Members of the U. S. Congress have health care coverage for an unlimited number of visits to a doctor no deductibles and no co-payments all of which costs them each a grand total of $35.00 per month. [] This would include of course. Representative Dean Heller (R-NV2) who voted against the SCHIP veto over-ride. Rep. Heller is paid $165,000 per year to serve in Congress. He will also fully vest in the Federal Employee’s Retirement System after five years. []
for his health care coverage; or approximately 0.2545% of his earnings as a Congressman. If his biographical data is plugged into a website offering health insurance quotations and if he were to purchase a policy for himself alone one of his least expensive options would be a PPO plan with a $5,000 deductible for $125.00 per month. For two dollars more per month from the same company he could purchase a PPO plan with a $2,000 deductible. 30% co-insurance and a $30/visit for medical appointments. The very least expensive plan offered in northern
cost $114.65 per month a PPO. $5,000 deductible no co-insurance and all office visits applying until the deductible is reached. [] ( Note that these estimates do not include his wife and four children.) So for the least coverage and with a high deductible. Rep. Heller would pay
Tossing some hypothetical children into the mix makes for some disturbing figures. Let’s assume a family living in Carson City. Nevada two parents both 47 years of age with two girls and two boys each separated by three years of age (for statistical convenience) born between 1989 and 1998. This hypothetical family would have the following options for private insurance:
The least expensive option available to them at the moment would be a $338.00 per month PPO plan with a $1,250 deductible. 20% co-insurance with no coverage for office visits. Another PPO plan available would cost $353.71 per month with a $5,000 deductible no co-insurance and offices visits applying toward the deductible. A PPO plan with a $2,000 deductible. 30% co-insurance and $40 office visits would require $579.00 per month. If the family opted for the least expensive health care plan it would cost them
would require approximately 8% of their total income for the premiums alone. If the family never visited a physician but did have expenses equal to their deductible in the least expensive plan they would pay out a little over 10% of their total income. In terms of the SCHIP controversy it would be well to remember that this hypothetical assumes that the family has no medical issues and that the insurance company paid in full for each and every claim made. This also assumes that the family has no members with prior medical problems or existing issues that might raise the cost of the coverage – or make it impossible to find a company willing to assume coverage for pre-existing conditions.
area is now $301,000. [] Plugging these numbers into mortgage calculator shows that the “median family” would need to pay approximately $1,630.96 per month for the “median home” at current rates of about 6.07%. (assuming a 10% down payment)
Thus our “median family” has at the very least $1,970 per month tied up in the two H’s – home and health care out of gross wages of about $4,724.25. However we also need to assume that there’s at least one family vehicle involved – someone has to get to work somehow. At present the average rate on a 48 month car loan in Nevada is slightly lower than the national average (6.92%) with ‘good credit’ loans available at 6.77% and according to the our average family can expect an average fixed cost of $5,648 for automobile expenses per year up from $1,186 in 1975. Since one must assume the car will be moving we have to add another $2,175 in average variable costs. There’s another $651.92 per month for our hypothetical average family. Our ‘median family’ now has $2101.33 remaining from
Eating seems to be fairly essential so let’s take the Food Marketing Institute’s “” estimates that average weekly household grocery expenses are about $93.30 or an average $373.00 per month minimum. We need to be careful of these figures since the cost of most grocery items has increased in the last year. We really have to be careful about estimating utility bills as well.
has some rather dismal forecasts for our ‘median family’ this year. Nationwide about 58% of homes use natural gas as the primary heating fuel. Homeowners are advised to expect price increases of about 10% more than last winter. Our ‘median
family’ may use electricity (30% of households in the west) and electricity expenditures are expected to increase about 4% this season. Our ‘median family’ in Nevada can expect propane costs to go up from 16% to 28.3% ($1,570 to $1,732); electricity to increase 4-7% ($855 to $883); heating oil up 22%-28% ($1,785 to $1,834); and natural gas up from 6% to 10% ($881 to $891) for this winter. []
Let’s make one final assumption: That our ‘median family’ is doing all the right things in terms of financial planning as advised by the advice site. Their housing and utilities should be consuming no more than 30% of their after tax income food no more than 15% vehicles about 15% clothing 5% childcare and education 1-8% insurance (property/life) about 5% medical 5% and savings/investments 15%. So we have to figure that of the $50,000 average income there would be about $39,848 left after taxes or $3320.66 per month. Rather than wear out my calculator further try subtracting those median household expenses from the take home pay of our hypothetical median family. Subtract the mortgage the vehicle expenses the groceries the utilities (note the numbers above are seasonal not monthly) subtract out 5% for clothing ($166.00) and another 5% ($166.00) for insurance; subtract yet another 5% for educational and child care expenses. Remember that one of the options for family health care insurance alone (not actual medical expenses) constituted 8% of the family income.
How does our ‘median family’ subtract out all the necessary household expenses from the take home wage of $3320.66 per month and still have 10% to 15% available for savings and investment? Or for a medical emergency requiring hospitalization?
Unfortunately all the statistics in the world can’t adequately describe real families facing real emergencies. We could ‘fudge’ the figures above slightly increasing the take home pay or slightly decreasing the vehicle expenses. We could make other assumptions about grocery and utility bills about property insurance and educational expenses; but the truth is that each family faces its own unique issues with its own resources. For some fortunate families health care is a ‘basic’ issue for others especially those in which a member is beset with medical problems the related expenses can be the straws that break the back of the family financial status. []
A 2005 Harvard Study found that illness and medical bills caused half of the 1,458,000 personal bankruptcies in 2001. The study concluded that medical bankruptcies affected about 2 million Americans including 700,000 children. 38% lost coverage at least temporarily by the time of the bankruptcy filing. []
We don’t see these families unless they are our neighbors or relatives. They are nameless and faceless until we hear from the Frosts and the Wilkersons. Arithmetic is a poor substitute for the narratives of their lives; putting flesh to the numbers and bone to the financial issues. These are not generalities to be swept away by alternative statistics and so-called expert and conflicting testimonies. These people represent reality a reality the Republicans seemed desperate to avoid. Having no authentic arguments to oppose the personifications thus imposed upon them the Republican “Flying Monkey battalions” launched forth with extraordinary venom. “How dare you,” they cried. “Impose reality on our rarefied and fictitious generalities?”
asked for such a waiver and was refused) the “Illegal Immigrant Lie” (the states offer no SCHIP payments for the undocumented) and the “SCHIP is for the poor” canard. The SCHIP program he voted against was for the protection of working Americans like our median income families in
He's certainly not done himself any favors with this vote nor with his rather deceitful attempts to take credit he is not due for legislation he has opposed -- and then sought to crow about the funding available for Nevada programs. One can only hope that the Powers That Be are watching his seemingly dismal performance.
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Related article:
http://desertbeacon.blogspot.com/2007/10/voting-against-median-hellers-vote.html
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