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Our beginning class discussions have been good. Maximo stated that reading The Atlanta Journal - Constitution is challenging due to vocabulary. Gillyano added that watching Meredith Viera's interview on The Today Show was more difficult than reading, due to the words. NPR can help here for you can listen to the radio report while reading the transcript on the web. Our course is designed to increase our understanding of current events while increasing English vocabulary and reading ability. In class, let's honestly discuss how helpful both listening and reading the transcript is.
This current event is a huge, important story. The U.S. Congress has passed a historic health care bill. This is the largest piece of social legislation in forty years. In class, Jorge asked a good question: "Why would anyone vote against a health bill?" One reason is that this could cost $940 billion dollars over ten years. Listen to find other answers to Jorge's question. What are the positives and negatives of this bill?
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=3-22-2010
Again this is a major news story. Comment on your observations.
Our beginning class discussions have been good. Maximo stated that reading The Atlanta Journal - Constitution is challenging due to vocabulary. Gillyano added that watching Meredith Viera's interview on The Today Show was more difficult than reading, due to the words. NPR can help here for you can listen to the radio report while reading the transcript on the web. Our course is designed to increase our understanding of current events while increasing English vocabulary and reading ability. In class, let's honestly discuss how helpful both listening and reading the transcript is.
This current event is a huge, important story. The U.S. Congress has passed a historic health care bill. This is the largest piece of social legislation in forty years. In class, Jorge asked a good question: "Why would anyone vote against a health bill?" One reason is that this could cost $940 billion dollars over ten years. Listen to find other answers to Jorge's question. What are the positives and negatives of this bill?
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=3-22-2010
Again this is a major news story. Comment on your observations.
This comment is written by a prince of a young man whom I had the pleasure of teaching as a high school student. Now a graduate of GA Tech, he has a very important job. I appreciate his good character, willingness to work hard, and that he keeps in touch.
ReplyDeleteWhat does government do better than the private sector? Social Security is bankrupt. Medicare/Medicaid will soon follow, if not already. How long do we, the people, stand in line to get our driver's license, not to mention the service we get? In the mean time, our tax is going up. The Census Bureau just spent $42 million dollars, not including TV ads, to tell us that we, the citizens, will soon receive a census form in the mail. Oh, I know where our beloved government does a better job than the private sector: wasting my hard earned money.
That's what will happen with the OBAMACARE. Virtually everyone will be required to have health insurance. If we don't want to buy insurance, the IRS is going to come after us. Where in the Constitution does it say healthcare is a right, or where does it say not having health insurance is a criminal offense? There will be more patients and fewer doctors. Economics 101 (i.e. supply and demand) kicks in. This means there will be more patients than doctors can handle. Government will ration who gets what and when. If you are old, the government is going to tell us that it can't pay for our treatment, but it will gladly pay to die. If we are too young, it will tell us that we are still young, so my immune system can handle illness. What a great system. It has happened in other countries. For example, rich patients in countries, where government controls healthcare, such as Canada and British, come to the U.S. to get treatment because they would have had to wait a long period of time in their home country. No wonder, the U.S. has higher cancer, and other terminal disease, survival rate than any other country. The U.S. has the best healthcare system in the world. Medicare/Medicaid denies a higher rate of patient than these "evil" health insurance companies. I am not here to defend the current health insurance companies or system. I am just stating that the OBAMACARE is worse than the current system. It will bankrupt us. We will be paying more, but we will receive less. Remember, the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Greek Empire, or any other empire didn't collapse because other nations invaded them or they lost a war. Rather, these empires collapsed because of their out of control spending. Will we, the U.S., learn?
If the healthcare is too good, why is it that they, the elite Congressmen/women and Senators themselves are excluded from the very bill that they voted for the people? If it is too good, why is it that they need to wait until 2014 to implement the system (hint: election). If it is too good, why is it that they had to make backdoor deals? If it is too good, why is it that the bill is only available to the public for 72 hours before they voted?
Mangtin
I do not know if this Health Reform will be good or not for this country; we will see the results in the next years. I firmly hope that this reform will be successful and it could protect everyone without exceptions. Call my attention that Republicans would not seem to want to fix this problem that has been affecting millions of people in this country for decades. How can they explain that after eight years of leading this country, and at the same time people claiming for a better Health Care Law, they did not do anything? Now when Democrats launch Health Reform in order to cover all Americans with cheaper prices of insurance, that I think everybody deserves, Republicans are against it and no one of those voted to support it. That’s not easy to get! Anyone could think that they don’t care about this topic either to protect needy people. It is simple, they want to protect big corporations with their interests. Maybe I am wrong, how I said before, but we will see the results in the future years, for now we have to give Obama’s plan a vote of confidence. If Republicans didn’t do anything, why do they not give a chance to Democrats to do something about that? This is the first round; the second one will be the Immigration Reform and I hope we can beat them as well.
ReplyDelete"Let's see... The countries that offer nationalized healthcare are on the verge of bankruptcy. Just look at Massachusetts, $500,000,000 was given for their program (which is run by the state government) and the hospitals are full of lesser or unimportant health issues that cost the taxpayers money and actually hinder the ability of those who need immediate response. Massachusetts actually increased taxes and the end result after 3 waves of furloughs and overtaxed citizens? Massachusetts is nearing bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteYes, we need Healthcare reform, treatment is incredibly expensive and there are way too many abuses, but the quality of the care you receive is second to none, regardless of how wonderful it felt in the little socialist utopias.
We can't afford this, and no matter how the Obamacare Dems tell you that it will only cost 900 BILLION DOLLARS, the uncounted costs, like what it will take to hire thousands of IRS agents to harass small businesses or what Medicare cuts will do for those who have been paying in since its creation... It's not only a totally unconstitutional bastardization of Legislative process for what is a HUGE POLICY CHANGE, not a budget change (which is what it was used for before), but also a tax increase for the Middle Class just as much as it is for the rich - this is all because people feel entitled to healthcare?!
I'm disgusted that people don't realize that these changes were made against the will of the majority of people!" Dimitri
I agreed about helth insurance things when i just heard about it but Mr. poter explained what is going on about that and how is it going to work for american citizen in the class. After i heard about that i disagree about that because it is only for the poor people. i think it has to be for everybody who pays insurance payment. is is not fair for everybody.
ReplyDeleteAs citizens of the richest country in the world we can afford to extend healthcare benefits to ALL of our citizens and we should. Millions of Americans who go to work every day cannot afford even basic healthcare. Others pay insurance premiums for years, but find their healthcare benefits suspended when they become ill. Insurance companies have had too much influence on Capitol Hill for far too long. Healthcare is a right, just like education, that can and should be available to all Americans, not just those who can afford to pay insurance premiums or who are lucky enough to have jobs that provide healthcare coverage.
ReplyDeleteOur government is not the enemy. Our government is me and you. Let's get behind this healthcare reform. If it is not perfect, so what? We will fix it and refine it until it is a healthcare system that works for all of us. And, yes, that will take years of hard work and collaboration, but it can be done.
BTW, I lived in Geat Britain for many years and enjoyed excellent healthcare provided by the National Health System. My in-laws were very wealthy and could go to any "private" doctor they wanted. However, they never saw a doctor outside the NHS -- both of them lived until their mid 90's and were never rationed or denied medical care.
I believe that always will be pros and cons bug at this moment I am hoping that this Health Care Reform has more cons. This is a great country, with so many strong people that most of the time get together to make things better for their nation.
ReplyDeleteThis bill has many good points such as providing health care to everyone and making sure those who can not afford it will have the help that they need it. Insurance companies will not be able to say no to those who did not qualify to their demands before. Medicare will be more accessible to all, but on the other hand cons are not exclude of this bill. Some people are saying that health insurance prices will not decrease, quality of service will dropped because of the increase of patients, people will have to pay a fine because they can not affford health insurance and our taxes will be raised even more. There are so many unclear points out there, making all this even harder to somo of us to understand. I can include myself as one of them. I think it is time to be optimistic and hope that this bill will change the health care in this country for the best.
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ReplyDeleteThe reform on health insurance can be good or not. It is too early to say because it just came up. It is a good thing seeing the sides that will benefit everyone. People are getting chances to take care of their health, what sometimes does not happen. There are some points that are not clear for me, but as the time passes, it will be. I think that some fees could increase and maybe the services cannot be good as it is what can cause conflict. At the first, it is going to be complicated to manage this as all new project when the law is first accepted. I think that there are some points that will have to be managed more carefully, so it will not cause trouble. I hope everything goes well, so everybody can benefit.
ReplyDeleteEvery automobile driver must have a car insurance. Just like that, everybody deserves or needs quality health insurance to some extent. By and large, I agree and support what president Obama stands for. He is representing a number of people of his country with the very basic and vital issue with good reason. He is doing the right thing. However, what is more important that doing the right thing is when to do it; doing it at the right timing.
ReplyDeleteWho would be happy and affordable at this time of economical difficulties? Maybe 9 our 10 people would not. Doing the right thing is not always popular, and doing what is popular is not always right.