent in 2007. What’s more, employers expect cost increases to stay at 8 percent through 2008. While costs remain high, they have become more predictable in recent years. Eighty-two percent of employers also said their health care costs came in at or below budget in 2006, as did 84 percent in 2005.

Little Change Expected in Health Care Cost Increases
(median percentage cost increase for active employees)
Year Percent Increase
2003 13.0%
2004 10.6%
2005 8.5%
2006 8.0%
2007 8.0% (projected)

1. 8.0% (projected)

“The rate at which health care costs are increasing may be stabilizing, but it is still three times higher than the annual rate of inflation overall,” said Ted Nussbaum, director of group and health care consulting at Watson Wyatt. “With no reduction in cost increases, it becomes even more important to engage employees to carefully consider health care choices and make the most of health care dollars. And while investing in education programs, communication and infrastructure will not change behavior overnight, it will produce returns in the long run.”

Isn’t it time Delaware did something positive for health care??

It’s Time for Taxpayer Bill of Rights

Comments by Harry Themal of the News Journal:

The crisis in health care also affects almost everyone. Many businesses cannot afford the cost of health insurance nor can many families handle the costs of insurance, medical services or prescription drugs.

There are the dark clouds of Chrysler’s and Avon’s shutdowns in Newark, the firing of workers by Circuit City, stirrings in the financial sector beyond the 3,000 MBNA terminations.

Government charges in Delaware have increased or will soon. The county has already raised fees for permits, wills, faxes and sheriff’s sales. The governor is asking for higher gasoline and cigarette taxes, motor vehicle fees and highway tolls. Wilmington, although its operating budget is in good shape, is increasing water and sewage rates by 12.5 percent.

Isn’t it time for private health insurance where everyone is in, no one is out , every one pays their fair share and every one must be responsible?

Isn’t it time to unleash a very small portion of the Delaware Pension Fund to stimulate innovative job growth in Delaware??

Isn’t it time to have a Taxpayers Bill of Rights??

Tracking the Bad Guys

What is the best technological and innovative fool-proof way to track and manage those who should not be enter our country?

Do we do something like what is mentioned on the attached article?

Better yet, who don’t we already have this at our disposal? It makes so much common sense.

idverificationsystem.pdf

Technology in Health Care Reduces Costs, Prevents Errors

Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care? Potential Health Benefits, Savings, And Costs

By: Richard Hillestad, James Bigelow, Anthony Bower, Federico Girosi, Robin Meili, Richard Scoville and Roger Taylor

To broadly examine the potential health and financial benefits of health information technology (HIT), this paper compares health care with the use of IT in other industries. It estimates potential savings and costs of widespread adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems, models important health and safety benefits, and concludes that effective EMR implementation and networking could eventually save more than $81 billion annually—by improving health care efficiency and safety—and that HIT-enabled prevention and management of chronic disease could eventually double those savings while increasing health and other social benefits. However, this is unlikely to be realized without related changes to the health care system.

Source: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/24/5/1103

Health Care: Everybody In, Everybody Responsible

Isn’t It Time For A Health Care System Where Everyone is In, No One Is Out, Every One Pays Their Fair Share, and Everyone Is Responsible?

Creating a statewide pool makes economic and financial sense. Putting all of us in categories based on age, jobs, and income do not work.

Having a system where no one is out us critical because we are paying about $40 billion a year for the uninsured when a health problem reaches a crisis, we can do better.

Health care coverage which is based on employer based coverage is no longer sustainable or deliverable. We must use a combination of employer dollars, personal dollars and tax revenues to purchase individual private health care with subsidies based on income.

We must accept personal responsibility for our own health care and be held to account for injurious things we do to ourselves. Obesity often leads to Type II diabetes which means a patient will spend 3-4 times as much as a non type II patient. Smoking carries at least 4 times as much health care dollar per person than a non smoker. These lifestyle choices must pay an override to their group rated premium.

Health Care: Are We Getting Our Money’s Worth?

Please see more graphs at http://www.futurenet.org/article.asp?ID=1510

Do you think we are getting our money’s worth?

Why Are Asian Students So Successful?

By Dr. Soo Kim Abboud and Jane Kim

While Asian Americans make up only 4% of the U.S. population, Asian-American students make up a much higher percentage of student bodies in top universities

around the country. The percentages are astounding: 24% at Stanford, 18% at Harvard, and 25% at both Columbia and Cornell. More Asian Americans over the age of 25 have bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees than any other race or ethnic group. And after outperforming their colleagues in school, Asian Americans also bring home higher incomes than their non-Asian counterparts — almost $10,000 more annually than the rest of the population (2002 statistics).

So what does this mean? Are Asian students simply smarter? Contrary to what much of the public may believe, Asian students are no more intellectually gifted than non-Asian students are. The reason that Asian students outperform their peers in the classroom has nothing to do with how they were born and everything to do with how they are raised.

Read more at http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/ca/933?cpn=20070404pa1