Time to change a few things....
Let's talk about a few more changes that should be made in our Federal government.
Health insurance first. Right now, if someone is over 65 and still working at a job that makes them eligible for health insurance benefits, they can enroll in Medicare; but Medicare becomes their secondary insurer. So they pay the full premium amount, but in essence, their employer is subsidizing Medicare by being the primary insurer.
Time to change this. Workers who are over 65 and Medicare eligible should have Medicare become their primary insurer. If they continue to have health insurance through their employer, the employer-provided insurance should become the secondary insurance. People like this wouldn't need to buy a supplemental policy to cover what Medicare won't. This will drive the cost of employer-provided health insurance lower for this age-group.
Why is that good? Because right now, employers are seeking to get this group of workers out of the workforce. That is due to the fact it costs them a lot more to provide coverage for people based on age. The older a workforce is, the more expensive it is to purchase health insurance for. These people are eligible for Medicare, they and their employers have paid into the Medicare system throughout their working histories, give them the benefits they have earned. The more of these people that are in the "pool" of covered individuals being furnished their health insurance through employers, the lower the costs to employers (and therefore, consumers) would go.
In raising the number of people who are part of the Medicare program as their primary insurer, perhaps government might finally start setting more rigid standards for errors in claims processing and in combating fraud.
* * * * *
Right now we are the most tolerant nation on this planet when it comes to the visas of students and tourists. This is also something that needs to change and now.
When you enter this nation on a tourist visa, you should have a 72 hour window of opportunity to depart from the end of your planned stay. If the tourist needs to stay longer, they need to contact the State Department and ask permission. We need a computerized system that tracks every single person who is visiting this country on a visa that automatically flags anyone who has overstayed their visa and issues a warrant for their arrest. Now if they've committed no crime other than overstaying the visa, send them on their way with an apology and no criminal record or record of arrest. They were merely "detained" prior to departing.
But when someone has deliberately stayed in this nation beyond the proper amount of time, be they a student, tourist or whatever, either they get permission to stay or they have to leave. And depending on what it takes to get them to leave, maybe we should consider banning them from re-entry.
Who is going to pay for all of this additional monitoring, the cost of the people to do it and so on? Easy. Raise the price for people to get a visa to enter the country. A U.S. Department of Commerce estimate for the year 2011 predicted that there would be approximately 27 million arrivals in the U.S. that year from destinations outside the U.S. (not counting Mexico and Canada). Add ten bucks to the cost of every visa that 27 million people obtain and you've got $270 million. That's enough to fund 5,000 new Department of Homeland Security employees annually to track visas.
Both of these ideas have been added to the proposed platform of the Centrist Party.
Health insurance first. Right now, if someone is over 65 and still working at a job that makes them eligible for health insurance benefits, they can enroll in Medicare; but Medicare becomes their secondary insurer. So they pay the full premium amount, but in essence, their employer is subsidizing Medicare by being the primary insurer.
Time to change this. Workers who are over 65 and Medicare eligible should have Medicare become their primary insurer. If they continue to have health insurance through their employer, the employer-provided insurance should become the secondary insurance. People like this wouldn't need to buy a supplemental policy to cover what Medicare won't. This will drive the cost of employer-provided health insurance lower for this age-group.
Why is that good? Because right now, employers are seeking to get this group of workers out of the workforce. That is due to the fact it costs them a lot more to provide coverage for people based on age. The older a workforce is, the more expensive it is to purchase health insurance for. These people are eligible for Medicare, they and their employers have paid into the Medicare system throughout their working histories, give them the benefits they have earned. The more of these people that are in the "pool" of covered individuals being furnished their health insurance through employers, the lower the costs to employers (and therefore, consumers) would go.
In raising the number of people who are part of the Medicare program as their primary insurer, perhaps government might finally start setting more rigid standards for errors in claims processing and in combating fraud.
* * * * *
Right now we are the most tolerant nation on this planet when it comes to the visas of students and tourists. This is also something that needs to change and now.
When you enter this nation on a tourist visa, you should have a 72 hour window of opportunity to depart from the end of your planned stay. If the tourist needs to stay longer, they need to contact the State Department and ask permission. We need a computerized system that tracks every single person who is visiting this country on a visa that automatically flags anyone who has overstayed their visa and issues a warrant for their arrest. Now if they've committed no crime other than overstaying the visa, send them on their way with an apology and no criminal record or record of arrest. They were merely "detained" prior to departing.
But when someone has deliberately stayed in this nation beyond the proper amount of time, be they a student, tourist or whatever, either they get permission to stay or they have to leave. And depending on what it takes to get them to leave, maybe we should consider banning them from re-entry.
Who is going to pay for all of this additional monitoring, the cost of the people to do it and so on? Easy. Raise the price for people to get a visa to enter the country. A U.S. Department of Commerce estimate for the year 2011 predicted that there would be approximately 27 million arrivals in the U.S. that year from destinations outside the U.S. (not counting Mexico and Canada). Add ten bucks to the cost of every visa that 27 million people obtain and you've got $270 million. That's enough to fund 5,000 new Department of Homeland Security employees annually to track visas.
Both of these ideas have been added to the proposed platform of the Centrist Party.
posted by me at 10:38 PM
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