Thread: Friend's Recommendations for Smart Health/Welfare Reform

A friend of mine who is a social worker had made these suggestions to alleviate the MASSIVE abuse by illegal aliens to U.S. Citizens in regards to Health Care, Welfare, etc... she only makes $42,000.00 a year with no furloughs and is sick and tired (as we ALL are) of illegal aliens and anchor babies receiving EVERYTHING and the U.S. Citizens getting "shafted"...

Here are her "Smart" Recommendations:

ssaworker wrote:
tomasina,

I often call the OCR on the carpet for making complaints with no ideas of how it could be better. So I'll throw in my ideas...kind of a "If I Ruled The State" post:

1. There would be tort reform, and encouragement of medical providers to provide basic coverage to all legal Americans at a fair price, even a sliding scale.

2. Small and medium business owners would be given pools that they can buy into on health care with their employees, but the employees have to help pay a fair share.

3. Health insurance would be set up more like auto insurance. If you don't smoke, don't use drugs, are not obese, etc...and you practice basic good preventative care of your body, you would pay a lower rate. However, no one would be denied insurance because of previous medical conditions, or genetic issues where something runs in your family. Basically, those "bad drivers" would be in a higher risk pool, while people who show "good driving" responsible conduct would pay less.

4. Illegal aliens would be eligible to free birth control, family planning, lifesaving/limbsaving care in case of accident or illness. They would have a pool, too, where they can pay for a basic plan. But that would not be subsidized.

5. Medical professionals with heavy student loan debt or tax debt, etc...would be given a break if they agree to work in public health clinics, either here or in Mexico. If they help Mexico build a better level of medical care for their own people, it will benefit all of us. They still have to pay their loans, but perhaps they can get some interest forgiven or longer terms. That way, we aren't PAYING money out, just reducing some of the profit we get back.

6. The 14th amendment HAS to change to read: "If at least one parent is not a legal citizen or resident, the child will be granted a "certificate of live birth/provisional citizenship". That child would be eligible to education, basic preventive health care with a share of cost and a BASIC food stamp help. But when they turn 18, they can apply for and get full citizenship, provided they stayed in school, have committed no crimes and serve two years in service to the nation. That service can be volunteer work (such as with seniors), or in military service. By the way, I believe that ALL young people, citizen or not, should have to serve two years, like in Israel. They may not be military material, but this nation has many things that need being done, such as help to the homeless, to seniors, rebuilding of inner cities, help to farms...the list is endless. No one would be exempted from this mandate.

7. Anyone who receives public assistance, unless they are disabled/elderly/small children, would be required to "earn" that check/food stamps, through volunteer work, work in public sector, OR work for businesses who are hurting and need willing hands. Those businesses would be exempt from providing any benefits or such to these people. There is always work to be done, in soup kitchens, fields, fixing up homes for elderly folks, etc...and that benefit should be tied to work. Even kids can work to help earn the family benefit, by going to school and maybe helping out in the community.

8. Food stamps would be blocked from being used for garbage junk food. Soda pop, chips, processed junk, candy and such would not be allowed. I would rather see a family buying steak on sale at the market for $1.97 a pound with food stamps, than to see the carts of chips, cookies, cupcakes, soda, and all that. Childhood obesity and diabetes is rising fastest among kids who are receiving food stamps. This is due to junk food.

9. Public employees would be shifted to defined contribution plans, and they would be free of unions, judged on performance and merit. This is important, because this partnership between taxpayers, public employees and the needy must be built on foundations of fairness, integrity and ethics.

10. Last, but definitely not least. The system we have now rewards bad behavior, such as promiscuity and kids without fathers, but penalizes good behavior. This is all wrong. Child support laws have to toughen up, and no one should be exempt from cooperating with child support collection unless there is abuse involved. Further, adults should not be eligible for MediCal just because they popped out kids, when young adults who waited and were not having out of wedlock kids are not eligible. All young adults should be eligible or ineligible, based on the same income and property rules. Having a child should not make you eligible to MediCal, while not having one makes you ineligible. That's not right. "Linkage" based upon parenthood should be done away with, whether it is for medical/cash/food benefits.

That's my idea set. I'd love to hear other people's.

Many of those are excellent ideas, and all are thought-provoking.

However I am struck by her assumption, as a Californian, that the United States has some "special relationship" with the nation of Mexico, to which she evidently has been brain-washed into thinking that we owe some special "debt", and, secondly. that masses of resident illegal aliens who must be provided for (with "free birth control and family planning") at U.S. public expense are simply a fact of life which must be accepted.

When I was much younger, I worked for a community college in Georgia. I once asked the President of the college, a life-time educator, what he thought about the idea of two years of required public service for all young Americans such as this social worker suggested. He replied, "I think it's a wonderful idea, but I'd certainly hate to have to administrate it." And that is a very specific problem - we are such a large country that national programs that work well in small nations such as Israel, Japan, and the Scandinavian countries do not translate well into the United States because they become so cumbersome and unwieldy to administrate honestly and effectively on such a large scale.

However, I think many of her other ideas, especially those about applying the principles currently used in mandatory automobile insurance to health insurance, are elegant in their simplicity. And I think her suggestion that soda (and other "junk foods") be excluded from Food Stamps to help fight obesity is far superior to the Obama Administration's idea that we place a special tax on "soda drinkers" to help fund their Health Care bill.

My suggestion: Revival of what used to be the national practice of 3 daily outdoor recess periods in elementary schools and required physical education classes during the first 2 years of high school to combat childhood obesity.