Immigration Process

With all of the debate surrounding immigration the following questions haven’t been asked, and I believe these are necessary questions to answer to reach conclusion on the debate.

What are the requirements to enter the U.S. legally and work or reside in the U.S. legally?   What are the benefits for people to enter and work in the U.S. illegally?

Well, listed below are the requirements to enter and reside in the U.S. legally. These requirements don’t seem prohibitive to me. As to the why, well, I can only assume they don’t want to pay for and/or fill out the necessary paperwork. I’m not sure how residing here illegally is beneficial though. Does anyone have solid information as to the benefits of residing in the U.S. illegally? 

Immigration Process – How to become a legal temporary worker, permanent resident or U.S. Citizen.

Step 1 – Enter the U.S. legally. With a passport and necessary Visa.

Step 2 – Apply for a Temporary Work Permit (if your intention is to work). Total cost for application is $320. Work Permit Procedures

Step 3 – Apply for Permanent Residence. Total cost for applying and becoming a permanent resident is $1010. Application Procedures

Step 4 – Apply for Naturalization (Citizenship). Total cost for citizenship is $675. Citizenship Procedures

The U.S. current laws do not allow visitors to our country without meeting the requirements below. The current U.S. laws do not provide for hiring immigrants or nonimmigrants without the proper Visa or Permanent Resident Card. With border security and enforcement of the current laws regarding immigration we would not have the current immigration problem. Do we want to allow people to enter and reside in the U.S. without meeting the current requirements? What is the benefit to the U.S. to allowing people to enter and reside in the country illegally?

Visit the US

A nonimmigrant is a foreign national seeking to enter the United States (U.S.) temporarily for a specific purpose. Nonimmigrants enter the U.S. for a temporary period of time, and once in the U.S. are restricted to the activity or reason for which their visa was issued. They may have more than one type of nonimmigrant visa but are admitted in only one status.

General requirements for foreign nationals seeking temporary admission include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The purpose of the visit must be temporary;
• The foreign national must agree to depart at the end of his/her authorized stay or extension;
• The foreign national must be in possession of a valid passport;
• A foreign residence must be maintained by the foreign national, in most instances;
• The foreign national may be required to show proof of financial support;
• The foreign national must be admissable or have obtained a waiver for any ground of inadmissability;
• The foreign national must abide by the terms and conditions of admission.

Abortion – 2008 Presidential Candidates Position

2008 Presidential Candidates stand on Abortion

Pro-Choice	Pro-Life
Hillary Clinton (D)	Mike Huckabee (R)
Barack Obama (D)	John McCain (R)

Hillary Clinton (D) – Pro Choice
“When it comes to each woman’s ability to make the most personal of life decisions, Hillary has stood firm as an advocate for a woman’s right to choose. She has expanded access to family planning services, including for low-income women. She spoke out forcefully against the Supreme Court’s April 2007 decision that — for the first time in decades — failed to recognize the importance of women’s health.”

Mike Huckabee (R) – Pro Life
“I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering. I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned.”

John McCain (R) – Pro Life
“Overturning Roe v. Wade
John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench. Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.”

Barack Obama (D) – Pro Choice – Position not stated on Campaign Website
On the Issues.org – Barack Obama

Health Insurance Shopping Websites

Health Insurance Shopping Websites

All of the sites listed below let you enter your preferences and get quotes on-line of many different plans from many different providers. For myself I was able to find some plans as low as $65 a month (these were high deductible plans designed to keep you from catastrophic costs).

I suggest you try a few of them so you can look at the cost of plans that might suit you. This way you can be informed of the cost and compare them to your current plan if you have one. Even if you aren’t interested in changing plans you can still be informed and help tell others about these shopping sites and that buying your own health insurance can be easy and affordable!

Aetna	Health Insurance Store
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Sheild	EHealth Insurance
Health Insurance.com	Assurant Health
Vimo Health Shopping

Let me know if you have any questions or need help with understanding the different plans or navigating any of the sites.

Health Insurance/Health Care – Is reform needed?

Topic – Health Insurance

Summary

All of the current Presidential Candidates have expressed a need to overhaul or reform our health care system. I decided to do some research about the current state of our health care system to see for my self why there might be a need. Here are some statistics that show the current state of insured citizens and the need for health care.

• Insured/Un-insured Percentage 2007 – 85.8% have insurance, Public and Private – 14.2% do not have insurance (Full Report – Department of Health, Center for Disease Control)
• Percent of the Un-insured who had a medical expense 2004 – 55% (Full Report – Department of Health, Medical Expenditure Survey)

Understanding why 14.2% do not have insurance is critical if the goal is to make sure 100% of the population has insurance. I have found no data that explains why this percentage do not have insurance. I believe it could be one or more of the following reasons:

• Not qualified for public assistance such as Medicaid, Medicare or other aid provided state/local governments and charities.
• Unaware of public assistance such as Medicaid, Medicare or other aid provided by state/local governments and charities.
• Have not budgeted for private health insurance.
• Do not want health insurance.

Based on this information it is clear that 14.2% percent of the population do not have health insurance, private or public. Of the 14.2%(2007) un-insured 55% (2004) had a medical expenses. So, the remaining 7% did not have a medical expense.

Having a government managed/mandated health care system or reform is un-necessary based on this information. The population segments that are most highly covered by health insurance private or public is the age groups under 18 and 65 and over. The government provides safety nets in the form of Medicaid and Medicare for those in need. Education on health wellness, health insurance options and health care costs would provide more benefit to the citizens by way of promoting competition in the health care industry and personal responsibility of the citizens.

Analysis

Question – Is Health Insurance reform needed?
Question – Is it necessary for the government to manage Health Care and/or Insurance for the entire population?
Question – Why do 14.2% of the population not carry health insurance.

Health Care or Health Insurance – I think it’s important that the discussion is focused properly. Health care in our country is open and available to everyone. It is my understanding that no one in our country can be refused health care from an emergency room.

Question – Is Health Insurance reform needed? (In my opinion, no.)

From Wikipedia
“The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395dd, EMTALA) is a United States Act of Congress passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. It requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions; as a result of the act, patients needing “emergency” treatment can be discharged only under their own informed consent or when their condition requires transfer to a hospital better equipped to administer the treatment.”

Insurance is not required to receive health care. So, this topic isn’t over the quality or availability of health care, but, over the quality and cost of health insurance. Is health care insurance reform needed? Should the government socialize the health care system because a percentage of the population doesn’t carry health insurance?

Let’s look at the current data on the number of insured and uninsured. The following statistics show that 85.8% of the population has insurance while 14.2% do not. Over the last 10 years the percentage appears stable, not getting worse or better.
(Full Report – Department of Health, Center for Disease Control)

Question – Why do 14.2% of the population not carry health insurance. (Unknown but necessary to know to make an informed decision).

Based on the current conversation by politicians and the media I was starting to believe that our country was in a health care insurance coverage crisis, meaning that there was a majority of our population that needed health care insurance but didn’t have it or couldn’t get it. So I decided to research this myself. I found these statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics (from the Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control) Based on this report (above) there is no crisis. 85% of the population has health insurance. 100% of the population has access to health care (remember, health insurance is not required to receive health care). Also, there is no data suggesting why the uninsured are uninsured. Having that information would be relevant to understanding why 14.2% of the population is not covered by health care insurance. And, we shouldn’t assume that someone who doesn’t have health insurance doesn’t receive needed health care. We should assume they receive health care and have the means to pay for health care when needed.

Total Health Services-Median and Mean Expenses per Person

I found more data that shows the percent of population that had health care expense vs. no health care expense. This is the latest data they had from 2004. There is great data on this site. Here is some pertinent data:

• Percent of Population with expense – 84.7 (Total population 293 million)
• Percent of un-insured with expense – 55.5 (means that approximately 18 million of the 36 million that don’t have health insurance had an expense).

What does this mean? It means that half of the people that didn’t have insurance sought and received medical care. I believe this is solid data that supports insurance isn’t needed to receive health care. So, of the 14.2% of the population that don’t have medical insurance 7% sought and received health care and the other 7% didn’t seek health care.

Question – Is it necessary for the government to manage Health Care and/or Insurance for the entire population? (No).

In my opinion a move to Nationalize, Federalize or Socialize health care because 14.2% of our population are not covered by health insurance (for reasons that are unclear) is un-necessary. I believe the government could serve us better by providing safety net type solutions for the American citizens who reach emergency health situations. The Federal government doesn’t need to or should control the health care system.

If we are unhappy with our current health insurance coverage because of quality or cost we have the following choices:

• Express our concerns with the Insurance company.
• Shop for a different Insurance company.
• Change Insurance plans.
• Drop Insurance coverage.

The American consumer has tremendous power. If we start asking for better coverage that costs less we will get it! We need to start supporting companies and organizations that help you find health insurance coverage by making easy comparisons of the plans by type and price. Some of these exist on the Internet in some forms already. I will be researching this soon and will provide the information at a later date.

So, let’s start asking our health insurance providers to provide more coverage for less cost, more plans to choose from and an easy way to compare the plans by coverage and price! Let’s start asking the politicians to focus on safety nets for emergency health care situations, not socializing health care.

Let me know your thoughts and comments!