Free Republic

This week, concerns about swine flu have dominated the media and many government officials. While the American people should be made aware of infectious diseases and common sense preventative measures, much of the hysterical reaction from government only serves to remind us how detrimental to your health it can be when government plays doctor. As a physician, I have yet to see any evidence that justifies the current level of alarm. Influenza typically kills around 36,000 people every year in this country and hospitalizes a couple hundred thousand. So far there are only a handful of confirmed deaths attributable to...

One small federal agency "lost" over 2,000 items at an average cost of $3,128 per item in just one year... The Customs and Border Patrol agency is tasked with tracking things as diverse as goods coming into the country, as well as the entry of persons (both legal and illegal) into the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has a difficult time keeping possession of the very assets that enable them to do their job, items like computers, digital cameras, and night-vision goggles... The compilation of items extends up to 58 pages, and totals $7.1 million. No fewer than 171...

In The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford highly praised the health care policies of Singapore. But it wasn't until I read the section on health care in Ghesquiere's Singapore's Success that I realized how amazing the official numbers are. If the following is true, all the comparisons showing that the U.S. greatly outspends Europe without getting better health are beside the point, because Singapore makes Europe look like the U.S.: The Singapore government spent only 1.3 percent of GDP on healthcare in 2002, whereas the combined public and private expenditure on healthcare amounted to a low 4.3 percent of GDP. By...

Many companies these days offer what are commonly called either health care or dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSA). Surprisingly, very few employees take advantage of this fantastic benefit. According to a survey published by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in 2008, less than 40% of eligible employees who had the option available to them used a health care FSA, and less than 10% of eligible employees utilized a dependent care FSA if it was available.

Fair Care by: Emily Miller, June 18, 2008 Solutions to fix the problem of the estimated 47 million Americans without health insurance usually entail the creation of yet another cumbersome government bureaucracy riddled with red tape. Authors J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin take a different approach in their new book America’s Health Crisis Solved: Money-Saving Solutions, Coverage for Everyone. Rooney, famed for creating the first health savings account (HSA) and former chief executive of Golden Rule Insurance Company, and Perrin, President of HSA Coalition, proposed a health care insurance plan they dubbed “Fair Care” that focuses on fixing the...

Do your clients have health savings accounts? If you can't answer that question or if you aren't interested enough to concern yourself with HSAs, then you and your clients are missing an opportunity and an investment advantage. Since 2003 when President Bush signed them into law, HSAs have been touted as the 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts with a health twist. Tax-deferred, these accounts are consumer-driven health plans, which promise to help employers control health-care costs by placing some health-care responsibility and accountability with employees. Last year, there were 1.9 million HSAs, according to an estimate from Celent Communications LLC...

Just in case you haven't already noticed, whenever a policy proposal is made that would increase self-reliance and decrease dependency on government you will find the Democrats lined up against it ... every single time. These people believe that America is great because of government .. not because of the hard work, perseverance and determination of the American people. Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama try to make you believe that they actually care about your healthcare. That's horsecrap. The truth of the matter is: they don't. They care about power. Democrats want to provide government healthcare or insurance...

Democrats have made affordable health care a mainstay of their election agenda, but apparently only if you're willing to get insurance through the government. Witness their stealthy assault on Americans who prefer the private-sector option of Health Savings Accounts. This week, the House passed legislation that included a provision to require every HSA transaction be reviewed and verified as a legitimate medical expense. Democrats say this is to ensure that consumers are using their tax-free withdrawals for a knee replacement, rather than a new iPod. In reality it adds a layer of bureaucracy that could sharply reduce the appeal and...

As negotiations on a proposed soccer stadium drag into the new year, the city of Houston and the Dynamo can now at least agree on where such a venue would be built. Earlier this week, city officials signed letters of intent to buy parcels of land just east of U.S. 59 and the downtown business district, a move Mayor Bill White described Wednesday as a major step toward acquiring property for a possible home for the back-to-back Major League Soccer champions. City officials declined to identify the location, but a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed reports that the...

Bush Homeland Security Advisor Frances Fragos Townsend resigned today, after more than 4 years in that role. As is customary, President Bush praised his long term aide, stating that Townsend “has ably guided the Homeland Security Council. She has played an integral role in the formation of the key strategies and policies my administration has used to combat terror and protect Americans.” The Associated Press described just such an instance: When Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on Bush to refrain from using the phrase "Islamic fascists" on grounds it was offensive to Muslims, Townsend explained the president's use of the...

PALMDALE - The Department of Homeland Security plans to evaluate unmanned, high-altitude vehicles as a platform for a counter-missile defense system for commercial airliners in answer to the threat of shoulder-fired missiles being used to attack aircraft as they take off or land. While seeking bids for development of such a system, the department plans to conduct trials using the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Global Hawk and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Predator B aircraft. Both are built and tested in the Antelope Valley; Global Hawk at Northrop's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale and Predator B at General Atomics'...

President Bush Signs Bill to Make Health Care more Affordable, Accessible Washington, DC- President George W. Bush signed the Health Opportunity Patient Empowerment Act of 2006 today, enhancing Americans' access to tax-advantaged health care savings. The law, part of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, provides new opportunities for health savings account (HSA) participants' to build their funds. "Health savings accounts are improving the way Americans obtain the care they need. This bill makes HSAs more flexible and makes it easier for participants to put money aside for their personal health care," said Treasury Assistant Secretary for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite all the talk about the shaky future of Social Security, its potential shortfall isn't the biggest risk for future retirees. They should be worrying about Medicare instead. The government's health insurance plan for retirees is on a crash course with the realities of an aging population and an increasingly expensive medical system. It's projected to go bust in 2020. That's 20 years earlier than the Social Security fund is expected to become insolvent, and -- boomers: are you getting this? -- only 14 years away. The Employee Benefit Research Institute is reporting that today's typical Medicare-covered...

The explosive idea of forcing Internet providers to record their customers' online activities for future police access is gaining ground in state capitols and in Washington, D.C.... Mandatory data retention requirements worry privacy advocates because they permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity that normally would have been discarded after a few months. And some proposals would require providers to retain data that ordinarily never would have been kept at all.... Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the free-market Cato Institute, was the member of the Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity...

Freepers - - I'm working on my dissertation topics which is "Should the US institute a single-payer health care system similar to Great Britain and Canada" and the subtitle is something like "An Agenda for Solving America's Health Care Crisis using Health Savings Accounts". I'm in need of Freeper help. This is the last leg in this middle-aged Freeper's journey toward an MBA, so be gentle. I'm looking for Freeper inputs regarding your feelings about the health care system in America, as it stands today. I'm looking for Freepers from all walks of life; Doctors, small business owners, retirees, those...

Heads up, Americans. The Bush administration is now greasing the skids for employers to drop your health coverage. This is a biggie. Radical change was not the headline when the president unfurled his latest proposals for health savings accounts. It was presented mainly as a sensible-sounding way for people without medical insurance to buy it with pre-tax dollars, the same way companies do. George Bush's new HSA is actually a rocket-powered tax shelter dressed up as a sweet little program to help the uninsured. It would also undermine the traditional health coverage now offered by employers. (More on that in...

President Bush's proposed expansion of Health Savings Accounts depends on a premise that research shows is questionable: that Americans want more financial choices in their lives.

When President George W. Bush, in his second inaugural address, described his vision of an "ownership society," he specified not only the ownership of homes, businesses, and retirement savings, but also that of health insurance. Today, the most visible embodiment of this goal in the health care sector is the health savings account (HSA), which reflects a philosophical shift in emphasis from collective to individual responsibility for the management and financing of care. HSAs form the core of the emerging "consumer-directed" insurance plans, imposing greater cost sharing on enrollees but permitting broader choices than the health maintenance organization (HMO) plans...

Health savings accounts (HSAs) and other health care payment options have seen an increase in popularity. They have begun to receive wider acceptance in the work place and represent a philosophical shift toward consumer-directed health care, says the New York Times. If successful, these accounts could dominate and become the exclusive option at some companies. According to the Times: Nearly 8 percent of large employers already offer HSAs, 18 percent plan to offer them in 2006 and 47 percent are considering them. But awareness of HSAs is quite low and confusion runs high, in part because health insurers, third-party administrators...

Allow me to take a moment to inform you about a dark part of my past that I have kept from quite a few people; while I was a child I was an unwilling member of a cult known then as Human Service Alliance and after quite a few name changes it is now known as the Center for Purposeful Living. I was young and when you're in an environment like that you don't know any better regardless of your age. Shortly after my now disowned biological mother divorced my father she started taking my brother and I to a...