Obamacare and your Wallet

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/12/health-reform?zid=318&ah=ac379c09c1c3fb67e0e8fd1964d5247f A website entitled "healthcare.gov" was set up by the government for people in 36 states to compare health insurance rates and policies. Many are complaining about to major downsides to these health insurance plans. One of which, being the biggest negative, is the increased co-pay that is required to "activate" insurance. As healthcare increases in price, so does insurance. Another negative people are disagreeing on is the narrowing coverage of insurance. Health care companies are doing this because of the constant increase in health care as well. I see Obamacare and health care prices as being the biggest contradiction. Clearly, Obamacare isn't going to continue to be as effective as healthcare prices rise. I think the government needs to put a limit on healthcare costs rather than just trying to make it more available to everyone at one time. Many people don't understand that health care is constantly rising. It's shady in a way. It's constantly rising because people don't really have a choice as to what they pay; they also don't have knowledge as to why it's rising.

Slow and Steady, for Now

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/01/health-spending?zid=318&ah=ac379c09c1c3fb67e0e8fd1964d5247f This article is mainly talking about the uncertainty of why health spending is slowing down so dramatically. Apparently this slowdown has been going on since early 2012. Spending only rose 3.7% to $2.8 trillion, according to economist.com. The main problem was that, in 2012, healthcare grew more slowly than the economy grew; this is obviously a downturn for the economy as a whole. Economists main question is; is the slowdown of health spending "merely a cyclical blip?" According to the Congressional Budget Office, this is threatening the long term economic health. Your next question is probably "why such a slowdown?" There's clearly not one specific answer to this question. However, the current recession we face accounts for 37% of health spending. Another factor is that health care is rising, as always, so many people are buying the cheapest health care they can find which in turn makes them pay more for Dr. visits which then leads to less trips to the Dr.'s office. Hard thinking isn't necessarily required to answer why healthcare slowed down so much; in my opinion anyways. Health care is becoming outrageous in its pricing. Price for health care rises so consistently that it's hard for many people to keep up, especially considering our current economic state. Something i don't quite understand is why the health care economy isn't "at its best." So much money is pumped into the health care system from taxes and what not; how is it that they're not getting "enough" money?

The Five Biggest Problems In Health Care Today

http://www.forbes.com/sites/leahbinder/2013/02/21/the-five-biggest-problems-in-health-care-today/ 1) Too much unnecessary care: This is essentially people playing the system. People abusing health care accounts to 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost of total health care; which contributes to the debt our country is already in 2) Avoidable harm to patients: This is the most common health care problem. This is basically a 25% chance that, while at the hospital or doctors office, you will get injured in another way or have some other sort of problem caused at the actual treatment center 3)Billions of dollars are being wasted: According to the "American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology," about 1 billion dollars is wasted every year for unnecessary healthcare costs. 4) Perverse Incentives in How We Pay for Care: This is basically saying that the way we pay for our treatment with a middle man, the insurance company, and with this type of indirect paying type, money is wasted. 5) Lack of Transparency: We don't really have a wide selection of health care buildings as we do car dealers for example. To buy a car you look around and find the cheapest price. When it comes to health care, there is no transparency, referring to we can't exactly look around to find the cheapest hospital. Also, the prices for health care treatments are constantly rising without the public really knowing. I think the biggest problem is the lack of transparency. This article made a really good point in the fact that no one can really judge health care prices. If more knowledge was given out to the public about the constant rise of health care, then i believe that would slow down the rise. For example, if you go to look at a car and the price is constantly rising, you'll refuse to buy that car if it's overpriced. The dealer will have no other option but to lower his prices or stop rising prices if he wants business. This is an article i believe more people need to look at and realize how ridiculously high the amount of money wasted is. Not only that, but how ridiculous the price of health care is.

Obamacare News: Healthcare reform curbs full-time hiring

http://medcitynews.com/2013/12/obamacare-news-healthcare-reform-curbs-full-time-hiring/ According to Duke University,20% of businesses are less likely to hire new employees due to the pushiing costs of "Obamacare." They also state 10% of busninesses may actually lay off current employees due to Obamacare. Since the Affordable Health Care act requires most businesses to supply healthcare to full time workers, and the economy isn't at its best, its hurting smaller businesses alot. Part-time employees are now being hired over full time employees at most local busineses hence the Health Care law from 2010. In my opinion, I think the government should cut back on affordable health care. It's a huge addition to the enormous debt we already have. Most people play the system and end up having some type of affordable health care even when they're laid off. Pushing new healthcare reforms will not help anything in the current position the economy is in. Small local businesses are essentially the backbone to our economy and these health care reforms are mainly effecting these small local businesses negatively. I also don't really understand why new health care reforms are even coming out. To me it seems like the government is revamping Obamacare all over again. Who is this supposed to be helping and what's the goal to these new reforms?

Who's got the highest (and lowest) unemployment rates?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/07/14/world.comparison.unemployment/ Qatar 0.5 December 2010 Thailand 0.5 May 2011 Singapore 1.9 March 2011 Vietnam 2.6 June 2011 Switzerland 2.8 June 2011 Malaysia 3 April 2011 South Korea 3.2 May 2011 Norway 3.3 March 2011 Hong Kong 3.5 May 2011 Denmark 3.8 April 2011 This is a graph showing the top lowest unemployment percents in the world by country. As you may notice, most of these countries are in south east Asia. According to George T. Haley "One reason why the unemployment rates in those countries are low is because they're starting to get a lot of investment that used to go to China." China is in a state of high inflation which is causing China to be out resourced. Accuracy, on exact percentages, are slightly off due to how each country defines their unemployment rate; each country defines it differently. You also have to take into consideration that not all countries that may be on this list are on the list. These statistics are from December 2010. I think part of the reason Asia has a low percentage is because of the type of government they have. Most are in the communist republic type of government. Most communistic governments have lower unemployment percentage rates since almost everyone is forced to work otherwise they would be living on the streets. Another reason for this would be their low pay. Most have an average income of around $800 which is extremely low. I believe the reason for our unemployment rate being so low is the laziness of our country. Sure the US overall efficiency may be the highest it's been in a long time; however i believe that's simply to the advances in technology we are taking advantage of. If we worked just as hard as the people in Asia we could have a much lower unemployment rate.

"Why young people are saying 'no' to the workforce"

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/22/news/economy/young-workforce-delay/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River The Bureau of Labor Statistics is showing statistics of an all time low of people aged 20 to 34 in the work force. Less than 78% of people this age are working or looking for work. According to CNN that's "down from the peak of 83% in 2000, and the lowest since the 1970s." Many businesses have a "last-in first-out" policy for newer, younger workers. This is hard on young people who are looking for jobs. The generalized reason for this unfortunate all time low is obviously the current state of our economy. However, this isn't the only reason for the low percentage. It used to be hard to achieve middle class income level with a high school diploma, in today's world it's getting more difficult to achieve middle class with a 4 year bachelors degree. What this means is young adults are staying in school longer which is the other reason for the low percentage. I personally think this could be potentially a positive outcome. If you think about it, if more kids are spending more time in school, that would account for an overall long run benefit. I also like the idea that more people are going into college so colleges will be more competitive when accepting students which would make kids work harder to get into a decent school which one then lead to another long run benefit of an overall more proficient nation possibly? I know that sounds a little crazy but it adds up. I also read that colleges are constantly upping their tuition fees which i don't like. Colleges are making plenty of money to begin with and i don't see a major reason to raise tuition costs unless there's a legit reason.

What to Do If You Lose Your Job

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/10/21/what-to-do-if-you-lose-your-job "The Bureau of Labor Statistics show that more than 11 million people are currently unemployed." Apparently, a shorter term lay off can actually be a benefit to some poeple. Sander Flaum, the CEO of global advertising and consulting company, wrote a book called "The Best Thing That Could Ever Happen to You: How a Career Reversal Can Reinvigorate Your Life." This is a book specificly on unemployment that explains how to turn being fired into a successful future in 5 steps. These five steps are as follows: 1) avoid self sabatoge; this is basically telling unemployed people to keep their heads high and to stay confident. 2)Bump up your brand; saying that no matter how tough the economy is, there are ways to stand out and apply yourself to other jobs. 3) Recruit recruters; IF you apply yourself and constantly pest job recruters, it will be obvious that you want to work making it easier to get a job. 4) revise your resume; add more personal things to your resume but be sure to make they're professinal qualities of yourself, this is a huge plus to job recruiters 5) remember references; fidning a job alone is kind of hard, if you have a ton of references, you will be more known which could also increase the chance at a job. First of all, I dont see how unemployment can really be looked at as a good thing but i do find it very appealing to see these steps that people could take to find a job. It's great motivation for those people who are currrently unemployed. This article isn't directly an unemployment article but i found it to be interesting and eye opening. If more people would look at motivation like this, and apply themselves, im sure our unemployment rate percentage could be lowered.