tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83209752906738086282024-03-13T13:52:02.498-07:00Between ExtremesCommon-sense public policy analysis by Glenn GilbertAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-76231972668550155522014-04-16T04:39:00.003-07:002014-04-16T04:41:45.430-07:00Stop lying about Obamacare
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">When then Vice President
George H.W. Bush defeated Sen. Bob Dole in the 1988 New Hampshire primary, Dole
famously admonished Bush to “stop lying about my record.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It has often been stated
here that Obamacare opponents should stick to the facts. It could just as
easily be said that foes are flat-out lying about the Affordable Care Act. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The latest example is health
insurance premiums, which Republicans have long claimed would “skyrocket” due
to Obamacare. <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2014/April/15/cbo-new-cost-estimate.aspx">But
the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office</a> has just declared that
“lower-than-expected health insurance premiums under Obamacare will help cut
the long-term cost of the program 7 percent over the next decade,” as the Los
Angeles Times put it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">These estimates show “the
law costing less than in previous estimates in part because of the broad and
persistent slowdown in the growth of health care costs,” according to The New
York Times. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Bear in mind that these are
new trends and one has to begin to suspect a cause-and-effect relationship
between Obamacare and health-care costs.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Meanwhile, the CBO has
increased its estimates on how many people will sign up for Obamacare, even
while new reports indicate that insurance purchases outside the ACA exchanges
are actually more significant than those within the exchange. People who don’t
qualify for ACA subsidies are dealing directly with insurance companies to get
their coverage. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"I think it's probably
the case that there are more people insured in the individual market off the
exchange than on the exchange right now,” said Larry Levitt, a senior
vice president <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2014/April/15/private-insurance-market-booming.aspx">at
the Kaiser Family Foundation.</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It all adds up to new
coverage for possibly close to 19 million people since the new law took effect,
when you add in those who have gained coverage through Medicaid.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So think about what
the Repeal Obamacare crowd is saying. Is it saying that these 19 million
Americans should lose this coverage?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-18682149943039000652014-04-10T04:44:00.003-07:002014-04-10T04:44:50.856-07:00Ad unfairly attacks Peters over Obamacare
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">If you live in Michigan you’ve
probably seen the outrageous ad attacking U.S. Rep Gary Peters for his support
of Obamacare.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The ad is funded by a big
business-funded group called Americans for Prosperity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It features a mother of five by the
name of Shannon Wendt.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Wendt says her insurance
company cancelled her health policy because it didn’t comply with the
Affordable Care Act.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">She says her family’s “new
plan is not affordable at all” and that the law is “destroying the middle
class.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The ad is compelling drama.
There is only one problem: It isn’t true.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“In fact,
her case is an example of how middle-class families can benefit from the law —
if they choose to do so,” <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2014/03/misleading-anti-obamacare-ad-in-michigan/">according to FactCheck.org</a>, which studied the ad’s
claims.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Someone viewing the ad
could not help but be moved by the plight described in the ad. It is a shame
that such misleading claims can sway something as important as a U.S. Senate
race. Peters is the Democratic candidate to replace retiring Carl Levin.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">FactCheck.org, the bronze
or silver plans would provide better benefits at less cost than the plan
Shannon Wendt currently has. Her family would qualify for subsidies under the
law and her children could be covered by the Children’s Health Insurance
Program, a joint federal-state health care program that provides insurance at <a href="http://www.insurekidsnow.gov/chip/">little or no cost</a> for children of
moderate-income families who are not eligible for Medicaid.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">While the Republican
National Committee did not pay for this ad, “they certainly push a similar
message,” notes Chuck Austin, founder of <a href="http://seniornewsandadvocacy.wordpress.com/">Senior News and Advocacy</a>. “With 7
million people buying ACA policies, it is hard to believe many people have been
priced out of the market.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Lots is at stake in this
year’s Senate election in Michigan. Citizens are going to have to pay close
attention if they want to avoid getting hoodwinked.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-36561131915698742632014-04-08T04:22:00.003-07:002014-04-08T04:24:55.262-07:00AARP facing more challenges from conservative groups
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It is all
well and good for <a href="http://tarkenton.com/">Fran Tarkenton</a> to say
AARP’s support of Obamacare was the last straw for him. What does a
multimillionaire like him have to worry about when it comes to affording health
insurance.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Tarkenton
criticizes<a href="http://www.aarp.org/"> AARP </a>as too liberal in a radio ad
touting the benefits of considering membership in the Association of Mature
Americans — AMAC — as a conservative alternative.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That
said, AARP<a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304704504579433343591891948">
increasingly faces challenges from neweralternative groups.</a> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"We
made an offer to anyone who cut their AARP card in half that we'd give them a
year's free membership," Randy Lewin, spokesman for the American
Seniors Association told the financial newsletter <a href="http://www.soundmindinvesting.com/">Sound Mind Investing</a>. "We
had to stop (the promotion) early. I had too many 55-gallon trash bags full of
AARP cards cut in half."</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">SMI
recently listed seven alternatives to AARP. They are:</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). </span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Web: <a href="http://amac.us/">AMAC.us</a></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Generation America. </span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Cost to
join: $24/year (lower rates available for longer terms), spouse is free. Web: <a href="http://www.generationamerica.org/">GenerationAmerica.org</a>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">American Seniors Association (ASA).<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Cost to join: $15/year, spouse is free. Web: <a href="http://www.americanseniors.org/">AmericanSeniors.org</a>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Christian Association of PrimeTimers (CAP).<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Cost to join: $19.95/yr. Web: <a href="http://www.capmemberbenefits.org/">CAPMemberBenefits.org</a>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Christian Seniors Association (CSA). </span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Cost to
join: $12.95/year. Web: <a href="http://www.christianseniorsassociation.org/">ChristianSeniorsAssociation.org</a>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">60 Plus Association. </span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Membership
free. Web: <a href="http://www.60plus.org/">60plus.org</a>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The Seniors Coalition (TSC) </span></b><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Cost to
join: $13.50/year. Web: <a href="http://www.senior.org/">Senior.org</a>. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">None of
this, of course, changes the dominance of AARP. For that, senior citizens ought
to be grateful. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Frederick
Lynch, an associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in
California and the author of “One Nation Under AARP: The Fight Over Medicare,
Social Security, and America's Future,” calls the organization the “900-pound
invisible gorilla in the room” when it comes to pertinent legislation in
Congress.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“They
have a lot of clout but they love to stay out of the spotlight,” Lynch recently
told<a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/22/is-the-aarp-the-900poundinvisiblegorillaintheroom.html">
Al Jazeera America. </a>“All they have to do is whisper because they have a
grassroots organization that can be activated at a moment’s notice.”</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-26839708156253283192014-04-03T10:29:00.001-07:002014-04-03T10:34:46.341-07:00Michigan students falling behind nationally; what can be done?
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Michigan is falling behind other states in terms of student
achievement in public schools and needs to take a number of steps to improve,
according to a new study.</span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Compared to the rest
of the country, Michigan’s relative </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">rank on the national assessment has fallen since 2003 in </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading, and our state </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">is below the national average in all subjects, for almost all </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">subgroups,” says the study conducted by the Royal Oak-based
<a href="http://www.edtrust.org/midwest">Education Trust-Midwest</a>, a nonpartisan policy and advocacy group. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">As an example, the ETM study says Michigan fourth-graders rank in
the bottom five states for improvement in both math and reading over the last </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">decade. Michigan is one of only six states in the nation that </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">saw a decline in average scale score in fourth-grade reading </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">between 2003 and 2013, the study says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Our most vulnerable
low-income students are not being </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">served by Michigan’s schools. The steady gains low-income </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Michigan students saw in the past decade fell flat in 2013, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">and our achievement gaps remain wide.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">But it’s not just low-income students who are struggling, the ETM study
says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Higher-income students have
also fallen in relative rank </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">since 2003, according to new national assessment data. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">”Ten years ago, Michigan’s higher-income students </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">ranked above the national public average in fourth-grade </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">reading and math and eighth-grade reading. Now they </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">rank 38th in fourth-grade reading, 32nd in fourth-grade </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">math, and 31st in eighth-grade reading compared to their counterparts
in other states.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;">Sarah
Lenhoff,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>director of policy and
research for ETM, said there are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
number of things Michigan can do to reverse the trends and that a broad
consensus is emerging among school officials, advocacy groups and policy makers
interested in taking the necessary steps.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;">The principal
focuses need to be on aligning student tests to new standards the state has
adopted and training educators to teach the new standards, Lenhoff says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;">Unlike many
other advocacy groups,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ETM is not
calling for massive new state government spending to improve schools.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;">“Targeted,
strategic investment is what we recommend,” Lenhoff says.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;">She notes that
Gov. Rick Snyder has recommended $28 million to be spent on a new teacher
training and evaluation system, and he also has included $7.5 million for
technology to implement new Common Core academic standards. The legislature
needs to approve this spending, Lenhoff says.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;">The ETM study
points to Massachusetts and Tennessee as states that Michigan ought to emulate
in terms of improving its education. Massachusetts<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>probably has thee best schools in the nation, while
Tennessee is showing the fastest rate of improvement, Lenhoff says.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">“Once lower-achieving than Michigan, Tennessee is now </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">outperforming our state on the national assessment,” the ETM study
says. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In 2003, Tennessee’s
average score in fourth-grade math was eight </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">points lower than Michigan’s, and the state ranked 43rd in the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">country — well below Michigan’s ranking of 27th. Ten years </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">later, Tennessee had gained 12 points compared to Michigan’s </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">one-point gain, and the state ranked 37th compared to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Michigan’s 42nd on the 2013 national assessment.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">The study said methods Tennessee has used to improve include
better teacher training, a data dashboard to help educators evaluate test
results and identify targets for improvement, and an early-warning<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>system<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>enabling educators to see real-time indicators of at-risk
student progress.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Among other things, the study notes Massachusetts’ successful use
of charter schools to augment achievement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">“Massachusetts is the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>gold standard for chartering,” Lenhoff says. But the state has high
standards for such schools, require previous experience for those seeking to
operate schools in low-performing districts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">In 2011 in Michigan, by contrast,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“lawmakers lifted the cap on </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">charter expansion without requiring that new charter schools </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">meet performance standards – or demonstrate success before </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">replicating failed schools. Attempts to establish quality </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">standards have been foiled in Lansing. The state should hold all </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">charter schools, operators, and authorizers accountable for the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">performance of their student,” the ETM study says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Lenhoff says many of Michigan’ intermediate school districts are
implementing successful teacher training programs, but a survey of principals
done by ETM for the study that while they felt the state Department of
Education could be helpful, it lacks the capacity.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva;"></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-36255854063722757182014-04-02T04:27:00.002-07:002014-04-02T04:27:43.042-07:00The truth about Obamacare redux
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rush Limbaugh may be correct not to trust the mainstream
media. But when he says he and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are just interested
in the truth that’s really stretching it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“There no
news in the media,” <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/04/01/ted_cruz_repeal_every_word_of_it">Limbaugh said in response</a> to the latest report of 7 million
people signing up for Obamacare. “It's just propaganda. It's the
Democrat Party and the Regime talking points disguised as the news.” He
continued: </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Ted
Cruz, ladies and gentlemen, has just been firing both barrels on this, since
he's been talking about it at all. And this morning on Fox & Friends
he was asked by Steve Doocy, ‘Okay, Sen. The White House is claiming victory
out there. They hit their seven million number. What do you think?’</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“The bulk
of the people who are signing up had health insurance to begin with — and, you
know what?” Cruz responded. “They probably had their insurance canceled
because of Obamacare 'cause we know that over six million people had their
health insurance canceled because of Obamacare. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“It is
abundantly clear this thing isn't working. It has caused millions of
Americans to lose their jobs, to be forced into part-time work, to lose their
health insurance, or to see their premiums skyrocket. It is the essence
of pragmatism to recognize this thing isn't working. Let's start over. Let's
repeal every word of it.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Some
observations:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">• Note
that Cruz does not use precise figures. Here are some exact figures, reported
by <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/31/how-the-administration-could-miss-a-cbo-obamacare-target/">The Washington Post,</a> from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office: “The
large media focus in the first Obamacare enrollment period has been on whether
the administration would hit CBO targets for exchange enrollment. The CBO has
said it expects 6 million people to enroll through exchanges in 2014 - more
than 6 million have signed up, so that target looks in reach if enough people
pay their premiums. But about one-third of those exchange signups were
previously uninsured people, according to the report findings. It also found
about 4.5 million adults had newly enrolled in Medicaid; 9 million people, most
who were previously insured, have signed up for individual plans off the
exchanges; and fewer than 1 million people who had their coverage cancelled
remain uninsured.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">• The
millions who have signed up for Medicaid under Obamacare (and who are not
counted among the 7 million) will now have their health care paid for by the
federal government instead of we insurance premium payers. True, that means it
is shifted to us taxpayers, but not in the form of higher taxes unless Congress
fails to cut spending somewhere else, which we at least have a say in through
elections. Besides, in choosing whether to trust insurance companies or the
government, it’s like choosing between the devil you know and the devil you
don’t know.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">• Cruz’s
suggestion that Obamacare — “every word of it” — can be repealed is either
fiction or a downright lie. It would require a Republican in the White House
and 60 votes in the Senate. By then, repeal would take away insurance from, as
of today, roughly 11 million people.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">• Cruz
may or may not have a point about jobs, but again, he supplies no figures. And
he fails to point out the savings Obamacare provides businesses either through
lower premiums or not having to provide coverage at all, both of which leave
more money for wages.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="byline-dateline" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">• “The deep political divisions the law has engendered —
just 38 percent of Americans view it favorably, according to survey findings
released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation — make assessing it a
complex task,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/us/politics/deadline-near-health-signups-show-disparity.html?_r=0">report Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear of The New York Times</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The evidence remains
largely anecdotal; for every satisfied supporter, it seems, there is a
disgruntled opponent.”</span></div>
<div class="byline-dateline" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="byline-dateline" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">As we’ve said here before, the best source for solid facts
about Obamacare is <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/">Kaiser Health News.</a> The sooner we start talking about facts
rather than purely political arguments, the sooner we can tackle the hard,
realistic work of improving Obamacare.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-46295089013164349602014-03-14T11:58:00.001-07:002014-03-14T11:58:28.482-07:00Michigan Democrats trump Republicans' pothole proposal
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;"></span><span style="font-family: Geneva;">If you used poker terms you
might say that the Democrats saw the Republicans’ offer to spend $100 million
repairing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Michigan potholes and
raised it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>$115 million, for a
<a href="http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20140311/michigan-democrats-demand-additional-215-million-for-road-repairs">total proposal</a> of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>$215 million.</span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The Republicans have not
been spared criticism in this quarter so it is only fair to point out that
Democrats somehow always want to spend more when it comes to government.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">They want more money for
schools and higher education, big-ticket items in Michigan’s budget. Now more money for roads.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">More spending will lead to
more taxes, however — something they are not campaigning for in the current election
cycle. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Oh sure, they accuse Gov
Rick Snyder and the Republican-held legislature of cutting taxes for businesses
and raising them on individuals. That’s accurate. The only assumption that can
be made is Democrats want to go back to the policies of the Granholm era and
that while they may reverse tax increases on senior citizens and others, they
will raise them on businesses. What else are we to conclude?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Michigan voters have a
clear choice in this November’s election. They can judge whether lower business
taxes have generated economic activity — most importantly jobs — or whether the
improved business climate has nothing to do with taxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a plausible assumption,
according to <a href="http://www.mlpp.org/tax-cuts-wont-grow-the-economy">a recent study</a> by the Michigan League for Public Policy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">In any case, voters’
decisions should be fairly simple, at least based on the issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-64428890426347958672014-03-12T20:57:00.001-07:002014-03-12T21:01:21.810-07:00Study says Michigan can afford more renewable energy<style>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Moderate
adjustment of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>energy policies can
help Michigan triple its portion of production from renewable sources by 2030
without sizeable rate hikes, according to a new report.</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/smart-energy-solutions/increase-renewables/renewable-energy-in-michigan.html">The Union of Concerned Scientists</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>said
that continuing
to ramp up renewables at the same growth rate as the current renewable energy
standard —1.5 percent per year — could boost its in-state renewable energy
portion to 32.5<br />
percent of total energy production in 2030.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The state is expected to
have no trouble meeting a 10 percent renewable energy standard by 2015. That’s
the goal that the state legislature established in 2008. The RES expires at the
end of next year so the legislature is expected to set new goals. The Senate
Energy and Techology Committee held hearings this week and last and has another
one scheduled for next Tuesday.</span><span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“The Michigan
Municipal League advocates every day for policies that will help our
communities provide better basic services and create vibrant communities, and
that’s why we’re encouraged by the findings of this report,” said Samantha
Harkins, the league's director of state affairs. “We’re
looking forward to working with the legislature this year to increase our
renewable energy standard.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Increasing
renewables would come at virtually no increase in electricity costs, with
consumers projected to pay just 0.3 percent more over the next 15 years, the
UCS report said. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Part of
the reason is that the costs for renewable sources like wind and solar have
declined.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Michigan’s
overreliance on coal has significant negative health impacts on our children,
seniors and families,” said Rory Neuner of <a href="http://miairmihealth.org/">MI Air MI Health</a>. “This report by
the Union of Concerned Scientists should be a call to action for the Michigan Legislature.
Transitioning from coal to clean energy will reduce asthma and lung disease
complications and ultimately save lives.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Further
diversifying Michigan’s electricity mix with renewable energy fits squarely
with Governor (Rick) Snyder’s goals of an affordable, reliable and adaptable
electricity system that also protects the environment,” said Sam Gomberg, a UCS energy analyst and the report’s
author. “And we can do it while driving investments in Michigan communities.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Advocates
of a higher standard say would inject more than $9.5 billion in new capital
investment into Michigan’s economy between 2016-2030. Such investment would
also generate millions of dollars in new tax revenue, expenditures on facility operation and maintenance, and wind power land lease
payments for local communities, they say.</span><span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The onus
for meeting 2015 RES goal was placed on the incumbent utilities, which agreed
to the renewable requirement in exchange for moving the state from a
deregulated energy system to a hybrid system. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The 2008
legislation — Public Act 295 — <a href="http://www.theoaklandpress.com/opinion/20131126/gilbert-electric-choice-among-energy-issues-state-faces">established a 10-percent energy competition restriction</a> because utility <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>leaders said they needed a stable customer base to meet the
renewable goals and incur an expense they say has reached $4 billion to invest
in wind and solar. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Now,
<a href="http://www.ecnmichigan.com/index.asp">electric deregulation advocates</a> are saying rates would be lower in a
deregulated environment. Historically, Michigan’s electric rates are usually at
the national average or above it, according to the Michigan Public Service
Commission.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">These are
among the issues to be settled by the legislature. A compromise with broad
support among Democrats and Republicans was the result in 2008.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully something that benefits all
ratepayers will emerge this time as well. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-25903608381027769552014-03-11T11:48:00.001-07:002014-03-11T11:54:48.246-07:00How should America view retirement?<style>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The Wall Street Journal had a great piece on America’s philosophy on retirement if you can get through the
publication’s pay wall to view it. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304360704579419720180610260?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304360704579419720180610260.html">(WSJ: America needs to rethink 'retirement'.)</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">It basically says that if
the nation taps into its older people as a workforce it will stimulate economic
growth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">That’s all well and good if
we are define the benefits of retirement in strictly material terms. But how about a
more — shall we say — spiritual definition?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Many senior citizens use
their retirement to educate themselves, through reading, film, television,
cruising the Internet, gardening, golf and traveling. Some seek to get closer
to God. Lest all of these activities sound self-centered, that would be a
narrow way to view them. Don’t such pursuits make senior citizens better
parents, grandparents, neighbors, church or synagogue members or volunteers? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">And the so-called economic
benefits mentioned in the article may never materialize. There’s one thing
about facts, figures and projections: Sometimes human behavior gets in the way
and functions in counterintuitive ways.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">At any rate, it is all good
food for thought. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-33591302923613964362014-03-10T08:43:00.000-07:002014-03-10T08:49:35.043-07:00Home health care in jeopardy?<style>
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</style><span style="font-family: Geneva;">Cuts in Medicare spending
for home health care jeopardize senior citizens, according to advocacy groups. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The February jobs report released
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week represents the single highest level
of monthly job loss in the home health sector in more than a decade, reports
the <a href="http://www.homehealth4america.org/media-center/214">Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare</a>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;">According to the BLS
report, 3,800 home health jobs were lost in February. Advocacy groups say this
decline is a direct result of the 14 percent Medicare cut the Obama
Administration began implementing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jan. 1 as part of the Affordable Care Act.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
cuts will do "irreparable damage to recipients of Medicare's home health
care services, those who are aged, homebound and sicker than the average
Medicare population. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of Medicare home health care
users live at or below the federal poverty level, meaning they are the most
economically compromised of America's precious senior citizens,"
wrote<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dan Weber, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>president of the <a href="https://amac.us/">Association of Mature American Citizens,</a> in an opinion piece in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/28/weber-obamacares-punch-to-home-health-care/">The Washington Times.</a> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Weber
said the cuts are counterproductive since studies show the economic benefits of
home helth care. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Using
2009 as a reference year, Medicare’s average Part A and Part B payment for a
home health care visit was $145, compared to $373 per day in a skilled nursing
facility or a whopping $1,805 per day in a hospital,” Weber wrote. “In
addition, according to one leading expert, skilled home health care services
saved the Medicare program $2.8 billion during the most recent three-year
period. Approximately $670 million of that savings is attributable to 20,000
fewer hospital readmissions.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Despite
claims that the Affordable Care Act will not result in job loss for American
workers, this month’s jobs report suggests that the Medicare cut to home health
is doing just that,” stated Eric Berger, chief executive officer of the
Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare. “Obamacare’s deep Medicare home health
cut is having a direct impact on the Medicare program’s most vulnerable patient
population and the healthcare professionals – most of whom are women – on whom
seniors depend.”<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“More than 90 percent of those providing
home health care are small businesses,” Weber wrote. “According to the U.S.
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 40 percent of these companies will
be operating 'at a loss' - that is, they will likely fold or end up in
bankruptcy — by 2017 as a result of the cut."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">However,
the Obama administration said the home health care industry will survive,
according to a report in <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-06/obamacares-surprise-medicare-cut">Bloomberg Business Week</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From 2004 to 2012 the number of home
health agencies in the U.S. increased by 57 percent, to 12,215, according to
data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress. Most
are for-profit companies that “have been paid well in excess of their costs,”
the Medicare panel said in a report last year.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">AARP
has urged Medicare to reconsider the cuts and make sure seniors “have the
access to home health care that they need,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rhonda Richards, a lobbyist for the group, told Bloomberg.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-19616002748626302432014-03-07T10:55:00.001-08:002014-03-07T10:57:39.934-08:00Michigan public schools increasingly outsourcing services
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<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Privatizing
noninstructional services continues to grow in popularity among Michigan’s
public school districts.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wyandotte
and Riverview were among districts that privatized additional services in 2013,
according to an annual survey on the subject carried out by the <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/">Mackinac Center for Public Policy</a>, a
conservative think tank.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wyandotte
and Riverview privatized — or outsourced, depending on the terminology you
prefer — their transportation while Riverview also contracted out for food
service.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Public
schools are under considerable financial pressure and one of the ways they can
maximize their resources is through contracting out for support services.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Two-thirds
of Michigan school districts now contract out to private companies at least one
of the three noninstructional services that nearly all districts finance —
food, custodial and transportation, the study said.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> In
2013, 65.5 percent of districts in Michigan contracted out at least one of
these three support services. This is up from 60.7 percent in 2012, according
to the Mackinac study.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wyandotte’s
decision to outsource transportation last June was carefully thought out.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The issue
was settled upon in the collective bargaining agreement between the school
district and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local
1055, according to a report in The News-Herald.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Trinity
Transportation, the company awarded the contract, also purchased the district’s
11 school buses.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Total
transportation costs to the district were about $800,000 annually before
outsoursing. They are now fixed at between $275,000 to about $292,000 per year
over the next three years. Obviously, the savings are substantial. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That is
precisely why districts have gone to outsourcing, although it can obviously be
painful for the employees that are involved.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In
Wyandotte’s case, the district promised to retain all employees and has done so
through attrition, and that has turned out to be the case, said Wyandotte
Superintendent Carla Harting.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Downriver
districts that contract for food services include Trenton, Ecorse, Flat Rock,
Riverview and Woodhaven, according to the Mackinac Center.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Southgate
and Flat Rock contract for custodial services.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Besides
Wyandotte, Taylor, Ecorse, Trenton and Riverview outsource transportation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“The
trend keeps continuing,” said James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy
for the Mackinac Center and one of the authors of the privatization study. He
noted that only 31 percent of districts privatized any of their services in
2001, the first year the study was done.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“It won’t
work for every district,” Hohman said, adding some districts team up with
adjoining systems to pool their services and economize and some districts have
tried outsourcing and abandoned it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Transportation
contracting, the least frequent of the services to be contracted out, is
increasing rapidly, the study said.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“The proportion
of districts using private companies to provide transportation services
increased from 16.4 percent to 20.9 percent from 2012 to 2013,” the study said.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Thirty
districts began new contracts for transportation services in 2013. In 2008,
only 6 percent of districts contracted out the service. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Custodial
services are the most frequently contracted service, with 45.5 percent of
districts using private contractors in 2013. This is an increase from 39.2
percent in 2012. These figures have grown steadily since 2003 when just 6.6
percent of districts used private contractors to clean and maintain district
buildings.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Food
service contracting is not growing as quickly as the other two services, but
remains quite common,” the study said. “In 2013, 21 districts began new
contracts for these services. The rates increased slightly, from 34.6 percent
in 2012 to 36.5 percent in 2013.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">One thing
is certain: Downriverites ought to be insisting that their school boards at
least study the issue, if they haven’t already.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-6038360657868452962014-03-01T17:10:00.003-08:002014-03-01T17:11:40.912-08:00Sander Levin embraces tax reform<style>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With a
lifetime of public service that includes<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>32 years in Congress, Sander Levin knows a good thing when he sees it.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And he thinks
colleague Dave Camp is onto something good with his <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304255604579407112591695536">comprehensive tax reform proposal</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Camp and Levin
share something in common — their membership on the Ways and Means Committee of
the U.S. House of Representatives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Camp, a member
of the House’s Republican majority, is chairman of the committee<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and Levin is the ranking Democrat.
Levin was chairman of the committee when Democrats last held a majority in the
House, prior to 2011.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They also are
both from Michigan, Camp hailing from Midland and Levin from Royal Oak.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Camp has been
working on his plan for three years, and has held hearings across the country.
He also has attempted to design it to win bipartisan support. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Otherwise, why
work on it at all? The only reasons would be purely partisan, and if that were
the case it wouldn’t be worthy of any attention at all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Levin thinks
the plan has some merit. He issued the following statement:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Chairman Camp’s tax reform proposal
opens up a discussion that Democrats have wanted to engage in on a bipartisan
basis. As Democrats, we believe it is vital that tax reform encourage economic
growth, support working families, broaden the middle class, and address income
inequality. It must produce a fairer and more adequate tax code for all
Americans, ensuring that wealthy individuals and corporations pay their fair
share while preserving our long-term economic security in a fiscally responsible
way that promotes jobs in the United States. It is through the lens of those
priorities that we will review Chairman Camp’s proposal in detail as the
Committee undertakes a thorough examination of his proposal.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Well, we
should all hope there will be serious consideration. Much of it is just pure
common sense, regardless of whether you are a Republican or Democrat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Perhaps it is
too much to hope that it would stand<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a chance in this political year, but hope springs eternal. And
springtime is right around the corner.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-41726697779834254402014-02-25T11:18:00.002-08:002014-02-25T11:18:34.867-08:00Michigan test concerns superintendentsA new statewide testing system for Michigan’s
public school students appears to be in the works, but superintendents
are expressing some concern.<br /><br />The system would be aligned with the Common Core standards for math and reading that the legislature approved last year.<br /><br />The
state Department of Education has contracts ready to implement
something called the Smarter Balanced assessment system, but the fact
that it would be new to students is worrying some school officials.<br /><br />Among
companies that have testing materials available, Smarter Balanced has
been endorsed by the Michigan Assessment Consortium as most appropriate
for the state. The Education Trust-Midwest, a statewide education
research, information and advocacy organization also has endorsed
Smarter Balanced.<br />
<br />
A statement issued by superintendents
from Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties said that while Smarter Balanced
meets a number of desirable criteria, “it is unclear whether or not
Michigan has done sufficient field testing to assure accurate and
adequate implementation of this new assessment system. Also, there are
parts of the system still under development. We recommend due diligence
on the state’s part before implementing and then using this new
assessment system for accountability purposes.”<br />
<br />“I don’t have the
confidence it’s going to be done right. Too much emphasis is put on one
assessment,” said Riverview Superintendent Russell Pickell, echoing the
formal statement by the superintendents.<br /><br />“We believe a statewide
assessment applied to every student in every grade needs to be carried
out ONLY because it is required by the federal government in order to
receive federal funds,” the superintendents said. “If not for that, we
would not support a single statewide test given every year to every
student for accountability purposes. If federal rules allowed, we
believe that the state could accurately inform itself as to the progress
of students on the standards via state-developed benchmark testing
which could be done at three grade levels (such as 4,7,10) with a random
sample of students.”<br /><br />Pickell also questioned “the amount of time
these tests take.” He said the state is being rushed into the new
system because of deadlines.<br /><br />He worries about how the test
results will be used, and pointed out that it is so technology dependent
— i.e., can only be taken online — some scores “may have nothing to do
with achievement.”<br /><br />The first time the test is used it can do nothing more than establish a baseline, Pickell said. <br />
Wyandotte School Superintendent
Carla Harting also indicated support for the concerns raised in the
statement by the superintendents from the three counties.<br /><br />The superintendents from the three counties acknowledged they appear to have no choice.<br /><br />Earlier
this month, officials from the Education Trust-Midwest addressed the
legislature to voice support of the state’s plans to implement the new
college- and career-ready state assessment system.<br /><br />“Michigan’s
new assessment system will provide us a powerful driver to transform our
public schools’ teaching and learning — and ensure all of our students
are college- and career-ready for today’s globally competitive knowledge
economy,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of ETM.<br /><br />However,
ETM cautioned against state leaders allocating budget money to be used
to support one state assessment for educator evaluations and to measure
student performance, and another to measure student growth for school
accountability purposes.<br /><br />“Such a move would result in unnecessary
additional testing time for students, and unnecessary and significant
additional costs for the state to bear,” Arellano said.<br /><br />“Our
state’s planned new assessment system will generate far more reliable,
helpful student growth data than Michigan has ever had,” said Sarah
Lenhoff, director of policy and research for ETM. “These rich new data
will help educators and schools tailor interventions and learning
strategies for students, even in their K-3 years. If developed and
funded appropriately, we will have such a system in place by spring of
2015.”<br /><br />“This is a game-changer for our state,” Arellano said.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-74170702604366891072014-02-18T08:07:00.001-08:002014-02-18T08:07:28.643-08:00Michigan tax relief certain, but what form will it take?That some Michigan residents will be getting a
tax cut is virtually certain. The form it takes is very much up in the
air, however, despite Gov. Rick Snyder’s support for a partial
restoration of the Homestead Property Tax Credit.<br /><br />Many
Republicans are not happy with Snyder’s proposal, which would
permanently raise the income cutoff for the Homestead Property Tax
Credit to $60,000, still short of the $82,650 threshold that existed
before the governor took office in 2011.<br /><br />Snyder felt that tax
relief should be targeted for lower- and middle-income families. His
proposal would mean an estimated 1.3 million taxpayers would pay $103
million less in taxes in year one, equaling about $79 per filing,
according to an Associated Press report.<br /><br />State Rep. Patrick
Somerville (R-Huron Twp.) indicated he would favor something that is
broader based. He worries about “further complicating the tax code.”<br />
<br />
Somerville instead favors a plan that
would reduce the income tax from its current 4.25 percent to 4.15
percent on Oct. 1; to 4.05 percent in October of next year; and possibly
to 3.95 percent the year after if the state has a surplus of $300
million or more at the time.<br />
<br />Pension tax relief also might be in order, he said.<br /><br />Sen.
Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton) said his first concern is the condition of
Michigan’s roads, but he concedes there may be room for tax reduction.
Colbeck, whose district includes eight communities in the southern
portion of Downriver, said he likes “the idea of reducing property
taxes,” and he also thinks that “promoting charities is a good way to
help the poor.”<br /><br />To that end, he indicated he would support an
increase in the limit for charitable tax deductions. Colbeck feels the
private sector is more effective in helping the underprivileged than the
public sector.<br /><br />Democratic lawmakers questioned for this colum
did not respond, but Rep. Andrew Kandrevas of Southgate last year
endorsed a Democratic plan to restore tax credits and deductions to
middle-class families and repeal new taxes on retirees.<br /><br />In a
statement on his website, State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor) said
“the governor’s incomplete restoration of the Homestead Property Tax
Credit pales in comparison to the thousands of dollars in additional
taxes he has placed on Michigan families, and his budget continues to
rely on taxes on retirement income and the elimination of the child
deduction and the reduction of the Earned Income Tax Credit.<br />
<br />
“The proposed increased income
threshold to qualify for the Homestead Property Tax Credit remains far
below what it was before it was slashed by the governor earlier in his
term, leaving thousands of middle class families unable to qualify for
it and paying higher taxes as a result.”<br /><br />Democrats have been
consistent in their criticism of the governor and the legislature for
raising taxes on individuals while cutting them on businesses in 2011.<br /><br />Colbeck
said it is certainly nice to be talking about a $1 billion surplus as
opposed to the $1.5 billion deficit that faced lawmakers and Snyder in
2011.<br /><br />“It’s tough to say what will pass,” Somerville said. It
could be a “combination of everything.” He called the situation a
“moving puzzle,” but said there should be enough in the surplus to
provide significant tax relief, increase funding for roads and schools
and set aside a rainy day fund in the range of $750 million.<br /><br />There’s still time for taxpayers to weigh in. They should email their state representatives and senators.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-42344632533122243112014-02-10T03:41:00.000-08:002014-02-10T03:41:06.019-08:00What's wrong with retirement, part-time work?
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<span style="font-family: Geneva;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The Affordable Care Act will lead to the equivalent
of <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/cbo-report-white-house-response-obamacare-103116.html">2 million fewer jobs by 2024</a>, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office, but that does NOT mean Obamacare is causing more unemployment.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">These are people leaving the job market. Why is that
a bad thing?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Many of these are folks who will be retiring early
because with the ACA they can now rely on themselves to get health coverage
instead of being dependent on their employer.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Again, why is this a bad thing?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Yet Rush Limbaugh is leading the charge among
Obamacare critics by saying the law is turning people into <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/02/06/obama_fans_can_t_believe_their_president_wanted_this_to_happen">“wards of the state.”</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">“You take away the desire, necessity, to work,
you're effectively dehumanizing people,” Limbaugh said on his radio program.
“You are taking away from many people one of the primary sources of their
confidence, self-identity, reason for being, particularly in men, but in more
and more women now with feminism and so forth making its giant strides.
It's just a tragic thing here that's happening, and it's turning more and more
people into satisfied wards of the state.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">What does he mean? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are Social Security recipients wards of the state? This
sounds a bt like Mitt Romney’s damaging remark about the 47 percent of the
populace who are dependent on government.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Well, we’re all dependent on government in one
fashion or another. It is what it is. The horse is out of the barn. You
couldn’t turn the clock back if you wanted to.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">But what’s going on here is very simple. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Previous to the ACA, people were dependent on their
employers for health care, which in most cases they could only get by working
fulltime. Everybody knows people who hold jobs solely because they need health
insurance.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">With ACA there are now choices. Many people are able
to get their own health insurance at very low rates, especially if they qualify
for the generous subsidies that are part of the law. As a result, many will opt
to retire early or cut back to part-time status.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Retirements create job openings. The quicker older
people leave the workforce the quicker opportunities will be created for
younger people. Instead of a drag on productivity, energetic young people <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>could stimulate economic output.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">ACA foes quickly — and erroneously — seized on the
CBO report as proof that Obamacare is a job killer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People can decide for themselves whether what is going on is
a good or bad thing, but some of us feel that early retirement or cutting back
on our hours is the door to our opportunity at this particular stage of our
lives. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Limbaugh and his ilk can say that taking advantage
of ACA subsidies or drawing Social Security benefits earlier rather than later
makes people “wards of the state,” but the alternative, in some cases, is
working in a virtual sweatshop. Limbaugh apparently thinks it’s a good thing to
be stuck in a job you don’t want.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Money and careers are not the only things in life.
There are other — some of us think finer — values in life: family, travel,
fitness and volunteer activities, for instance.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">What<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>do
you think?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-72058917157740425392014-02-08T17:40:00.001-08:002014-02-08T17:41:10.602-08:00Bipartisan measure could rebuild nation's roads, infrastructure<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">Taxpayers should encourage their federal
lawmakers to support the <a href="http://delaney.house.gov/information-on-congressman-delaneys-infrastructure-bill">Partnership to Build America Act</a> so Michigan — and every other state, for that matter — can
improve its roads.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">The measure, officially House Resolution 2084, would create
the American Infrastructure Fund to pay for the rebuilding of our country’s
transportation, energy, communications, water and education infrastructure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">More than that, it would create incentives for companies to
invest at home rather than abroad. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">The AIF would be funded by the sale of $50 billion in bonds
that would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have a 50-year term,
pay a fixed interest rate of 1 percent, and would not be guaranteed by the U.S.
government, according to a website explaining the program. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S. corporations would be incentivized to purchase these
new infrastructure bonds by allowing them to repatriate a certain amount of
their overseas earnings tax free for every $1 they invest in the bonds. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">The AIF could leverage the $50 billion of bonds at a 15:1
ratio to provide up to $750 billion in loans or guarantees.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">The AIF would provide loans or guarantees to state or local
governments to finance qualified infrastructure projects. The states or local
governments would be required to pay back the loan at a market rate determined
by the AIF, but this is something states would have a hard time doing on their
own. There would be no federal taxpayer obligation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">HR 2084 was introduced last year by U.S. Rep. John Delaney,
a Democrat from Maryland. It is a rare bipartisan measure in Congress, with 50
co-sponsors in the House of Representatives evenly divided between the two
parties. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">It was also introduced in the U.S. Senate last month by a
small bipartisan group of senators.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sadly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>— incredibly,
actually — none of the sponsors is from Michigan. That’s a shame because
Michigan’s highway needs are plain for all drivers to see everyday.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">A report
released last month by TRIP, a national transportation research group, said
Michigan’s bad roads </span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">cost the state’s residents </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">approximately $7.7 billion annually in the form of
additional </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">vehicle operating costs, lost time and wasted fuel due to
traffic congestion and traffic crashes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">That translates to an individual cost of $1,600 for Detroit
area drivers, where 57 percent of major roadways are in poor or mediocre<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>condition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Plus, highway conditions are critical to economic
development. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">“Increasingly, companies are looking at the quality of a
region’s transportation system when deciding where to relocate or expand,” the
TRIP study said. “Regions with congested or poorly maintained roads may see
businesses relocate to areas with a smoother, more efficient and more modern transportation
system.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Our federal lawmakers need to hear from citizens. They need
to put Michigan’s interests ahead of any narrow partisan considerations. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-74348733753334387252014-02-08T04:48:00.001-08:002014-02-08T04:50:02.948-08:00CBO underscores need to address national debt<style>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">It was just one paragraph in <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45010-Outlook2014.pdf">a 182-page report</a>, but it was
arguably the most important.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Predictably, it received virtually no media attention.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">The Congressional Budget office’s non-partisan study on
“The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024” said that “the large budget
deficits recorded in recent years have substantially increased federal </span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">debt</span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">, and the
amount of debt relative to the size of the economy is now very high by
historical standards.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">“CBO estimates that federal debt held by the public will
equal 74 percent of GDP at the end of this year and 79 percent in 2024 (the end
of the current 10-year projection period).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">And the consequences? They are potentially dire, according
to CBO.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">“Such large and growing federal debt could have serious
negative consequences, including restraining economic growth in the long term,
giving policymakers less flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges, and
eventually increasing the risk of a fiscal crisis (in which investors would
demand high interest rates to buy the government’s debt).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">And yet what CBO had to say on the impact of Obamacare got
most of the attention. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">Our government needs to address out <a href="http://www.concordcoalition.org/">$17-trillion-plus national debt</a> while there is still time to avoid potential disaster. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-72331514583278505252014-02-06T04:23:00.001-08:002014-02-06T04:25:59.506-08:00Fight bipartisan plan to tax Medigap<style>
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Senior citizens face the fight of their lives over Medicare
and it’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a battle they need to
prepare themselves to wage.</div>
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<br /></div>
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For some time there has been bipartisan support to tax
Medigap policies in order to control Medicare, but now a new study is giving
ammunition to advocates of this approach.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Bipartisanship is a great thing and extolled here at
“Between Extremes.” But not this type of bipartisanship.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Chuck Austin of Oakland County (Mich.), head of the <a href="http://seniornewsandadvocacy.wordpress.com/">SeniorNews and Advocacy Coalition</a>, called our attention to <a href="http://www.marikacabral.com/Cabral_MahoneyMedigap.pdf">the study by University of Chicago and University of Texas researchers</a> that claims Medigap policies are
adding 22 percent annually to Medicare costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They propose a 15 percent tax on Medigap policies to
discourage their use.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://kff.org/medicare/report/medigap-enrollment-premiums-and-recent-trends/?__hstc=87270983.5a45f93174dfbb5096fe5d60a3c830eb.1391646976804.1391646976804.1391650976598.2&__hssc=87270983.2.1391650976598&__hsfp=2761544355">Medigap</a> is supplemental private insurance senior citizens purchase
to pick up expenses that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Medicare
fails to cover. Medicare only covers 80 percent of most expenses and there is
no out-of-pocket maximum on medical costs that individuals may incur.</div>
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Think of it. Without Medigap, senior citizens with serious
illnesses such as older people normally suffer would end up in the poorhouse.</div>
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There is no disputing the figures the researchers came up
with. But there is insufficient evidence to show that the costs are not
covering vital health services, which, of course, is the whole purpose of
Medicare.</div>
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"They can say nothing at all about whether that
utilization is life-saving cancer care or discretionary back surgery,"
<a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Columns/2011/August/different-takes-080111-vladeck.aspx">Bruce Vladeck</a>, who ran Medicare under President Clinton,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>told <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2014/january/09/medigap-raises-medicare-costs-22-percent-report.aspx?referrer=search">Kaiser Health News</a>. "Maybe it
would be a good paper in a graduate econometrics course, but it just doesn't
reflect reality."</div>
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<br /></div>
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To be sure, Medicare expenses need to be controlled. But
there are many other ways to do so, and many common-sense policies were advocated
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by the <a href="http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/TheMomentofTruth12_1_2010.pdf">President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform</a> in 2010.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But the idea of a 15 percent tax on Medigap policies is
outrageous. Yet the idea of a tax or surcharge is supported by both President Obama and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, according to KHN.<br />
<br />
Senior citizens need to brace themselves to fight to protect their
life savings.<br />
<br /></div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-71857604908576406602014-02-03T20:28:00.000-08:002014-02-03T20:30:08.335-08:00New Republican health-care plan falls short<style>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://web.mail.comcast.net/service/home/%7E/?id=927021&part=2&auth=co&disp=i#page=1"><span style="color: blue;"></span></a></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">We have a
guest blogger today. Rich Teets is a retired automotive engineer with an
</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">interest
in health care policy. He is the
chair of the healthcare task force for the Metro Coalition of Congregations, a group of
faith based congregations joining together to advocate for the common good. </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;">By Rich Teets</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Republican senators Richard Burr, Tom Coburn and Orrin
Hatch recently </span>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">provided a new health plan [1] which they claim is a good alternative to the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Affordable Care Act (ACA). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The new plan is the Patient Choice, Affordability,
Responsibility, and Empowerment Act (CARE). The summary provided by these
leaders is long on Republican trash talk about the ACA, and short on details. But the details provided
suggest that this new plan would leave large holes in the healthcare safety
net. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The first step of CARE is to repeal the ACA. It is replaced
by relatively small vouchers to help low income people buy healthinsurance. The expanded eligibility for Medicaid that is</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">part of the ACA is replaced by a capped grant to the states
and freedom to experiment. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The ACA requirements for quality standards in health
insurance are eliminated. CARE includes some provisions to deal with pre-existing conditions, but it is unlikely these will</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">be acceptable to the insurance industry. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">There are also suggestions to promote transparency</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">in pricing medical services and to reduce malpractice
costs, both direct and indirect. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Consider first the subsidies offered to low income people</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">to help pay premiums. For people less than 200% of the
federal poverty level (FPL) and ages 35-49, the suggested subsidy would be $2,530
for an individual and $6,610 for a family. A good </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">baseline for the premium cost for decent insurance is given
by the average for employer provided insurance: $5,500 for an individual and
$14,500 for a family.[2] So to buy </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">decent insurance, a low income individual would need to pay about $3,000 and a family would need to pay about $8,000.The
FPL for an individual is $11,490 and for a family of 2 is $15,510. Clearly, this CARE plan would not allow these
low income people to buy decent insurance. Even at 200% of FPL, people would
not have enough disposable income to pay insurance premiums. In contrast, the
ACA provides subsidies that allow an individual or a family of 2 living in metro Detroit and
making just under 200% of FPL to buy good insurance for $1,000/year (with a
deductible of $900 individual or $1,800 family).[3] These costs would still be challenging to a </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">low income family, but they are far more reasonable than
the subsidies in the CARE plan. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Since the ACA subsidies are on a sliding scale, people
making lower incomes would pay even less. This properly reflects the fact that people on very low incomes have almost no disposable income and little chance to build up
savings. The CARE plan would repeal the expanded eligibility for</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Medicaid, on the grounds that Medicaid is a “broken”
system. Instead, the states would be given more freedom to innovate, and the
growth in federal support for Medicaid would be capped at </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">CPI+1. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In Michigan, it is expected that 400,000 people will
qualify for the expanded Medicaid. It is not clear that the CARE plan would
cover any of these people. In addition, health care cost inflation has usually
been more than CPI+1. Therefore, over time the capped federal contribution would cover less and
less. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Medicaid is far from ideal. In Michigan, Medicaid payment
rates to doctors are about half the rates for <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Medicare.[4] Consequently, many doctors will not take
Medicaid. There are also </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">complaints by doctors that Medicaid red tape is burdensome.
The main way to make Medicaid work better for the people it is supposed to
serve is to increase payment rates to </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">providers. It seems unlikely this will happen. And the very low payment rates to doctors almost certainly mean that
Medicaid is less costly to the federal government than </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="2"></a><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">a comparable system based on private insurance. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Medicaid does have the advantage that the co-pays are very
small (typically $1). Consequently, it is affordable to very low income people. It is hard to see how the CARE plan would
adequately cover people in the 30-100% of FPL range that have been left out of
traditional Medicaid. The ACA </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">extends full Medicaid to people making less than 138% of
FPL. Unfortunately, about half the states have chosen not to extend Medicaid,
even though the federal payments </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">would provide a strong net benefit to the state. Low income working people in these states are simply dependent on the
generosity of strangers when it comes to healthcare, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">and finding charity care is often a daunting task. This has
real consequences. “Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary
deaths every year in the United States”.[5] </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The CARE program has two ways to deal with pre-existing conditions. One approach is to use high risk pools for
people with serious and/or chronic illnesses. That has been used in the past,
but in most cases the funding source was not adequate. Therefore, people who had to take advantage of these high
risk pools faced very high costs. An unfortunate aspect of this approach is that
people that are unlucky enough to have a serious illness must also incur very high costs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Many people would say that insurance should spread those
costs across the whole population. Some people believe that high-risk pools are a relatively low cost way to help
people with pre-existing conditions. But, as discussed below, these people
require a substantial fraction of the medical spending in the U.S. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The second way that CARE addresses pre-existing conditions
is to prohibit underwriting for people who have insurance and want to buy some
other insurance. This would mean that people who maintain insurance could never
be discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions. This has two serious problems. First, it ignores the common problem that when
people lose their job, they often do not have enough savings to continue to pay for insurance. Second, it is unlikely
that insurance companies could live with this rule. Since CARE puts no
requirements for quality on insurance policies, healthy people would tend to buy low cost, low quality poli</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">cies. Then, if they develop a serious illness, they could
freely buy better insurance.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">We have seen that the CARE program fails to provide a good safety net for low income people who need health
insurance. It also fails to solve the problem of pre-existing conditions. The authors of the CARE program also
make a number of statements that seem to show a lack of understanding of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">the reality of health insurance in America. For example,
they state that surveys show that 85-90% of Americans liked their insurance except for the cost.[6] But 50 million </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Americans don’t have health insurance. This is about 15%.
It is hard to believe that every American who has insurance likes it. Many of us know people who complain
that their insurance doesn’t cover things they think it should. In addition to
the 50 million uninsured, there are about </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">30 million who are underinsured.[7] Do all these people
like</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">their insurance? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The CARE authors repeat a lot of Republican dogma about the
ACA. Clearly the ACA can be improved and the rollout of the website was
terrible. But as a Navigator, I have helped many people sign up for insurance,
and many of them simply could not have afforded insurance before. The website
is now working well enough that many people can complete the application
without problems. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The ACA also has several features that <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3"></a>Republicans
usually endorse. In metro Detroit, there are more than 10 private insurance companies competing. The insurance generally has high
deductibles, so consumers have “skin in the game” and are likely to be
thoughtful about the cost of medical care and whether that care is necessary. Republicans usually say
that this is the key to driving down health costs. In addition, the insurance
companies are motivated to negotiate low </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">rates with the providers in their network, because this is
the main way they can keep their premiums low (and thus compete for more
customers). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The CARE authors repeatedly claim that the ACA is driving up insurance costs. This requires careful analysis. First,
the news recently has been full of reports that the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">recent increase in healthcare costs has been surprisingly
small.[8]. Three common explanations are: the ending of patents on a number of
expensive drugs, lingering effects of the recession, and the ACA. Second, the
costs of ACA insurance are comparable to the costs of employer provided insurance. For example, in
metro Detroit a 45 year old can by a Blue Cross Premier Silver plan with $1,400
deductible for $4,200/year. This is comparable to the premium cost for employer provided
insurance with a similar deductible. Both of these facts contradict the
Republican dogma that the ACA is causing a spike in health insurance rates. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">There are several ways that the ACA may significantly
increase the rates paid by some people who have been in the individual market.
First, the ACA has quality standards that some older plans did not meet. In
some cases, this is because the older plans had big holes in their coverage. Often people did not
discover these holes until it was too late, and this accounts for a significant number </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">of bankruptcies. Some people believe that it is wrong for the ACA to require maternity
coverage, pediatric coverage, and coverage for mental illness and substance
abuse. If I don’t have kids, don’t intend to have kids, and have no mental or substance abuse issues,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">why should I pay for insurance for these conditions? But many people believe that
insurance should cover broad risk pools. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Every time one segments the risk pool, one creates winners
and losers. A man will never have a baby, but a woman will never have prostate
cancer. A lot of these costs tend to average out. And if people are allowed to buy
insurance that is tailored to their needs, what happens to people with pre-existing conditions? They will have to pay very high costs, because they are bearing the full cost of the risk associated with their conditions. The point of insurance is to spread the risk
broadly, so that the unlucky people who have health problems don’t also have to bear a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">disproportionate financial burden. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">There is another way that the ACA can raise some people’s
premiums, and the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">explanation is somewhat complex. There are many anecdotes
of people with decent </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">insurance whose premiums have gone up significantly under
the ACA. To understand this, we must first understand the distribution of
health spending.[9] In any population, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">there will be many people who have relatively low medical
spending – they are very </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">healthy. There will be some who have high spending because
they have chronic or acute </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">illness or serious injuries. If we rank the whole U.S.
population by medical spending (not including health insurance premiums) we
find that half the population is quite healthy, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">and only accounts for 3% of the spending, less than $850
per person. On the other </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">extreme, 20% of the population accounts for 80% of the
spending. So in the past, the key </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">way for an insurance company to compete in the individual
market was to sell to healthy </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="4"></a><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">people and to avoid selling to unhealthy people.
This was the reason for extensive </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">underwriting and emphasis on pre-existing conditions. Another way for insurance companies to reduce costs was to
cap annual and lifetime spending on any one person. 22% of the total
medical spending in this country is consumed by the sickest 1% of the population, with annual
costs exceeding $52,000 per person. So capping the payments could significantly reduce
a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">company’s cost, but with serious consequences for the
unlucky 1%. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Thus, people who had a pre-ACA insurance policy that cost
much less than $5,000 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">for an individual or $15000 for a family were buying “healthy people’s insurance”. This </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">insurance was not sold to people who had pre-existing
conditions. People who believe </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">this is a good system are saying there should be two risk
pools – one for healthy people </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">and one for unhealthy people. [10] The healthy people will
pay relatively low premiums. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The unhealthy people will not be able to afford insurance, unless the government </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">provides large subsidies. And since the least healthy 20%
cover 80% of the medical </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">spending, it will take very large government subsidies to
cover their costs. Many people </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">believe that insurance pools should be broad, so everyone
shares the cost and the risk. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The ACA does this. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">There is one other aspect of the pre-ACA insurance
environment that deserves </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">consideration. Many people think that insurance companies
could cancel policies for </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">people who became sick. That could happen if there was a lifetime maximum for </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">payments or if the company was able to claim the consumer
had an undisclosed pre-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">existing condition. But federal law forbids indiscriminate
canceling of policies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">However, the natural functioning of the market may have
gradually eliminated unhealthy </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">people from the market. Many consumers change insurance
every few years. This is the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">main reason why most current plans were not grandfathered
from 2010 – they did not </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">exist in 2010.[11] </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Insurance companies have an incentive to offer new plans at
low cost in order to attract the healthy consumers. The high cost of
insurance motivates consumers to look for lower cost plans. Thus, healthy consumers were likely to move into new, relatively low cost insurance. The unhealthy
people were prevented from buying the new plans, so they were stuck in their old plan,
in a risk pool that became increasingly unhealthy. This caused the rates for the whole
pool to go up rapidly, and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">eventually many of the people in the unhealthy risk pool
were no longer able to afford </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">insurance. In addition, some people enter the individual
market when they lose a job. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Again, only the healthy people in this pool are able to buy insurance in the low cost plans </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">on the individual market. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Thus, much of the increase in cost for individual insurance
related to the ACA is </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">due to a transition away from insurance that was either low in quality or limited to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">healthy people. We have seen that in metro Detroit, the
unsubsidized cost for ACA </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">insurance is about the same as for a comparable policy in the employer-provided </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">insurance market. Employer-provided insurance does not
discriminate between healthy </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">and unhealthy people. Thus, it does not have the
distortions that were common in the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">pre-ACA individual market. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The CARE plan has some discussion of the relative costs for
young vs. old </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">consumers. In the ACA, premiums can only vary by a factor
of 3 based on age from age </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="5"></a><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">21 to 65. Republicans have criticized this, saying
this overcharges the young. Some </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">have even encouraged young people not to sign up for
insurance, in order to protest this </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">inequity. Continuing this argument, the CARE plan suggests a factor of 5 range in </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">premium vs. age would be more appropriate. Reference [12] shows that the medical </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">costs for 65 years olds are more than 3 times the costs for 21 years old. Given that young </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">people may earn much less than older people, one might
think the ACA should have a </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">much bigger factor than 3 in age-adjusted premium costs.
However, there are other </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">important considerations. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">First, the ACA has good tax credits to help low income people pay insurance premiums and to reduce their deductible and
out-of-pocket maximum. Thus, 20 year olds with modest income will pay much less
than 1/3 of the premium cost compared to an older person with a high income. [13]
Because the insurance will likely be affordable for many young people, it seems unethical to</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">encourage them not to buy insurance. Also, even the factor of 3 causes premiums for
people in their 60s to be relatively high. For example, in metro Detroit, a 63 year old would pay $8616 for a Blue </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Cross Premier Silver plan with a $1400 deductible (without
tax credits). An individual </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">earning $46,000 per year makes too much for a premium tax
credit. It will be difficult </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">for such an individual to afford $8616 per year. It doesn’t
seem wise to increase this cost </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">by going to a factor of 5x for age rating. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The CARE plan also includes some ideas on increasing
transparency in medical </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">costs. And it suggests some ways to improve malpractice issues. Both of these seem </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">worth pursuing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In conclusion, the CARE plan would be interesting if it is a starting point for an </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">honest discussion on ways to improve health care in the
U.S. It will almost certainly be </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">necessary to modify the ACA as we learn more about specific issues. For example, the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">rule for affordability of employer-provided family
insurance needs changing the “family </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">glitch”[14]). But the CARE plan seems to be a significant
step backward from the ACA </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">in terms of proposals to cover low income people. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Republicans often complain about the transfer of wealth from rich to poor that is intrinsic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">to the tax credits that make ACA insurance affordable. But health care costs in the U.S. are
clearly too high for low income people to afford without substantial help. If one believes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">that low income people should have health insurance, then it seems necessary for upper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">middle class and wealthy people to help pay the cost. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">References
</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">1. The Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">and Empowerment Act </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/bf0c9823-29c7-4078</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">-b8af-aa9a12213eca/The%20Patient%20CARE%20Act%20-%20LEGISLATIVE%20PROPOSAL.pdf
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">2. U of M Center for Healthcare Research and Transform</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">ation: premium costs in Michigan for 2012 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">(report dated Sept. 2013) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">3. Premiums and other insurance costs under the ACA can </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">be determined by using the “See plans before I apply” button on healthcare.gov. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">4. Medicaid-to-Medicare Fee Index (Kaiser Family
Foundation) http://kff.org/medicaid/state-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">indicator/medicaid-to-medicare-fee-index/#notes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">5. “Insuring America's Health: Principles and
Recommendations”, report of the Institute of Medicine, Jan. 13, 2004. This is
part of the National Academies, the top medical research people in the U.S. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">6. The Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility, and Empowerment Act – Frequently Asked Questions </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/e9518504-ee02-494f-84e</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">1-1f63d0b1127f/The%20Patient%20CARE%20Act%20-%20FAQs.pdf </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">7. Commonwealth Fund National Scorecard on U.S. Health
System Performance, 2011. chart 49 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">/Fund%20Report/2011/Oct/PDF_National_Scorecard_Chartpack_2011_FINAL_101311.pdf </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">8. For example: Medical-Price Inflation Is at Slowest Pace in 50 Years (Wall Street Journal 9/17/13) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323342404579081312680485476
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">9. Health Care Costs, A Primer (Kaiser Family Foundation, May 2012) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/7670-03</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">.pdf </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">10. “ObamaCare's Plans Are Worse”, Wall Street Journal </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">editorial (11/29/13) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579192081764514664</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">The editorial claims that average costs for a pre-ACA individual policy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">was $2280 per year. The authors argue that the ACA insurance costs much more, because it is too good (first class). But they don’t mention that average employer-provided insurance costs about $5500 per year (for
the employer and employee shares of the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">premium). (see ref. [2]). Why should the pre-ACA individual policy be so much cheaper? Either because </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">it is much lower in quality (has major coverage gaps) or, more likely, because it is only sold to healthy </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">people. The employer-provided insurance cannot discriminate between healthy and unhealthy employees; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">it must cover the whole risk pool. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">11.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-semro/grandfathered-plans-the-a_b_4283333.html# </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">12. “The Lifetime Distribution of Health Care Costs”, Berhanu Alemayehu and Kenneth E Warner, Health </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Serv Res. 2004 June; 39(3): 627–642.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">pmc/articles/PMC1361028/ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">13. http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/issue_brief</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">s/2013/rwjf404637/subassets/rwjf404637_1 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Implications of Limited Age Rating Bands Under the Affordable
Care Act </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">14. Consumer Reports – the “family glitch” http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/10/replacing-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">employer-coverage-with-marketplace-health-plan/index.htm</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-80631245812323970092014-02-03T08:00:00.002-08:002014-02-03T08:00:51.741-08:00Charter schools: A Michigan success story<div class="MsoNormal">
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--></style><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If there were no Trillium Academy, fewer students in the
Taylor area would have the opportunity for instruction in the performing arts.</span>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is one of the school’s specialties. It also illustrates
the value of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Michigan’s charter
school movement, now marking its 20<sup>th</sup> anniversary.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">People forming charter schools can organize themselves
around certain key components that they want in a school. That is the
underlining principle for the concept: giving parents and students choices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The state’s first nine charter schools opened in the fall
of 1994.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Today, there are now 298 charter schools in the state
educating more than 140,000 students — about 9 percent of the state’s
school-age population.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Charter schools have particularly flourished in urban
areas. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">More than half the public school students in Detroit are
now enrolled in charter schools, according to a recent report from<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the National Alliance for Public
Charter Schools.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">That keeps
Detroit second nationally among all cities, trailing only New Orleans, where 79
percent of students attend charter schools. Of the 100,255 public school
students in Detroit, 51,083 were enrolled in charter schools, compared to
49,172 in traditional public schools.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is hard to view charter schools as anything but a
Godsend for the students and parents who make use of them. Their distinctives
are alluring.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At Trillium, for instance, each student has his or her own educational
plan, according to Superintendent Angela Romanowski. This approach has made the
institution a “reward school” and it is in the top 5 percent in Michigan for
its rate of student improvement.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Because it serves grades K-12, it is philosophically a
one-room school house. Parents can send all of their children to the school. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Romanowski, who is in her 11<sup>th</sup> year at Trillium
and originally worked in Monroe County’s Airport Community District as a Title
1 coordinator, said the family component is a special feature of the school.
Parents, students and faculty members are all surveyed for input and teamwork
is stressed.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Trillium has 695 students.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“It is hard to be much smaller if you are a high school,”
Romanowski said.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Varsity basketball, softball, cross country and volleyball
are offered, and the school partners with Gabriel Richard in Riverview for
varsity football.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Three types of charter schools are allowed under Michigan
law: 1) urban high school academies that can only be authorized by the state’s
public universities; 2) schools of excellence that can replicate
high-performing schools, function as a cyber school or base themselves on
criteria that define superior academic performance; 3) strict discipline
academies for the purposes of serving suspended, expelled or incarcerated young
people.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Michigan legislature last year lifted the cap on the
number of charter schools that can exist in the state.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“We are still implementing choice,” said Dan Quisinberry,
who has been president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies
(<a href="http://charterschools.org/">charterschools.org</a>) since 1997.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Quisinberry said that while parents have access to testing
data so they can rate a school’s achievement level, “it ought to be more
understandable.” He is encouraged by a proposed A to F school accountability
proposal now before the Michigan legislature.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Attaining equitable funding for charter schools also has
been “difficult,” Quisinberry said, since there is still a “significant
difference” between state funding for charters and conventional public schools.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Student
performance of charter schools has been debated, but Quisinberry has pointed out
that noted that research by Stanford University’s CREDO Institute, released last
year, shows that the average charter school student in Michigan gains an
additional two months of learning every year in reading and math. In Detroit,
the study showed, it’s an additional three months of learning every year.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">To be sure, the
movement has its critics, who today are focusing on what they call the undue
influence of corporate interests in the movement. But as Quisinberry said
recently, “The research shows that charter schools are fulfilling the promise
that increased innovation and accountability will lead to greater achievement
…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why so many parents are
choosing charter schools. You can’t fool parents. They don’t care who runs the
school, but they know when their child is in the right school.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Clearly, charter
schools are here to stay.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-43497213349488846012014-02-01T05:38:00.001-08:002014-02-01T05:38:30.317-08:00Create more jobs, then raise minimum wage
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<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Notice how the Democrats
are always talking about extending unemployment benefits and, lately, raising
the minimum wage.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">For their own sakes, not
to mention the nation’s, they need to tap into the depth of experience in their
policymaking think tanks and recognize the problems we face are more complex,
demanding a broader approach.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The public is ahead of
them on this one. <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2014/most_favor_minimum_wage_hike_oppose_more_jobless_benefits">The reliable Rasmussen poll</a> says the nation supports the
minimum wage but opposes more unemployment benefits. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">While raising the minimum
wage looks appealing, the timing might be off. Even conservative economist
<a href="http://www.alec.org/docs/RSPS_4th_Edition.pdf">Arthur Laffer suggests this might have merit</a>, but only at the state level,
where conditions vary from place to place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To that end, a movement has been launched to raise the <a href="http://www.raisemichigan.com/">minimum wage in Michigan</a>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">It should be kept in mind
that we have several problems: income growth is dismal; the job recovery is the
worst in modern history; employers are dealing with an array of problems right
now, not the least of which is implementation next year of the Affordable Care
Act.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Businesses are already
behind the curve in creating jobs. Why throw another requirement at them right
now?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The Republicans are
correct in their focus on job creation. We’d get further if the two parties
would work together on this one. They both have good ideas if they put them
forth, eschewing the sound bites in the process.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-46724206614053615382014-01-30T17:29:00.002-08:002014-01-30T17:29:23.366-08:00Michigan's charter schools want equitable funding
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<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Gov. Rick Snyder said
funding for primary and secondary education is up about $660 per student since
he took office but the Michigan Association of Public School Academies says
charter schools are not getting enough of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The association is asking
its supporters to pressure the legislature to eliminate what it says is an
$1,800 funding disparity for charter school students. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">“All children deserve to be treated fairly and given the
same opportunity to find a great school and get a great education,” said Dan
Quisenberry, president of MAPSA. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">MAPSA is helping its supporters<a href="https://www.votervoice.net/link/target/miapsa/M4f23Ffcg.aspx"> send a message to lawmakers</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Snyder said in his recent state-of-the-state address
that the state has picked up some of the retirement costs local districts
previously had been carrying. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The Associated Press reported that excluding
federal, preschool and adult education dollars but factoring in the state’s
direct share of the retirement bill, Snyder’s budget office estimates state
funding was $6,818 per student when he arrived in Lansing and is $7,484 today,
a 10 percent jump. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">The governor’s critics like to focus on the basic
school grant level instead.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva;">Snyder in his first year helped roll it back by $300
per pupil and locked in a previous $170 cut, AP reported. The grant has been raised
$180 since and is currently $7,026, about 1.7 percent less than in 2010-11, the
last budget approved by former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, according to
the Senate Fiscal Agency.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-62578883272548280322014-01-24T05:34:00.002-08:002014-01-24T05:34:29.847-08:00In defense of Brooks Patterson
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we can’t read the controversial piece in The New Yorker
about Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson unless we pay for it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Folks, it isn’t worth it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We don’t need to know what Patterson said in the article <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>entitled <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/01/27/140127fa_fact_williams">“Drop Dead, Detroit”</a> because we
have his 45-year record in public service, which speaks for itself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s all out there for anyone to see, and we can judge for
ourselves. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we live in
Oakland County, we know it’s a great record. The county is one of the most
solvent places in the country thanks to the governance of Patterson and his
team — not to mention the Oakland County commissioners down through the years. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does Oakland County owe its success in large part to
Detroit? Duh. Detroit was only home to the auto industry and executives chose to
live in Oakland County by the thousands.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oakland was once one of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the five wealthiest counties in the country and it is because
of Detroit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Detroit is also the city that is a national embarrassment to
Michigan. It is bankrupt. It was home to one the most corrupt mayors in the
country’s history, Kwame Kilpatrick, yet Detroiters elected him twice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The city has been in decline for decades, with its residents
fleeing to places like Oakland and Macomb counties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>City officials have been warned for eons that financial
disaster loomed. Yet what did they — or the citizens who elected them — do
about it? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it in the region’s interests for Detroit<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to recover? Is the Grand Canyon deep? A
rising tide lifts all boats. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do places like Oakland and Macomb counties need protection
from Detroit? You bet. Just consider the possibility of rising costs of Detroit
water and sewer services,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>upon
which Southeastern Michigan suburbia depends. Our rates could skyrocket due to
a bankruptcy we didn’t create.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When, for years, Detroit wanted to improve Cobo Hall, did
Patterson object? Only to the extent he wanted a fair shake for his constituents.
He did his job, and he did it admirably.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just look at how he is trying to protect the artwork at the
Detroit Institute of Arts, on which his constituents depend — and partially
underwrite — for cultural enrichment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Patterson also knows that the county’s bond rating will not
be helped in the long run by Detroit’s problems.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But would he rather have the Red Wings in Oakland County
than Detroit? Is he happy the Pistons are in Auburn Hills?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Would he prefer that businesses locate in Oakland County
instead of Detroit?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Would he rather people dine out in Oakland County than
Detroit?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These are hard realities — facts, not even opinions.
Patterson knows, and has demonstrated, that Southeastern Michigan’s fate is
heavily influenced by Detroit and always will be. He has lived this and
breathed this forever.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Patterson has a record he and his constituents can be proud
of. Oakland would be wealthier today if Detroit was solvent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it isn’t. Detroit is more dead than alive. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t blame Brooks Patterson for that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-10812368559316773252014-01-23T03:34:00.002-08:002014-01-23T03:34:18.283-08:00Target’s health-care decision actually helps employees<div class="MsoNormal">
What was the point of adopting Obamacare if it was not going
to transform the health-care landscape?
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While foes of the new Affordable Care Act are seizing on
<a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2014/January/22/target-cuts-coverage.aspx">Target’s announcement that it will no longer provide health coverage</a> to
part-time employees as proof that ACA is doing more harm than good, that view
is shortsighted.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But true systemic change is not simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point is, the system we had before
Obamacare was broken, and its destructive impact on U.S. employment was never
understood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our third-party payer
system, where employers feel the brunt of insurance costs,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is a disaster that the ACA will
eventually fix.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.abullseyeview.com/2014/01/talking-health-care-with-evp-of-human-resources-jodee-kozlak/">Target’s decision</a> is a win-win-win-win situation. The
employer wins by cutting its costs; employees win by gaining the chance for
better coverage; insurance companies win by getting new customers; and
prospective employees seeking a job win because perhaps Target can now afford
to hire more of them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“These part-time workers will most likely be better off
under Obamacare plans, and Target’s decision to shift the employees into the
marketplaces is definitive proof that the health law is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>doing exactly what it’s intended to do,”
reported the website <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/22/3190591/target-obamacare-time-better/">Think Progress.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Numerous disincentives to third-party coverage were built
into the law, mostly in the form of generous subsidies to individuals who buy
their coverage at Healthcare.gov. More and more employers will drop their
coverage altogether, finding it more cost-effective to pay the fines rather
than provide the coverage. But that is exactly the point. Why should employers
be providing the coverage in the first place? We don’t expect them to insure
our homes or cars. This is precisely what was wrong with our system in the
first place, and you can find this assertion at conservative think tanks if you
dig deep enough into their archives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both sides are guilty of oversimplifying ACA’s groundbreaking
impact, not the lest of which was President Obama’s claim that you could keep
your insurance if you liked it. Most people will, but to claim a major reform
is not so major after all misses the whole point.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obamacare is giving us all lessons in economics and health coverage.
The sooner we learn them, the better off we will be. Then we can focus on continuing
to change and improve the system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-81351124771274353152014-01-21T04:44:00.004-08:002014-01-21T04:44:51.171-08:00Common Core: Model for bipartisanship
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">While much of the media was mesmerized by the so-called
bridge traffic scandal involving New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, reporters
largely missed <a href="http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/2014/1401StateoftheStatesText.pdf">a superb presentation</a> by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Among other things, Fallin delivered what may be the clearest
explanation of Common Core standards for public school students, and why states
are embracing them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The occasion was the National Governors Association's second annual state-of-the-states speech before the National
Press Club.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fallin said simply that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“governors
are focused on raising academic standards for all students to ensure their
success in college or a career training program.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">She said that is why “governors came together years ago to
raise academic standards … to ensure our students could compete in their town,
city or state, but with students from around the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Those higher standards are called the Common Core State
Standards. They outline what students need to be college- and career-ready.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“However, it is left strictly to individual states,
districts and schools to elevate the quality of their students’ education to
meet these more rigorous and relevant standards. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Common Core is not a federal program. It is driven and
implemented by those states that choose to participate. It is also not a
federal curriculum; in fact, it’s not a curriculum at all. Educators and school
districts will still design lesson plans, choose appropriate text books and
drive classroom learning. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“The goal is to ensure our children finish high school with
better critical thinking skills and the tools they need to succeed in higher
education or the workforce.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s pretty clear. Meanwhile, Fallin, a Republican, and
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>highlighted
areas where states are taking the lead and the federal government is paralyzed
by inaction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hickenloopr noted that “the fate of the states and the
federal government are inextricably linked. More than 26 percent of most state
budgets come from the federal government.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fallin said federal inaction has left states “to chart
their own path and pursue their own policies where partisan gridlock has left
Washington unable to address the nation’s serious problems. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“For governors, inaction is not an option. Where the
federal government will not act, states are stepping in. Our message for 2014
is clear: states are leading, and we encourage our federal partners to work
more closely with us, and to take note of and use the policy ideas coming from
their state partners. Above all, please do not get in the way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fallin and Hickenlooper’s presentation was <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/317215-1">carried on C-SPAN</a>.
It stands as a model of what Democrats and Republicans can do together.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17218558622694998269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320975290673808628.post-45200548599061888872014-01-20T04:15:00.000-08:002014-01-20T04:20:28.972-08:00Bills would curb police right to seize your assets<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Did you know that under Michigan’s
civil forfeiture laws, someone does not have to be convicted of or even charged
with a crime to permanently lose his or her cash, car or home<a href="http://www.ij.org/how-a-philadelphia-family-lost-their-home-to-asset-forfeiture-3"></a>
to law enforcement?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two Michigan lawmakers want to do
something about it and have scheduled a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23 to
inform the public about the issue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd;">
<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">State Reps. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester
Hills, and Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, are both sponsoring legislation to
curb the practice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thurday’s meeting on </span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">"Civil
Asset Forfeiture Laws and Reforms" will be held at the Royal Oak Public
Library. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Speakers will include McMillin, Rep. Rose Mary Robinson, D-Detroit, <br />
Shelli Weisberg, legislative director of the Michigan chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union, and Dennis Marburger, the Oakland County coordinator of
the <a href="https://www.campaignforliberty.org/community/michigan/">Michigan Campaign <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for Liberty.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">McMillin called civil asset forfeiture reform an
issue that crosses the political spectrum of left and right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Taking a citizen’s assets without a conviction
certainly seems unfair,” McMillin said in a press release.</span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irwin’s HB 5212 would require a conviction before citizens'
assets could be kept. McMillin’s HB 5081<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>would bring transparency to the process. If passed, for the first time
Michigan citizens could see how often people's assets are taken without a
conviction and how the funds are used, among other disclosures, McMillin said.</span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">According to a 2010 <a href="http://www.ij.org/michigan-bill-would-take-on-policing-for-profit-2">Institute for Justice</a> study, Michigan
has one of the worst civil asset forfeiture laws in the nation.</span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michigan <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>earned a D- from the institute in its report “Policing for
Profit.” Currently, the government has to establish by a “preponderance of the
evidence” that a property was involved in criminal activity to forfeit property,
according to the institute. That is a much lower evidentiary standard than
what’s required for a criminal conviction, which is “beyond a reasonable
doubt.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So if HB 5213 is enacted, it would
raise the bar, meaning prosecutors would need far more evidence to engage in
forfeiture, according to the institute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michigan has recently witnessed several
high-profile civil forfeiture cases. Two Detroit-area small business owners,
Terry Dehko and Mark Zaniewski, had their entire bank accounts seized by the
IRS, even though neither was charged with any crime, according to the institute.
Over $100,000 in total was taken from the two men.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/12/130812fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=all">An even more controversial incident</a>
occurred when Detroit police raided and seized cars at an art gala. </span><span style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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