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topinforma · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Mortgage News

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Seniors are scared and skeptical that Republicans can create a better, more affordable health-care system

President Trump, accompanied by House GOP members, in the Rose Garden after the House pushed through a health-care bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Last week I asked: What are your thoughts about the GOP’s answer to Obamacare?

There was no shortage of opinions, complaints about stories of skyrocketing insurance premiums. Most people said they were very concerned about the future cost of coverage.

Will Republican senators pass the GOP health-care bill? Here’s what they’re saying so far.

Greg in Boonsboro, Md., wrote, “I’m 56 and have been taking time off from outside work (for 8 years) to help my aging father and to work on our small farm. My wife (home schooling our kids) and I have no debt or mortgage and investments for some income. We got our health insurance from Blue Cross on our own before ACA and it started out around $300 a month with $5,000 deductible for four of us. We also had a couple of minor preexisting conditions that they would not cover.”

Greg says his medical insurance has shot up to $1,060 plus the $5,000 deductible. He got a federal job just so that he could get more affordable coverage. “We had a couple of health issues come up (I got thrown from a horse). Our health-care costs were over $18,000 last year. Last fall, I started applying for federal jobs and I just got an interesting position at DOD (IT work and they got a waiver from the freeze) just to get the health benefits. It will be around $550 a month and a minimal deductible. If I work another 6 years (or more) I can retire and get cheaper insurance through them before I’m 65. From my experience, heath-care costs are out of control in the U.S.”

Andrew Smith of Santa Rosa, Calif., has a similar story of rate inflation.

“Look at these numbers: $320, $620, $671, $701 and $855,” Smith wrote. “The first was my last pre-Obamacare health-care policy with Anthem Blue Cross with a $6,000 deductible. The next number was my first Obamacare health-care policy with Blue Shield and a $5,500 deductible. The third number was year two under Obamacare and the fourth number my third year under Obamacare both with high deductibles. The last number was my final costs under Obamacare for the first two months this year before I got on Medicare. Free at last!”

Ed Johnson of Grand Prairie, Tex., wrote, “I hear people complaining that they don’t want their taxes to pay for other people’s insurance. They forget I have been paying taxes to support their kids’ education in public schools for over 20 years without any kids of my own in the system. In the long run health-care for everyone helps society in general.”

“To say that I am concerned about this travesty of a bill passed by the House is an understatement,” wrote Judy Richardson Dunkley of Glen Ridge, N.J. “As someone who worked my way through college and law school and has paid for employer-sponsored health care for almost 40 years, with premiums that get higher and higher and coverage that gets lower and lower, I am outraged. I am outraged that having supported those in the insurance pool who were older and less healthy through my 20s, 30s and 40s, I now find myself facing the possibility of being unable to afford health care in my late 50s. Every time one of the congressmen supporting this bill opens his mouth, the ignorance and misinformation that spills forth is jaw-dropping. Yes the younger and healthier are subsidizing the older and sicker, but that is how health insurance works. That is how it has always worked. The whole mandated coverage thing was developed as a means of balancing the risk pool by requiring the younger people to get insurance. The younger and healthier help pay for the older and sicker, and when they get older and sicker the younger and healthier in the pool will help pay for them. It is an equitable system. This bill doesn’t fix the problems with the ACA.; it makes them worse. It doesn’t cover more people at lower premiums as promised. It does the opposite. And it certainly doesn’t cover ‘everybody.’ ”

By the way a working group of Senators charged to work on health care to move it along in the Senate failed to include any women.

A lot of research shows that putting 13 male senators in charge of a health-care bill is a lousy idea

Sue Bonneau of Muncie, Ind., has seen the winning and losing side of Obamacare. She wrote, “Politicians rarely deliberate the cause and effect of what they do, but instead tout the hoped-for outcomes. With Obamacare our sons were winners because they could stay on our insurance until they were 26. (We still had to pay for them though, so it wasn’t a real victory for us.) Before, we had a family plan including my spouse and our sons through my employer since that was the better policy. We then received notice from my employer that since my spouse had ‘comparable’ insurance (not better, not the same, just comparable) he could not be covered under my plan. Now we get to pay for TWO insurances instead of one. How is this a benefit? My mother-in-law had insurance through her late husband’s employer at the retiree rate of $75. Since Obamacare was in the offing, Sears canceled this plan and out she went to the Obamacare rolls where a comparable policy cost an extra $300. Exactly who was the loser there?”

Bonneau added: “Here’s hoping that the Senate will hear the critiques of the new plan, will remember the faults of Obamacare, and will find a good compromise, which means that NO ONE will be happy!”

Retirement rants & raves In this feature your voice matters. This is a space in which you can rave or rant about anything related to retirement. So what’s on your mine about your retirement or your planning for retirement? Send your comments to [email protected]. Please include your name, city and state. In the subject line put “Retirement Rants & Raves.”

Mark Collier of Lexington, Ky., is worried about his promised pension. He wrote, “I’m coming up on 63. I am very worried about the pension I have accrued over the 40 years I have worked for my company. It was frozen a number of years ago and replaced by a 401(k). It should be sitting there ready for me. However, the company has put itself in a precarious situation through a number of poorly planned and instituted business decisions. We just were informed today that there will be no pay increase this year. I full well expect if there is a way for them to renege on my earned benefit, they will, with the blessing and facilitation of the current administration. Because there is a smaller pool of us coming up to retirement under this pension plan, crying poor will allow them to skim off my future.”

Worried about your pension? Read this: How Safe Is Your Pension?

Newsletter comments policy Please note it is my personal policy to identify readers who respond to questions I ask in my newsletters. I find it encourages thoughtful and civil conversation. I want my newsletters to be a safe place to express your opinion. On sensitive matters or upon request, I’m happy to include just your first name and/or last initial. But I prefer not to post anonymous comments (I do make exceptions when I’m asking questions that might reveal sensitive information or cause conflict.)

Have a question about your finances? Michelle Singletary has a weekly live chat every Thursday at noon where she discusses financial dilemmas with readers. You can also write to Michelle directly by sending an email to [email protected]. Personal responses may not be possible, and comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer’s name, unless otherwise requested. To read more Color of Money columns, go here.

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therightnewsnetwork · 8 years

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We Hear You: The NAACP, Political Correctness, and School Choice

Editor’s note: Today your letters include thoughtful responses to a commentary by school choice activist Virginia Walden Ford and to a Daily Signal supporter’s appeal about making a difference on important issues. Want to write us? You’ll see how below. —Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: I agree with Virginia Walden Ford’s commentary article. The NAACP has become useless because the leadership has devolved from their original goals of helping black people advance (“I’m a Black Woman Whose Relatives Fought for Civil Rights. I’m Disappointed in NAACP’s War on School Choice”).

The NAACP has become a political arm of the Democrats.

Education is the most important goal in bringing anyone out of their past and into a brighter future. I can attest to that goal, because my mother felt the same way. I am a native American from Alaska, and did experience hunger and poor conditions.

My grade school teacher told my mother that I was a slow learner, so pushed me to do my homework and not just finish what was assigned but all the problems.

I was held back in the first grade, but I made that up in the seventh grade. I graduated to the eighth grade and did well. My mom sent me to a parochial boarding school, even though it put a burden on her.

I excelled and graduated as a valedictorian with a degree in electronics, even though I missed a year due to tuberculosis. Electronics was in its infancy and “solid state” was the new term. I worked as a failure analyst in the position of supervising lab engineer.

All children should be afforded the same opportunities as I received. The education system has become abysmal because of political correctness. It is no longer acceptable to hold back students even if they are failing at their current grade.

There are also the great experiments that have failed the children. The current fad, Common Core, is the worst because your answer could be wrong and still be judged correct.

I would like to see a spaceship sent to Mars with the calculations wrong, with the engineer explaining how he arrived at the wrong calculation—and he would not be fired.

Parents should be able to determine where to send their children to receive the best education. I sent my children to another school district because their school ranked in the bottom one-third. The problem was that the teachers would lower their course for the bottom of the class, and my sons were bored. There was no challenge to keep their minds busy.

The other problem was discipline. The teachers were not allowed to correct unruly children because it would “hurt” the children mentally. Charter schools do not have those problems, because the children can be expelled and the teachers do help the slow learners. —Fred Minook

Dear Daily Signal: It is easy for your readers to make a difference as Margo Brown asked about in her letter, with a little effort (“How Can The Daily Signal’s Audience Make a Difference?”). Here is what I do, and it works.

1. Local government has the biggest effect on your life. Know who your elected representatives are, meet them face to face (they probably live down the street), and talk to them often.

2. Tell your representatives what the problems are in your communities, and suggest solutions. Always follow up on your conversations.

3. Interview, face to face, the candidates for local and state offices where you live. Help the good candidates get elected, even if it is just putting up a yard sign. Once they are elected, meet with them and start solving problems.

4. Join and participate in the local Republican Party. Keep it active and conservative.

5. On the federal level, call the local offices of your senators and representative, and find out when he or she will be in town. Make an appointment to meet face to face. Again, tell them about the problems in your community and state, suggest solutions, and follow up.

I have helped make substantial changes to our community by taking action. You can too. And a side note: It can be a lot of fun. —Phillip Regeski

Now More Than Ever

Dear Daily Signal: The Daily Signal is the difference Margo Brown writes about (“How Can The Daily Signal’s Audience Make a Difference?”). No longer can we allow the TV networks to do damage. They keep the American people from knowing the truth; they try to take the people’s voice away.

Being an American citizen is being involved in knowing the truth. Not knowing the truth makes it impossible to make the right decision.

Now more than ever is a source like The Daily Signal needed. We see your information being put out to the American people paying off. This is what our Founding Fathers had in mind. —Lee Jackson

The Responsible Thing

Dear Daily Signal: Your reporting the news and issues of the day truthfully, with a fair and balanced perspective, is both enlightening and the responsible thing to do.

Reading the articles not only enlightens us, but it’s also the responsible thing for us to do as patriotic citizens. Even if some issues are not particularly to our liking.

The obligation to inform and be informed is inherent in both our positions and our common duty to continue pursuing the truth, no matter its impact on our lives and in spite of any personal biases.

So as long as you live up to your responsibilities, I assure you I will live up to mine. —Jim Wroten

The Freedoms We Lost

Dear Daily Signal: Keep up the commentaries in support of President Donald Trump. A greater number of Americans are beginning to realize the freedoms we lost during the regime of President Barack Obama, and the divisiveness he created while serving as president. —Pierce Smith

How Refreshing

Dear Daily Signal: Just wanted you to know how refreshing it is to see your news before I see my iPhone’s automatic news feeds. Of course, without signing up or requesting it, my iPhone news comes predominantly from The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Huffington Post. Keep up the good work. Have a great day. I am because of you. —Carol Pope

A Huge Help

Dear Daily Signal: I love the concise news tidbits and follow-up because I don’t have time to listen to Fox News all day long. You are a huge help to me, and I hope you can keep it up even if I can’t support you financially at this time. You are my main link, and I wouldn’t be able to be half as informed without you. —Linley Conroy

Suggestion for Rush

Dear Daily Signal: I just stumbled across your website. I enjoy what I read. Would you try to get Rush Limbaugh or some other leading broadcaster to promote your site? I will tell my friends, but I live in Maryland, which is very blue. —Elias Boccheciamp

The post We Hear You: The NAACP, Political Correctness, and School Choice appeared first on The Daily Signal.

from http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/we-hear-you-the-naacp-political-correctness-and-school-choice/

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patriotnewsblogger-blog · 8 years

Text

We Hear You: The NAACP, Political Correctness, and School Choice

New Post has been published on http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/we-hear-you-the-naacp-political-correctness-and-school-choice/

We Hear You: The NAACP, Political Correctness, and School Choice

The NAACP has become a political arm of the Democrats.

My grade school teacher told my mother that I was a slow learner, so pushed me to do my homework and not just finish what was assigned but all the problems.

There are also the great experiments that have failed the children. The current fad, Common Core, is the worst because your answer could be wrong and still be judged correct.

I would like to see a spaceship sent to Mars with the calculations wrong, with the engineer explaining how he arrived at the wrong calculation—and he would not be fired.

1. Local government has the biggest effect on your life. Know who your elected representatives are, meet them face to face (they probably live down the street), and talk to them often.

2. Tell your representatives what the problems are in your communities, and suggest solutions. Always follow up on your conversations.

4. Join and participate in the local Republican Party. Keep it active and conservative.

I have helped make substantial changes to our community by taking action. You can too. And a side note: It can be a lot of fun. —Phillip Regeski

Now More Than Ever

Being an American citizen is being involved in knowing the truth. Not knowing the truth makes it impossible to make the right decision.

Now more than ever is a source like The Daily Signal needed. We see your information being put out to the American people paying off. This is what our Founding Fathers had in mind. —Lee Jackson

The Responsible Thing

Dear Daily Signal: Your reporting the news and issues of the day truthfully, with a fair and balanced perspective, is both enlightening and the responsible thing to do.

Reading the articles not only enlightens us, but it’s also the responsible thing for us to do as patriotic citizens. Even if some issues are not particularly to our liking.

The obligation to inform and be informed is inherent in both our positions and our common duty to continue pursuing the truth, no matter its impact on our lives and in spite of any personal biases.

So as long as you live up to your responsibilities, I assure you I will live up to mine. —Jim Wroten

The Freedoms We Lost

How Refreshing

A Huge Help

Suggestion for Rush

The post We Hear You: The NAACP, Political Correctness, and School Choice appeared first on The Daily Signal.

http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/we-hear-you-the-naacp-political-correctness-and-school-choice/ %cats%

#conservative #republican

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topinforma · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Mortgage News

New Post has been published on http://bit.ly/2psmTwU

If you’re 50 or older, your health insurance may get more expensive.

President Trump promised an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Many seniors won’t fare well under the American Health Care Act, which passed the House last week.

I’m not trying to scare you, but the GOP’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, may mean the amount you need to save for retirement just got higher.

“Americans face two big problems as they get older: a shortage of retirement savings and the skyrocketing cost of health care,” wrote Ben Steverman for Bloomberg in “Washington is making it tougher to retire.”

There are some winners under AHCA. Healthy and wealthy individuals win. Young adults and upper middle-income folks without any preexisting conditions also benefit.

Here’s who will lose: • Seniors who rely on Medicaid. A change in how the program is funded, which will cap Medicaid outlays, could leave a lot of poor elderly folks without health care.

“A state like Florida, which has a large senior population, could see costs rise fast as its population ages with time,” reports Dylan Matthews for Vox. “But a per capita cap wouldn’t keep up with that. To get around that, the state might be motivated to kick off older seniors and focus enrollment on younger ones.” For more details read: “These are all the people the Republican health care bill will hurt”

• In most states, older Americans will pay more. “Insurance companies could charge a 64-year-old customer five times the price charged to an 18-year-old one, to cite the most extreme example,” Margot Sanger-Katz reports in the New York Times. “The changes in the subsidy formula would also require older middle-class Americans to pay a much larger share of their health insurance bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that far fewer older Americans would have insurance coverage under this bill than under the Affordable Care Act.”

• Got a preexisting condition? You lose. Before there was Obamacare, insurance companies routinely refused coverage for people with preexisting conditions such diabetes, arthritis or heart disease. Or, if people could get coverage, they were charged high premiums, copays and deductibles.

“Companies argued it was the only way to prevent people from waiting to buy insurance until they were already sick,” wrote Maggie Fox for NBC News. “Some supporters of the AHCA say it’s about personal responsibility. After all, why should all the customers of a health insurance plan pay for people who wait until they are sick or injured to buy coverage? But medical groups from the American Medical Association to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) say health insurers often made up their own definitions of preexisting conditions. And they often denied coverage to people born with such conditions, or who developed them in childhood.”

Before Obamacare, insurers could charge patients with preexisting conditions more, or even refuse to cover them. The new Republican health-care plan will let them do it again. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

Read this from NBC News: ““U.S. House passes health care bill that would allow states to deny coverage for preexisting conditions”

“AARP is deeply disappointed in today’s vote by the House to pass this deeply flawed health bill,” AARP’s Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said in a release. “The bill will put an Age Tax on us as we age, harming millions of American families with health insurance, forcing many to lose coverage or pay thousands of dollars more for health care. In addition, the bill now puts at risk the 25 million older adults with preexisting conditions, such as cancer and diabetes, who would likely find health care unaffordable or unavailable to them.”

Don’t rely on political rhetoric. Read the following stories: • 50 health issues that count as a preexisting condition Rolling back protections for people with preexisting conditions could increase health-care costs for an estimated 130 million Americans, reported Alicia Adamczyk for Money.

• How the American Health Care Act leaves near-elderly people behind “Proportionally, the group of people that would see the most coverage losses under the AHCA is the population of people aged 50 and older,” a report in The Atlantic by Vann R. Newkirk II said. “Although they’re more likely to have coverage in the first place, owing to more stable employment and a higher likelihood of public-insurance coverage, estimates show the uninsured rate of people over 50 would skyrocket from around 13 percent currently to just under 30 percent by 2026.”

This still isn’t a done deal. The House measure now goes to the Senate. “There are many other problems with this bill from both a liberal and conservative perspective,” wrote Jake Novak for CNBC. “It simply does not fix the growing problems with Obamacare and actually makes them worse by increasing its fiscal liabilities.”

By the way, if you have health insurance and think all this reworking of Obamacare isn’t your problem, think again.

Read this analysis from Salon: “The American Health Care Act will affect you, even if you’re insured through your employer”

I’d like to hear from you. What are your thoughts about the GOP’s answer to Obamacare? Are you worried your health-care costs will rise? Send your comments to [email protected].

Retirement Rants & Raves In this feature your voice matters. This is a space in which you can rave or rant about anything related to retirement. So what’s on your mine about your retirement or your planning for retirement (I would especially love to hear from young adults)?

Send your comments to [email protected]. Please include your name, city and state. In the subject line put “Retirement Rants & Raves.”

Last week’s question: Should you pay off your mortgage before you retire? Lots of you had an opinion about retiring mortgage-free.

Daniel, 62, of Saint Paul, Minn., wrote, “We used retirement funds to pay off our mortgage just before the end of the year.”

But before this couple paid off their mortgage they created a pro and con list. Here’s some of what they realized.

Con: “This decision took a lot of money out of a pretax savings/investment account.”

Pros: “Paying off the mortgage lets me invest in after-tax investments, which further diversifies our portfolio and starts to generate an income stream from our savings. That income will be reinvested until I retire but will provide a nice boost to retirement income when the time comes as well as a pool of money for emergencies. The increased cash flow allows us to pay for things with cash and not worry about financing anything.”

Here’s a good analysis of the pros and cons of keeping a mortgage into retirement from Bankrate.com: Keep the mortgage or pay off the house?

“I was raised by Depression-era parents who pounded into us that debt was bad,” wrote Brian Flanagan of Guilford, Conn. “When I bought my home, I started off with a 30-year mortgage. When things started going crazy in the mortgage market, I refinanced twice. The first time I refinanced into a 15-year mortgage, the second time into a 10-year mortgage. Then I paid that one off early. I retired at 61 after working 38 years for that really rare private-sector company that had a pension, a 401(k) and early retirement medical benefits that will take me to Medicare. I thank God that I didn’t listen to the conventional wisdom of the eighties and nineties about the way to make it was to job hop, and to buy all the house you could afford.”

Read this: The Benefits of Mortgage Repayment

Don DeArmon of Frederick, Md., wrote, “As for the ‘psychology’ of having a paid-off mortgage or being ‘debt-free’ as one approaches retirement: We will still have a big mortgage, but it is far outmatched by what the house will be worth upon sale. Some people want to remain in the same houses they raised their children in. Okay, but realize that represents a major financial and lifestyle choice. We intend to downsize and travel.”

“From years of listening to you I strived to work toward paying off my mortgage before retirement,” one reader, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote. “It’s liberating and freedom! Thanks coach!”

More on the issue from a previous column: Is that tax break worth it?

Live chat this week Join me on Thurs. May 11 at noon (ET) for a live discussion with Erin Currier, director of financial security and mobility for The Pew Charitable Trusts. The project conducts original research to assess differences in family balance sheets across diverse U.S. households and the degree to which Americans’ short-term economic security relates to their longer-term economic mobility.

Currier will be discussing recent reports by Pew on income volatility and financial shocks. .

Send your questions: Join Michelle Singletary on Thursday at noon for a weekly financial chat

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