I am a good citizen. I vote, I carefully recycle bottles and cans, I’ve saved enough for my retirement. But, what’s really nagging me is the price of paying for my own health-care. Even after analyzing the “Affordable Health Care” act that is still very very ambiguous I’m destined to pay at least $450 out of pocket each month for my health care premium, that’s just to be in the system
Access to affordable healthcare is not a ‘right’ to all citizens, but if our declaration is that “All men are created equal.” then our legislators should lead us toward that vision.
This good citizen’s declaration –
1) Individuals should not pay more than 15% more for healthcare than a corporate worker.
2) A U.S. citizen’s good health is our greatest asset NOT a citizen’s house. And tax money should be allocated as such to demonstrate this importance.
There’s an old rant on Facebook that still makes the rounds where a Dr. Jones describes a poor woman, probably African American who walks into the emergency room and cannot pay for services. BUT, she has a cell phone and a gold tooth. It’s gotten thousands of pissed off responses mostly in support of Jones, and they ignore that the cards are stacked against anyone who pays out of pocket. This uninsured woman doesn’t have the benefit of the “negotiated rate” that my PPO has. She would likely be charged the “rack rate” aka the “un-negotiated rate.” Something like she pays $300 and the uninsured pays a percentage of $200 negotiated rate. Our system ensures that the uninsured will ditch that bill, or if they try to be a good citizen they will go bust.
As a Capitalist I stick to my declaration – our citizens’ health is our nation’s greatest asset, it is no longer a home with a white picket fence.
Massive Real Estate Subsidies
The United States government, taxpayers, continue funding what is an illusive dream for many. We throw massive subsidies to homeowners through programs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We subsidize the real estate industry by keeping interest rates low.
Example:
Last week on April 30, Apple Corp, maker of this MacBook Air that I’m typing on – sold $17 billion in bonds – their interest rate on their 30-year bond is 3.85%
On the same day, if an individual, say J. Smilen, with good credit took a loan to buy a house his interest rate for a 30-year loan would’ve been about 3.47% – less than Apple Corp.
Even if you don’t know anything about how interest rate markets work, if you had $1,000 to lend and you didn’t want to lose it, would you lend the money to Apple Corp, a company worth over $400 billion dollars or to J. Smilen who makes $90,000 per year?
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3.85% Apple’s interest rate on a 30-year bond (loan)
3.47% An individual’s interest rate on a 30-year home loan
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You’d lend it to Apple Corp right? Because you’ve seen those Apple Stores they are always packed, they must be able to repay your loan. And just maybe you’d think that you didn’t want to lend it to J. Smilen because if he got sick and lost his job, how would he be able to repay you? The reason that J. Smilen’s interest rate is lower is because the U.S. taxpayer is subsidizing the rate through the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agencies and we are saying that we ‘lend’ the good name and credit of the U.S. to back J. Smilen’s loan.
Forget about stories about poor people with gold teeth and cell phones. We need to look for ways to allow people to affordably take care of their health, even the woman with the gold tooth. Let’s reduce the dependency on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, because it’s not taking care of all of our good citizens only the ones that can afford to buy a house.
Let’s change the American Dream to good health from the house with the picket fence so that all our citizens have a chance to thrive.
references:
Dr. Starner Jones rant link
Ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac link