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Monday, May 21, 2012 | 2:01 a.m.
Regarding the problems Social Security and Medicare may be causing with the federal budgets: I would like to point out the benefits those programs have offered to Nevada and especially to Las Vegas.
Within the past 20 years, thousands of seniors have moved into the Las Vegas Valley, bringing with them their monthly Social Security money and their health problems, which then brought in Medicare. A large medical industry has developed. We now have 10 hospitals and 50 pages of physicians in the telephone directory. Just think of the medical help, such as nurses, medical technicians and associated office jobs, that were created.
We should be concerned that these programs remain as close to what they are now.
So when everybody is on Social Security Who would is left to work to pay in
Are we to understand that we should double the Social Security and Medicare budgeted so that they get money that Obama borrows from China
Taking money from one grop and giving it to another group does not give a stimulus to the economy. It's a shell game with no benefit.
Yes and No. But mostly NO. The SS recipients die and with them the economy and jobs they brought with them.
Carmine A. DiFazio
The real question is whether or not, while there is a continuous shortage of doctors, if there will be doctors coming to Nevada to practice in the future, given the current laws that are making coming here to practice less attractive than other states.
The need for healthcare services increases with age, and seniors want to be where there is quality care, and they will relocate to where ever it is more favorable, besides all the other services they need.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Mr. Mesco,
With all due respect, you should get a second dot to conduct your analyses.
Purgatory
Nothing wrong with having senior citizens moving to Las Vegas. With them comes a vast war chest of knowledge from working careers of every kind imaginable. Wouldn't it be great if we asked some of these senior citizens to speak to studens graduating from high school.What a eye opener it could be for these kids who are thrust out into the world.
The question isn't whether there is or isn't some local economic benefits to SS and Medicare. The question is are the existing programs, or the changes inherent in Obamacare, efficient, effective and affordable. Most analysts seem to think not, at least not without significant tax & user fee increases for most.
There is no shortage of doctors. Instead, we must stop Medicaid and insurance companies (collectively, the American taxpayers) from paying for "medical care" for stupid things: repeated doctor visits for teen acne, Rx's for every sniffle.... Why is it "normal" and average" for adult Americans to be on 10-12 prescriptions? Could have an impact on why we DON'T LIVE AS LONG as Europeans.
Ah, there would be many more seniors here if home builders would tune in: SINGLE STORY houses with liveable yards, desert landscaping, LARGE bathrooms with sit-down showers, near bus lines and stores, limited fees and association dues.
There is no question that Las Vegas is and should be a retirement destination. Who else can afford to move here with no jobs? Affordability for retirees is a big selling point that should be exploited.
Richocet to Indep13:
"The question is are the existing programs, or the changes inherent in Obamacare, efficient, effective and affordable. Most analysts seem to think not, at least not without significant tax & user fee increases for most."
Actually, the analysts are not exactly reliable. They tend to say whatever the person signing their check wants them to say and then, if they want to keep the checks coming, they repeat it over and over until people think it is actually true.
See Frank "Lies are okay if you tell them enough" Lund
Bernard, SS and Medicare are INSURANCE programs that we pay into for years. Social "welfare" programs are things given away to the UNentitled.
Granted there are non-able bodied individuals who can not be expected to be self-supporting throughout their lives--but many of whom can be self reliant for much of their care and many can work. It's like this: you work and then now and again you might collect Unemployment Contributions Benefits. You might, after a low spot in life, need EBT food stamps for a year or two. But NO ONE is ENTITLED to endless hand outs ripped from hard-working Americans.
Roberta you said that NO ONE is ENTITLED to endless handouts and I agree. I find it interesting the story of the man from Knoxville that has petitioned the state to help him pay child support for the 30 children he has fathered. 30!
Now imagine if the state of Tenn. stepped in when he had fathered 10 children or even 20 children and said that they wanted to sterilize him. Can you imagine the outrage from MSM, the NAACP or the ACLU? Yet they don't stand up now and say they will help provide for his continuous lack of proper decisions in his live.
Of course he is not typical. BUT.....
Wow Bob! I have to admit there is much merit to your "plan". Really. I would endorse it almost point by point if not all. The problem we are facing is if you hand our free "stuff", most everyone wants free stuff.
Bernard.......Good letter.
YES, you're 100% correct.
Our great social programs do bring jobs to our
great state of Nevada.
And the ACA will create many more health care
related jobs and better health care for Americans.
The economy is getting better.
jrtsr: Young men need their fathers to explain to them what happens when they leave children behind. The lack of a real father has lifetime effects on the kids. And, then the government (with computer programs) will hunt down his money forever and ever--for child support. So for any young man who currently, or might sometime in the future, be an upright kind of guy, Daddy needs to explain to him that it's not all about being a macho dude who can impregnate young women. It's about being a dad. A responsible adult. And without that, who would think any government can fund the right programs to make thinks OK for an abandoned child?
Bob Realist: Are you or your politicians aware that oh so many of welfare recipients are chronically dependent? I'm referring to the people who as young adults chuck out a few kids and receive assistance, endless forms of assistance, for the 25 years of so that they have dependent kids. And they drink, or smoke, or eat, or gamble so much that by the ripe old age of 50 or so, they have so many chronic "diseases" that they "qualify" for SSDI. The disability payments don't provide for the lifestyle they are used to so they get room mates. And then at about 60 or 65 they are so burned out that we pay for "low income" long-term "nursing" homes for them. This is just not right. We MUST do something while they are in their teens to PRECLUDE them from having kids--since the kids have LIMITED "opportunity" for a decent life. Where would you be now if neither parent ever cared for you? No concern or interest during your formative years. No time for you. Just focus on the coffee, cigarettes, booze, drugs, pain killers for Big Mama and Big Daddy.
Maybe college loans, grants, programs can be restricted to adults WITHOUT children? They don't want to pay back the student loans just like welfare recipients are unable to pay back their benefits. Have you ever tried to collect late payments from ANY of these "people"?
Roberta says "there is no shortage of doctors."..And then she concludes we really don't need more doctors.
According to informed sources, Rosie is wrong again.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
With our current 352,908 primary care doctors and around 954,000 total doctors serving our roughly 311,600,000 population, we have one PC doc for every 900 or so folks.
According to informed sources, not rosie, the 2020 projections will leave us way behind in the availability of qualified physicians.
But then what does the New York Times have to do with accurate reporting?? Right?... The reporter probably had no basis for his numbers quoted from other reliable sources. Just strong opinions.
He is probably just trying to increase funding for health of all self-serving things to do, right??
Facts seem to have an elusive quality when rosie's opinions arrive in print alongside her prejudices. Interesting blend every time: a little sprinkle of fact, a slab of opinion and a pot full of sour soup she serves. How inviting!
Nevada has fewer than one primary care physician for every 1000 population, even though the need is great in this state for health care as the article makes abundantly clear.
The question may arise "Why don't we have more primary care physicians here?"
The answer involves looking at the culture here. Consider that primary care physicians are the lowest paid of all the MD groups. Until they can make a living here, they'll work where crime and violence, ignorance and debauchery are less prevalent. It's a culture thing.
Until Nevada has more to offer than just guns and booze, hookers and tattoo parlors, expecting an MD to set up shop and spend her life in squalid disarray with dropouts, ne'er-do-wells and transients in a crossroads community of confusion and corruption, things are not likely to change.
Not saying anything is wrong with no taxes or a one-horse town where the math-challenged lay down their paychecks and destitution and prostitution rule...just pointing out why an anti-culture seems to repel opportunity as well as fresh fecal droppings tend to draw flies.