Stripped of all emotion, political gamesmanship, ulterior motives and special vested interests what remains are these facts on the slots/expanded gambling issue.
First, good people gamble. In fact those who gamble slots machines include some of the finest people I know. Grannies gamble for goodness sake, so there is nothing inherently evil about people who make this choice. But that is not the point.
Second, some Kentuckians do gamble away their money in out of state casinos. About 16% of Kentuckians have done so, that’s it, 16%. Yet our venturing gamblers have neither hurt Kentucky nor, more importantly, have they helped casino states. For the fact is that casino state budgets are busted, and have historically been more stressed than Kentucky’s. They have waited in vain for the financial salvation slots were supposed to bring, even before the current recession. In fact, most states have seen their budgetary situation worsen with the advent of expanded gambling. But that is not the point.
Third, the fate of the horse industry may or may not be as dire as those with a vested interest in expanded gambling allege. With fear-based emotional appeals they have been allowed to frame the issue in a way most to their liking. Regardless, there are many funding alternatives should such be necessary. Slots are the worst option for they will usher in far more damage to our overall welfare than the short term infusion of cash to a select few. But that is not the point.
Fourth, pro-gambling legislators, including some of our top leaders, truly want what is best for Kentucky. They are sincere in their belief that it will solve much of our financial needs, that it will save the horse industry, help our schools and lower our taxes. Yet not only are their forecasts wildly inaccurate (35% of a billion is $350 million, not the $700 plus million being tossed around) but they are shortsighted. Gambling’s costs will outweigh its revenues at least three to one over the long term, which is why gambling states’ budgets are such a wreck, see above. But that is not the point.
Fifth, a court will eventually rule that a Constitutional amendment is necessary in order to expand gambling to slots, vlt’s or any other type of electronic or casino gambling. The voters, in approving the 1988 Constitutional amendment allowing the lottery, intended to permit only the traditional scratch off and online lottery games then in existence. This traditional lottery, and only this, is what the state promoted to us before our vote. In no way whatsoever did we vote to approve additional gambling beyond that limited exception, nor did the legislature intend for us to. We would, therefore, have to amend the Constitution once again in order to allow for expanded gambling.
But why would we want to? It is an absolute certainty that the unchecked spread of gambling will destroy our nation, economically and socially. I guarantee this eventuality with every last ounce of intellectual credibility that I may be fortunate enough to possess.
I can see the future for I have studied the past. This is the point.
In the late 1800’s we Americans saw our communities being destroyed by the lotteries (then the only widespread form of gambling) which is why not only Kentucky but every state changed their constitutions to prohibit gambling’s ugly head from ever rearing itself again. Today’s electronic gambling explodes that harm exponentially, which is why slots are called the “crack cocaine of gambling.” It may take a few more years, but eventually this same harm will be so noticeable that we will once again demand a return to sanity and a prohibition of the most lethal form of gambling.
It is only a matter of time before Americans finally connect the dots between community decline and casino style gambling. Overnight gambling will be seen as the pariah it truly is and the process of tearing it apart will take hold. This is the point.
Why should Kentucky not, for once, get ahead of the curve and lead? Why should Kentucky not follow the tried and true ways of building long term vitality instead of the illusion that we can get something for nothing? Why should Kentucky not resist contemporary society’s worst habit, the all too common quest for immediate gratification and short term gain that inevitably leads to long term pain?
Why must we let our leaders use gambling to slough off our problems on our most vulnerable citizens? Why must they continue to evade responsibility for tackling our real problem, which is an antiquated tax system?
We must stand tall and not allow ourselves to get sucked in by the propaganda, the doomsayers and the politicians, who are well meaning, but all too willing to take the easy buck rather than seek long term solutions. Just because other states have lost their minds is no excuse for us to lose ours.
The facts are clear: casino style gambling has worsened states’ budgets, hurt economies, destroyed lives, and thereby lowered our overall well being. Kentucky must do something it has rarely done since the first pioneers crossed the Cumberlands: lead.
Richard Frank Dawahare 7/30/09
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Health care is a RIGHT in 21st century America
Health care is a right in 21st century America! One of the most gut wrenching experiences as an employer was to see an employee or one of their children come down with an illness yet be unable to afford a doctor. I found it utterly incredible that in this country of such great riches and high moral bearing that many of its citizens could not afford even minor treatment.
Most small businesses simply cannot afford to provide health care to their employees, and increasingly even large companies are shifting more of the burden on them. Uninsured workers who fall ill lower a company’s productivity and endanger others by spreading their untreated disease. Even worse, this inability to get health care has a very depressive effect on total company morale. In essence unaffordable health care threatens our free enterprise system and the human capital so necessary to its survival.
This is intolerable and we must not let it continue. While America has wonderful medical capabilities our nearly 48 million of our citizens are unable to access them. In fact, America is the only developed country that does not provide comprehensive care to all of its citizens. This is why the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in health care, just behind Slovenia, but ahead of Costa Rica.
While those who can afford it get very good care, there is a wide gap between the top and bottom in America. By contrast those in the lowest income group in countries with universal health care get care that is equal to that of our highest group. And they enjoy this level of care while spending half as much per person as do we.
This is because our current for-profit private health insurance system is riddled with inefficiencies. Administrative costs, profits, sales and marketing combine to take nearly 50% of our health care dollar before it even reaches health care providers.
The National Health Insurance Bill, HR 676, provides the solution we seek. HR 676 is a single payer health insurance system that will create huge cost-saving efficiencies by funneling routine administrative functions through one body instead of the complex quilt of for profit private insurers. Hundreds of such companies—each with their own forms and reimbursement procedures—create a multi-billion dollar expense for hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Add to that the insurers’ own overhead, huge executive salaries (the heads of the top five firms made $73 million in 2007) and profits—remember, the prime duty of any business is to make profits— and we can understand how the current system wastes over $400 billion. 15%-25% of each dollar we spend comes right off the top for health insurers who make all that money largely by scheming how NOT to insure people. By comparison, Medicare takes less than 3% for overhead.
The single payer National Health Insurance feature of HR 676 will eliminate this incredible waste, as inhumane as it is inefficient. Such streamlining is a hallmark of successful best business practice. Our best college MBA programs teach it, and the best run companies do it all the time. The American taxpayer should do so as well.
HR 676 essentially expands Medicare, along with Social Security America’s most revered program, so that it covers everybody and everything including prescription drugs, dental care, and nursing home care for less than we currently spend. Never more would there be expensive co-pays, deductibles or exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Never again will any American be forced into bankruptcy because of health care debt. Never again will American businesses be unduly burdened by the anchor of sick but untreated employees.
Best of all we retain the freedom of choice and our doctors will make the health care decisions, not corporate executives whose top priority is profit maximization by service minimization.
Those working in the insurance industry will have new opportunities. Some will take on similar roles in the expanded Medicare system. Others will take advantage of retraining programs and educational opportunities for truly productive pursuits, using our skills to enhance life, instead of figuring out ways to profit by denying life-saving services to those most needing it.
Contrary to critics propagandistic claims HR 676 is NOT socialism. The single payer feature simply takes the collection and distribution of payments away from the private insurers—who are profit, not patient, oriented—while leaving the medical system itself completely alone and intact. This will save billions of dollars each year by eliminating the hundreds of complicated and redundant HMO payment plans foisted upon our doctors and hospitals, thus freeing up their time accomplish their core purpose of providing superior health care services to their patients.
The new National Health Insurance plan, HR 676, will save our free enterprise system both by insuring the health of its workers, and by freeing business to do what it does best, namely the innovation and delivery of goods and services, while allowing the federal government to fulfill its constitutional duty to act on behalf of our greater welfare.
Finally, by passing HR 676 America can reclaim moral leadership in human rights and fulfill our founding purpose to promote “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” which is not possible without good health.
Universal health care is humane, it is economical, it is doable and it is time. Call your Congressperson and ask them to support HR 676.
Richard Frank Dawahare 7/8/09
Most small businesses simply cannot afford to provide health care to their employees, and increasingly even large companies are shifting more of the burden on them. Uninsured workers who fall ill lower a company’s productivity and endanger others by spreading their untreated disease. Even worse, this inability to get health care has a very depressive effect on total company morale. In essence unaffordable health care threatens our free enterprise system and the human capital so necessary to its survival.
This is intolerable and we must not let it continue. While America has wonderful medical capabilities our nearly 48 million of our citizens are unable to access them. In fact, America is the only developed country that does not provide comprehensive care to all of its citizens. This is why the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in health care, just behind Slovenia, but ahead of Costa Rica.
While those who can afford it get very good care, there is a wide gap between the top and bottom in America. By contrast those in the lowest income group in countries with universal health care get care that is equal to that of our highest group. And they enjoy this level of care while spending half as much per person as do we.
This is because our current for-profit private health insurance system is riddled with inefficiencies. Administrative costs, profits, sales and marketing combine to take nearly 50% of our health care dollar before it even reaches health care providers.
The National Health Insurance Bill, HR 676, provides the solution we seek. HR 676 is a single payer health insurance system that will create huge cost-saving efficiencies by funneling routine administrative functions through one body instead of the complex quilt of for profit private insurers. Hundreds of such companies—each with their own forms and reimbursement procedures—create a multi-billion dollar expense for hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Add to that the insurers’ own overhead, huge executive salaries (the heads of the top five firms made $73 million in 2007) and profits—remember, the prime duty of any business is to make profits— and we can understand how the current system wastes over $400 billion. 15%-25% of each dollar we spend comes right off the top for health insurers who make all that money largely by scheming how NOT to insure people. By comparison, Medicare takes less than 3% for overhead.
The single payer National Health Insurance feature of HR 676 will eliminate this incredible waste, as inhumane as it is inefficient. Such streamlining is a hallmark of successful best business practice. Our best college MBA programs teach it, and the best run companies do it all the time. The American taxpayer should do so as well.
HR 676 essentially expands Medicare, along with Social Security America’s most revered program, so that it covers everybody and everything including prescription drugs, dental care, and nursing home care for less than we currently spend. Never more would there be expensive co-pays, deductibles or exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Never again will any American be forced into bankruptcy because of health care debt. Never again will American businesses be unduly burdened by the anchor of sick but untreated employees.
Best of all we retain the freedom of choice and our doctors will make the health care decisions, not corporate executives whose top priority is profit maximization by service minimization.
Those working in the insurance industry will have new opportunities. Some will take on similar roles in the expanded Medicare system. Others will take advantage of retraining programs and educational opportunities for truly productive pursuits, using our skills to enhance life, instead of figuring out ways to profit by denying life-saving services to those most needing it.
Contrary to critics propagandistic claims HR 676 is NOT socialism. The single payer feature simply takes the collection and distribution of payments away from the private insurers—who are profit, not patient, oriented—while leaving the medical system itself completely alone and intact. This will save billions of dollars each year by eliminating the hundreds of complicated and redundant HMO payment plans foisted upon our doctors and hospitals, thus freeing up their time accomplish their core purpose of providing superior health care services to their patients.
The new National Health Insurance plan, HR 676, will save our free enterprise system both by insuring the health of its workers, and by freeing business to do what it does best, namely the innovation and delivery of goods and services, while allowing the federal government to fulfill its constitutional duty to act on behalf of our greater welfare.
Finally, by passing HR 676 America can reclaim moral leadership in human rights and fulfill our founding purpose to promote “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” which is not possible without good health.
Universal health care is humane, it is economical, it is doable and it is time. Call your Congressperson and ask them to support HR 676.
Richard Frank Dawahare 7/8/09
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