On Tuesday July 24, 2012 the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, of the U.S. House of Representatives, held a hearing titled, “Education Reforms: Discussing the Value of Alternative Teacher Certification Programs.” With the deadline for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) looming in the near future, education policy … Continue reading
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Some Children Falling Through the Cracks in PPACA
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a June 2012 report with findings that almost a quarter of the approximately 7 million children who were uninsured in January 2009 will not be eligible for Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or the new premium tax credit under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care … Continue reading
Private Market Tackles Medical Inflation
The future of health care in America is threatened by the trend of steadily increasing health spending. Costs in the health care market have increased at about double the rate of inflation for decades. If the trend continues, individuals and employers will struggle to afford coverage and Medicare and Medicaid will face fiscal unsustainability. There … Continue reading
Economy / Fiscal policy / Foreign Policy / Gov. Officials / Politics / Presidency / U.S. Domestic Policy
Overseas Employment: Increasing Jobs at Home by Investing Abroad
Obama’s fundamentally flawed attacks on Bain Capital’s outsourcing history seem both hypocritical and highly ignorant of the global economy considering that major companies present in his own jobs council have been “pioneering” outsourcing themselves. GE, American Express, Intel, and UBS are all present on the President’s Council of Jobs and Competitiveness and all have increased … Continue reading
Why Fixing Student Loan Interest Rates Doesn’t Fix The Problem
On July 6, President Obama signed a bill that will hold student loan interest rates at 3.4% for the next year. Students all over the country greeted the bill with relief. With college tuition rates increasing faster than the inflation rate, students are relying more and more on loans to pay for their education. Tuition … Continue reading
The Sequester: Why Lawmakers Need to Act Now
Remember that debt limit fiasco last summer? Its repercussions still haunt us today. In order to motivate congress to come up with a cohesive debt reduction plan, the law passed to increase the debt limit stipulated that if the “super committee” failed to pass a plan by November 2011, across the board cuts (referred to … Continue reading
The CDHP Premium Difference
Individuals switch to consumer directed health plans (CDHP) in an effort to save money, and to have an insurance plan that accurately reflects their risk aversion and actuarial value. Such plans are cost effective for individuals with low risk of catastrophic (high cost) events because the plans are generally offered in connection with higher deductibles … Continue reading
Limiting Managed Care to the Public Sector
This is an excerpt of a larger commentary, posted at partyhardpolitics.com Managed care in Medicaid has been very effectively sold to political conservatives based on its clear fiscal benefits. There is little doubt in the mind of a prudent economic thinker that giving a for-profit company financial responsibility for a patient’s health … Continue reading
Wellness Incentive Programs: A Double-Edged Sword
The principal tenet of the Epicurean philosophy proffers “that men’s lives should be governed by pleasure, not thoughtless self-indulgence, but pleasure rationally calculated” (West, 2008). With tranquility as the ideal, the epicurean lifestyle encourages indulgence in activities that promote harmony and pleasure. America’s zealous embrace of this philosophy has unfortunately resulted in the inclusion of … Continue reading
Sugar, Fake Sugar, Sugar That Will Give You Cancer
Pink, blue, yellow, green, white: what is your sweetener of choice? I just avoid adding it to my daily morning coffee completely. I see the real stuff as unnecessary calories in my day and the others as chemical substances that may give me cancer. The association of artificial sweeteners with cancer started in the 1970’s … Continue reading
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