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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2010, 05:59:39 AM
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Doctors limit new Medicare patients
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The number of doctors refusing new Medicare patients because of low government
payment rates is setting a new high, just six months before millions of Baby Boomers begin enrolling in
the government health care program.
Recent surveys by national and state medical societies have found more doctors limiting Medicare
patients, partly because Congress has failed to stop an automatic 21% cut in payments that doctors
already regard as too low. The cut went into effect Friday, even as the Senate approved a six-month
reprieve. The House has approved a different bill.
• The American Academy of Family Physicians says 13% of respondents didn't participate in Medicare
last year, up from 8% in 2008 and 6% in 2004.
• The American Osteopathic Association says 15% of its members don't participate in Medicare and 19%
don't accept new Medicare patients. If the cut is not reversed, it says, the numbers will double.
• The American Medical Association says 17% of more than 9,000 doctors surveyed restrict the
number of Medicare patients in their practice. Among primary care physicians, the rate is 31%.
The federal health insurance program for seniors paid doctors on average 78% of what private insurers paid in 2008.
"Physicians are saying, 'I can't afford to keep losing money,' " says Lori Heim, president of the family
doctors' group.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says 97% of doctors accept Medicare. The agency
doesn't know how many have refused to take new Medicare patients, Deputy Administrator Jonathan
Blum says. "Medicare beneficiaries have good access to physician services. We do have concerns about
access to primary care physicians."
The AARP, the nation's largest consumer group representing seniors, is taking notice. Some U.S.
areas already face a shortage of primary care physicians. Policy director John Rother says the
trend away from Medicare threatens to make it worse.
States are starting to see a flight from Medicare:
•In Illinois, 18% of doctors restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practice, according to a
medical society survey.
By Brandi Simons for USA TODAY
Dr. Yogesh Mittal, an orthopedic surgeon in Tulsa, works on a patient who is on Medicare. Some doctors have increased the number of Medicare patients they reject due to low payment rates.
•In North Carolina, 117 doctors have opted out of Medicare since January, the state's medical society
says.
•In New York, about 1,100 doctors have left Medicare. Even the medical society president isn't taking new Medicare patients.
"I'm making a statement," says Leah McCormack, a New York City dermatologist. "Many physicians are
really being forced out of private practice."
Florida has the highest percentage of Medicare patients, and most doctors can't afford to leave the
program. But "the level of frustration has been higher this year than I've ever seen it before," says
Linda McMullen of the Florida Medical Association.
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Come you morons who supported ObamaCare, lets discuss this.
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I thought you would be ecstatic over this 3... you of all people are the one who is so against socialism.... medicare is socialism... handouts... welfare ... waste of taxpayer money! Medicare is government money being given out to people who should not receive it. I can tell you from being in the health insurance business that many have learned the game of transferring their assets to their children or into secret accounts (legally) to APPEAR BROKE/POOR so that Medicare will pay their bills...shameful
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I thought you would be ecstatic over this 3... you of all people are the one who is so against socialism.... medicare is socialism... handouts... welfare ... waste of taxpayer money! Medicare is government money being given out to people who should not receive it. I can tell you from being in the health insurance business that many have learned the game of transferring their assets to their children or into secret accounts (legally) to APPEAR BROKE/POOR so that Medicare will pay their bills...shameful
People pay taxes to fund this garbage.
Second - you are confusing medicaid and medicare.
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People pay taxes to fund this garbage.
Second - you are confusing medicaid and medicare.
People pay taxes for ALL PROGRAMS did you somehow forget? Medicaid, Social security, Medicare, welfare, Unemployment, schools, policemen, firemen, military, highways, national parks, etc etc etc. Your government HAS NO MONEY, so it extracts it from its citizens and uses it for these things. Medicare is just another socialized program like the ones I mentioned above.
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And guess what? Socialism is a failure.
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Doctors limit new Medicare patients
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The number of doctors refusing new Medicare patients because of low government
payment rates is setting a new high, just six months before millions of Baby Boomers begin enrolling in
the government health care program.
Recent surveys by national and state medical societies have found more doctors limiting Medicare
patients, partly because Congress has failed to stop an automatic 21% cut in payments that doctors
already regard as too low. The cut went into effect Friday, even as the Senate approved a six-month
reprieve. The House has approved a different bill.
• The American Academy of Family Physicians says 13% of respondents didn't participate in Medicare
last year, up from 8% in 2008 and 6% in 2004.
• The American Osteopathic Association says 15% of its members don't participate in Medicare and 19%
don't accept new Medicare patients. If the cut is not reversed, it says, the numbers will double.
• The American Medical Association says 17% of more than 9,000 doctors surveyed restrict the
number of Medicare patients in their practice. Among primary care physicians, the rate is 31%.
The federal health insurance program for seniors paid doctors on average 78% of what private insurers paid in 2008.
"Physicians are saying, 'I can't afford to keep losing money,' " says Lori Heim, president of the family
doctors' group.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says 97% of doctors accept Medicare. The agency
doesn't know how many have refused to take new Medicare patients, Deputy Administrator Jonathan
Blum says. "Medicare beneficiaries have good access to physician services. We do have concerns about
access to primary care physicians."
The AARP, the nation's largest consumer group representing seniors, is taking notice. Some U.S.
areas already face a shortage of primary care physicians. Policy director John Rother says the
trend away from Medicare threatens to make it worse.
States are starting to see a flight from Medicare:
•In Illinois, 18% of doctors restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practice, according to a
medical society survey.
By Brandi Simons for USA TODAY
Dr. Yogesh Mittal, an orthopedic surgeon in Tulsa, works on a patient who is on Medicare. Some doctors have increased the number of Medicare patients they reject due to low payment rates.
•In North Carolina, 117 doctors have opted out of Medicare since January, the state's medical society
says.
•In New York, about 1,100 doctors have left Medicare. Even the medical society president isn't taking new Medicare patients.
"I'm making a statement," says Leah McCormack, a New York City dermatologist. "Many physicians are
really being forced out of private practice."
Florida has the highest percentage of Medicare patients, and most doctors can't afford to leave the
program. But "the level of frustration has been higher this year than I've ever seen it before," says
Linda McMullen of the Florida Medical Association.
________________________ ________________________ ________
Come you morons who supported ObamaCare, lets discuss this.
I'm not surprised this happened at all. Doctors aren't going to be driven into poverty, just to support Obama's buffoonery.
Our Armed Forces should be concerned as well, because same thing could happen with regards to TriCare.
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And guess what? Socialism is a failure.
Socialism is not a failure... it is the greed and corruption of your nation that is the failure. Sadly instead of focusing on the corruption and greed and crooks that have robbed every american of everything down to their underwear and socks, you focus on those who are vulnerable and least able to defend or provide for themselves.
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GMAFB.
I almost had it out with a few public workers last week when I told them I moving to CT because i'm sick of paying their bloated salaries and pensions.
The govt is looting the nation to lavish its publc disservants, the gregs of society, amnd wall street wioth everyone elses' cash and fruit of their labor.
and please give me the shining example of socialisms' success? USSR? Greece? Ireland? Venzuela?
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Socialism is not a failure... it is the greed and corruption of your nation that is the failure. Sadly instead of focusing on the corruption and greed and crooks that have robbed every american of everything down to their underwear and socks, you focus on those who are vulnerable and least able to defend or provide for themselves.
The greed and corruption are coming from the very people, espousing this socialism crap (i.e. the Obama administration). The difference, between that and the greed and corruption that accompanies capitalism, is that the latter is much easier to purge.
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GMAFB.
I almost had it out with a few public workers last week when I told them I moving to CT because i'm sick of paying their bloated salaries and pensions.
The govt is looting the nation to lavish its publc disservants, the gregs of society, amnd wall street wioth everyone elses' cash and fruit of their labor.
and please give me the shining example of socialisms' success? USSR? Greece? Ireland? Venzuela?
Is there something binding you to the northeast. If not, do like Rush and move to Florida!!!
;D
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Is there something binding you to the northeast. If not, do like Rush and move to Florida!!!
;D
GF, my business and clients, family, etc.
The real estate taxes in CT are 1/3 of what they would be in NYC area. Its only 45 minutes away too.
Every municiple NY govt worker can fuck off as far as I'm concerned. They are looting the system dry with bloated OT, scams regarding disability, etc.
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GMAFB.
I almost had it out with a few public workers last week when I told them I moving to CT because i'm sick of paying their bloated salaries and pensions.
The govt is looting the nation to lavish its publc disservants, the gregs of society, amnd wall street wioth everyone elses' cash and fruit of their labor.
and please give me the shining example of socialisms' success? USSR? Greece? Ireland? Venzuela?
3 why do you continue to make it sound as though you are PERSONALLY SIGNING CHECKS to public workers, unions, socialized services etc etc? No matter where you move to in america taxes will be required to provide these services. You like the other couple hundred million people pay the same taxes for these services. As a matter of fact america is one of the LEAST taxed nations on the planet. and by the way Greece, Ireland, Spain, Germany, France were shining examples of socialism before america and its Wall Street investment games that bankrupted or severely crippled the economies of Europe, Japan, China as well as itself with CAPITALISM... Did you forget that already?
At least in Europe people do not have to worry about medical services when it is needed like you do in america (america will let you DIE in the emergency room before providing care if you are un or under insured). In europe a student can go to college all the way up to PhD level without paying because that SOCIALIZED service is provided...unlike in america where many never get the chance to go or finish because of the exorbitant cost. america is the last nation to finger point as it has shown its democracy, its capitalism, its culture is an absolute failure...the only reason you see it as otherwise is the fact that the MSM keeps telling you different. If america is so great why are there so many complaints on this board about the country, its government, its policies, its practices yadda yadda yadda
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3 why do you continue to make it sound as though you are PERSONALLY SIGNING CHECKS to public workers, unions, socialized services etc etc? No matter where you move to in america taxes will be required to provide these services. You like the other couple hundred million people pay the same taxes for these services. As a matter of fact america is one of the LEAST taxed nations on the planet. and by the way Greece, Ireland, Spain, Germany, France were shining examples of socialism before america and its Wall Street investment games that bankrupted or severely crippled the economies of Europe, Japan, China as well as itself with CAPITALISM... Did you forget that already?
At least in Europe people do not have to worry about medical services when it is needed like you do in america (america will let you DIE in the emergency room before providing care if you are un or under insured). In europe a student can go to college all the way up to PhD level without paying because that SOCIALIZED service is provided...unlike in america where many never get the chance to go or finish because of the exorbitant cost. america is the last nation to finger point as it has shown its democracy, its capitalism, its culture is an absolute failure...the only reason you see it as otherwise is the fact that the MSM keeps telling you different. If america is so great why are there so many complaints on this board about the country, its government, its policies, its practices yadda yadda yadda
Wrong. Please learn how our system works tax wise regarding City, State, Federal taxes. The govt employee unions are the biggest organized crime gang going with regard to property and local taxes.
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3 why do you continue to make it sound as though you are PERSONALLY SIGNING CHECKS to public workers, unions, socialized services etc etc? No matter where you move to in america taxes will be required to provide these services. You like the other couple hundred million people pay the same taxes for these services. As a matter of fact america is one of the LEAST taxed nations on the planet. and by the way Greece, Ireland, Spain, Germany, France were shining examples of socialism before america and its Wall Street investment games that bankrupted or severely crippled the economies of Europe, Japan, China as well as itself with CAPITALISM... Did you forget that already?
At least in Europe people do not have to worry about medical services when it is needed like you do in america (america will let you DIE in the emergency room before providing care if you are un or under insured). In europe a student can go to college all the way up to PhD level without paying because that SOCIALIZED service is provided...unlike in america where many never get the chance to go or finish because of the exorbitant cost. america is the last nation to finger point as it has shown its democracy, its capitalism, its culture is an absolute failure...the only reason you see it as otherwise is the fact that the MSM keeps telling you different. If america is so great why are there so many complaints on this board about the country, its government, its policies, its practices yadda yadda yadda
::)
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Wrong. Please learn how our system works tax wise regarding City, State, Federal taxes. The govt employee unions are the biggest organized crime gang going with regard to property and local taxes.
Haha, Samson once again showing that he has no fucking idea as to what he's talking about.
Socialism works. Just ask Spain and Venezuela. ::)
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Wrong. Please learn how our system works tax wise regarding City, State, Federal taxes. The govt employee unions are the biggest organized crime gang going with regard to property and local taxes.
I know exactly how the system works. You can always move to Las Vegas and pay no taxes... it's a little hot there though, otherwise prepare to pay taxes like everyone else in america.
Truth of the matter is it seems like you want the socialized services...YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THEM...
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I know exactly how the system works. You can always move to Las Vegas and pay no taxes... it's a little hot there though, otherwise prepare to pay taxes like everyone else in america.
Truth of the matter is it seems like you want the socialized services...YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THEM...
What's the matter? Were the Sorcha Faal articles you worship not able to teach your dumbass how our tax system works?
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I know exactly how the system works. You can always move to Las Vegas and pay no taxes... it's a little hot there though, otherwise prepare to pay taxes like everyone else in america.
Truth of the matter is it seems like you want the socialized services...YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THEM...
Sorry - paying 15 -25k a year alone in property taxes on a small house to pay for insane benefits for govt workers, welfare for the dregs of society, pork barrell favors for the pols, is not my cup of tea.
I dont want socialized services. I want sane, responsible, reasonable, and mininal govt services. We dont need every town having Chiefs, Assistant to the Chiefs, multiple principals for every school, layers and layers of patronage, etc etc.
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3 why do you continue to make it sound as though you are PERSONALLY SIGNING CHECKS to public workers, unions, socialized services etc etc? No matter where you move to in america taxes will be required to provide these services. You like the other couple hundred million people pay the same taxes for these services. As a matter of fact america is one of the LEAST taxed nations on the planet. and by the way Greece, Ireland, Spain, Germany, France were shining examples of socialism before america and its Wall Street investment games that bankrupted or severely crippled the economies of Europe, Japan, China as well as itself with CAPITALISM... Did you forget that already?
At least in Europe people do not have to worry about medical services when it is needed like you do in america (america will let you DIE in the emergency room before providing care if you are un or under insured). In europe a student can go to college all the way up to PhD level without paying because that SOCIALIZED service is provided...unlike in america where many never get the chance to go or finish because of the exorbitant cost. america is the last nation to finger point as it has shown its democracy, its capitalism, its culture is an absolute failure...the only reason you see it as otherwise is the fact that the MSM keeps telling you different. If america is so great why are there so many complaints on this board about the country, its government, its policies, its practices yadda yadda yadda
this post has so much liberal spin on it I'm getting dizzy. i seriously don't even know where to start on this one.
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Samson - read this and educate yourself.
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Why Are Our Taxes So #%*! High?
www.westchestermagazine. com
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Paid enough taxes lately? Ask anyone who lives in Westchester, and the answer is obvious. With a mix of outrage, awe, and even a hint of perverse pride, they’ll tell you our taxes are the highest in the whole U.S. of A.! Why does Westchester pay more for schools, police protection, garbage collection, and other services financed by our tax dollars? The answers may infuriate you—even more.
By: Dave Donelson
delaide DiGiorgi, a 73-year-old retired realtor in Tuckahoe and president of the Westchester League of Women Voters, isn’t pleased, either. “I took early retirement in the mid-nineties, and since then our taxes have tripled. All I can say is, we can’t take it anymore.”
Can’t take what? The highest taxes in the nation, that’s what. “High” is a relative term, of course, but if the national average tax bill were as tall as a center hall Colonial in Scarsdale, Westchester’s would be the height of the Ritz-Carlton Tower. Even realtor Charlene Tobin, who sells many multi-million-dollar homes in Purchase, was taken aback by one that came on the market recently with a $117,989 tax bill. As she pointed out, “You have to earn at least $235,000 a year just to pay the taxes on the house!”
According to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, DC-based research group, we Westchester taxpayers who live in our own homes do indeed write the largest property tax check in the country—yes the country: $8,404, or nearly five(!) times the national average of $1,854. Part of that is due to the value of our homes, but they are only three times the national average. It’s the tax rates that are killing us.
Taxes are driving us away, too. “It’s ridiculous!” exclaims 64-year-old Rick Klett, who moved to Massachusetts in 2008. “If I had stayed in New Rochelle, almost my entire pension would have been eaten up by my real estate taxes!” Klett retired from a job with the Irvington School District and didn’t want to leave. “My wife was born and raised in New Rochelle, but we were being taxed out of existence.” In 1997, the couple bought a home on Interlaken Avenue in New Rochelle. The taxes were about $7,000 at the time. By the time they sold it 11 years later, the tax bill was $16,000. Today, they own a larger home (1,860 sq. ft. vs. 1,730 sq. ft.) on a much larger lot (one acre-plus as opposed to 60 x 110 feet)—a waterfront lot, no less, about 12 miles south of Boston—and pay $5,200 in taxes.
Of course, there are those who say our cost of living—not to mention our quality of life—is substantially higher than in the rest of the nation. But even among comparable places, particularly those in the New York metropolitan area, we still have the dubious distinction of topping the tax charts. Nassau County is close at $8,306, Rockland is $7,798, Putnam is $6,917, and Suffolk is $6,842. Bergen County, New Jersey—just across the river—is $7,997, while Fairfield, Connecticut, is $6,051. Tax-wise, it’s cheaper to live in Greenwich than in Mamaroneck.
Westchester tax bills become even more ludicrous when we compare them to other counties in the U.S., places that are similar to us in population, cost of living, proximity to major cities, housing values, and so forth. Like Middlesex County, Massachusetts, part of the Boston metro, which is somewhat more populous and a little less prosperous, but where county government was abolished in 1997. The average property tax bill there is about half of ours: $4,271. Or San Mateo County, California (next to San Francisco), where the cost of living is among the highest in the nation, yet the average property tax paid by a homeowner is just $4,208. Or Fairfax County, Virginia, which is very similar to Westchester, except it spends a billion dollars less than we do on its schools and the average property tax bill is $4,616.
High taxes are undermining the Westchester economy, according to Al DelBello, former New York Lieutenant Governor, Westchester County Executive, and Mayor of Yonkers. “It’s devastating to business. It’s not that they can’t pay the property tax; it’s that they can’t afford to hire people who live in the County. If you were a company trying to find a location for a new office or distribution center, why would you come to the highest taxed county in the United States?”
Why, exactly, do we have that honor?
As DiGiorgi says, “We want what we want.” Which means? “For many, many years, people wanted all those extra special kinds of benefits that the government took care of.” That’s the heart of the debate over Westchester taxes. We hate them, but we can’t seem to stop the spending that drives them up. Our property taxes, you see, are determined by a not-very-complex formula based on how much money our schools, village, town, county, and special taxing district(s) spend. According to the New York State Office of Real Property Services, the formula is pretty simple: the taxing body (schools, town, etc.) estimates its expenses, subtracts income like state and federal aid, sales taxes, and fees, and divides the remaining expenses over the property tax base. Shortly thereafter, our tax bill arrives and the screaming begins.
Something to keep in mind is that a couple of things other than expenses by our schools and town government affect our tax bills. While the property tax represents the largest single source of their funding, it’s only slightly more than half. If there is a cutback in state aid (highly likely these days) or sales tax receipts fall off (you heard about the recession, right?), the shortfall is made up on our property tax bill.
What’s more, if someone else in our community gets his or her taxes reduced through the appeals process known as tax certiorari, we have to make up the difference. Harrison School Superintendent Louis Wool reports, for example, that the Harrison School District is facing $23 million in tax assessment challenges, mostly from commercial property owners, and he expects about one-third of them to go
into effect. One was filed by Westchester Country Club, which recently was awarded a $2.6 million reduction. Since I live in Harrison, I’ll have to pay my share of that unless the town and school district cut expenses to offset it. I’m not holding my breath.
My town and school district, like most, have been nibbling around the edges of their spending. But the biggest portion of our tax dollars go to pay for the people who clean our streets, put out our fires, and educate our children—and the layers of management we think they need. As Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner says, “Local government is a service provider just like a plumber or an electrician, and people have to decide whether they want to pay for particular services. But people want to have their cake, eat it, and not pay for it.”
There are an awful lot of people supplying services to—and paid by—the taxpayers of Westchester. Schools receive the lion’s share of our property taxes, about 60 percent of the total, depending on where you live. The County government splits the remainder more or less equally with the towns, villages, and municipalities, according to the New York State Comptroller. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says our local governments employ nearly 19,000 people, while our schools have nearly 24,000 people on staff. We can rant about the cost of fuel to operate our school buses and rave about saving two dollars a ton on rock salt for our roads, but the greatest share—about 70 percent—of our tax dollar goes for employee salaries and benefits.
Are we happy with the services they provide in return for that big check we write? Even the most adamant tax opponent, like Tea Party participant Howard Hellwinkel, a 58-year-old small-business owner in North Salem, isn’t griping about the value he gets for his tax dollar. “As far as our town goes, I’m satisfied,” he says. “We have garbage service, our roads are maintained very well, and we have an excellent school district. Whether we pay more than we should has to do with costs and how they’re managed.”
We must worship our kids. In the 2008 fiscal year, the average Westchester school district spent $24,000 per pupil, or way more than double the national average of about $10,000, as reported by the Census Bureau. There’s no question that our schools are good, but are they twice as good as everyone else’s?
Westchester apparently knows no bounds when it comes to spending on our schools. Last spring, about six months after the U.S. economy barely avoided falling into the abyss, voters in Westchester approved every single school budget, 37 of which included a tax increase. This year’s results weren’t known at press time, but we can be pretty sure that most of them passed again.
We don’t seem to care much about the details. The formula “good schools equal high home prices” might as well be tattooed on the forehead of every realtor in the County. Good schools cost a lot, we believe, and so we pay the bill. The question lingers, though: What exactly are we paying for?
Mostly, we’re paying for people. Teachers (about 13,000 of them), plus administrators, nurses, janitors, school bus drivers, band directors, guidance counselors, psychologists, secretaries, business managers, basketball coaches, and more—many, many more. All told, we spend about $3.5 billion on our schools, according to the New York State Comptroller, and more than two-thirds of that goes for salaries and benefits. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says we paid school employees more than $2 billion in 2008. Benefits added another $680 million to the bill.
There are other major expenses, too, of course. Debt service in 2008 was $192 million and bussing cost $163 million, and plenty was spent on computers, football helmets, and big red pencils, but the overriding cost of getting our kids into an Ivy League college lies in the people we hire to do it.
Good schools don’t have to cost a lot, though. Residents of Fairfax County, Virginia, send their kids to schools that were operated for $2.2 billion in 2008, the same year we spent $1.3 billion more—to educate fewer kids. Oh, as mentioned earlier, Fairfax residents’ average property tax bill is $4,600, or about half of ours. Other than that, the two counties are remarkably similar. Fairfax is a suburb of a major city (Washington, DC); has 1,010,000 people (versus our 950,000); a median household income of $126,000 (against our $111,000); and an average home value of $556,000 (ours is $582,000). The cost of living is comparable, too. Their schools had 165,000 pupils in 2008; we had 145,000. Excluding debt service, we spent $24,000 to educate each of ours—Fairfax spent $13,000.
Yes, but Westchester schools are nationally known. They have stellar reputations. What college admissions officer hasn’t heard of Scarsdale High? Or Horace Greeley? Or Edgemont High? But…hold on…so are Fairfax County schools. By most standards, their academic achievements were just as good as ours, if not better. Fairfax students in the class of 2008 had an average combined SAT score of 1654. This year, the average high school in Westchester scored 1598. The four-year graduation rate was the same for both counties: 91 percent, and about the same percentage of students went on to college: 93 percent for Fairfax, 94 percent for Westchester. On the June 2009, Newsweek magazine list of America’s Top High Schools, Fairfax had 11 schools in the top 200, while Westchester had eight. So what accounts for the difference in the cost of the schools?
For one thing, Westchester’s 13,000 teachers belong to New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), while non-teaching support personnel are members of Local 1000 of the Civil Service Employees Association. Virginia is a right-to-work state where unions aren’t a big factor. The pay scales reflect it, too. In Katonah, for example, beginning teachers earn $52,000, whereas those at the top of the scale make $138,000. In Fairfax, it’s $47,000 to $99,000. When you multiply it times the number of teachers in Westchester, the difference hits your tax bill like a Big Mac hits your waistline.
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Part 2
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Salaries vary widely depending on the district, the teacher’s experience, and many other factors, but the average teacher here earns about $89,000. The national average teacher salary was $51,000 in 2006, the latest figure available from the American Federation of Teachers. The salary range between beginning teachers and those with more experience and education is tremendous. Taking the average, though, we’re paying our teachers well over a billion dollars a year.
“It sounds like a lot, but have you looked at the cost of living in Westchester?” asks NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn. “Try buying a home on a teacher’s salary.” When you look strictly at average salaries, Korn is close to correct. According to City-Data.com, Westchester’s cost of living index is 157 (the U.S. average is 100). Calculated the same way, our teacher’s salary index is 175 vs. the U.S. average.
It’s not just salaries, though. The two costliest benefits are health insurance and retirement. As in every other sector of our economy, health insurance takes an ever-increasing bite out of school budgets. Overall, it represented $335 million in 2008. Taxpayers bear almost the entire burden of health insurance for school employees. Statewide, teachers pay 10 to 13 percent of their insurance premiums. Katonah’s contract with the union calls for an 11-percent employee contribution. Non-teaching personnel pay a comparable share.
Funding pension plans is a major expense—and a ticking time bomb. “The pension system is structurally broken and not sustainable,” says Harrison School Superintendent Louis Wool. “In a bad year, that line can blow a budget to smithereens. For the 2010-11 budget year, Harrison’s pension costs increased by $1.5 million, a 45-percent increase. “There’s no way for me to mitigate that impact no matter how well I plan.” For County schools as a whole, pension funding was $158 million in 2008.
The problem is that the state-mandated pension plans for school-district employees are defined benefit plans, which means the amount of future benefits is guaranteed and has to be funded by the taxpayers and/or investment income. When stocks and bonds take a big dip (remember 2008?), the state pension plan does, too, and school districts, towns and villages, and other participants get a larger-than-normal bill. Retirees are also living longer, so their guaranteed benefits are paid for more years, which means the fund has to be replenished more generously. “Schools have zero leeway when it comes to pension plans,” Lisa Davis, executive director of the Westchester-Putnam School Boards Association, explains. “The terms are entirely mandated by the state.”
Teachers are covered by the Teachers Retirement System and others participate in the Employee Retirement System. Current employees contribute an insignificant amount, although a recent change in state law created a new level (Tier V) that requires a 4.85 percent annual contribution by teachers who start in 2010 and raises the minimum retirement age to 57 with 30 years of service. As Wool says, however, “Tier V won’t have an impact on school districts until my children have children.”
Another major difference between Fairfax County and Westchester schools is administrative costs. Fairfax County has one school district. Westchester has 40. They pay one superintendent of schools, we pay 40 of them—as well as at least 40 assistant superintendents, system-wide technology directors, purchasing agents, transportation directors, and other central office staffers with the attendant overhead.
All that overhead is costly. The superintendent of schools in Fairfax County earns $292,469 annually to manage about 200 schools with 165,000 students. Three of our superintendents (Scarsdale, Rye City, and Tuckahoe) make more than he does. The largest of those three districts, Scarsdale, has seven schools with 4,800 kids. Tuckahoe has two schools with about 1,000 students. Taken together, our 40 superintendents made over $10 million in 2009. Efficient we’re not.
The answer would be consolidation, but we’re not very logical when it comes to our schools. Davis says consolidation of districts may not be politically feasible (or even desirable). “Even if Westchester had just one large school district, you’re not going to dramatically change your biggest cost unless you enlarge class size. Education is very people-intensive and that’s why it’s very expensive.” Class sizes in Fairfax, though, are equivalent to ours, according to Sperling’s Best Places to Live, while National Center for Education Statistics data for 2007-’08 show Westchester with 1,900 district-wide administrators and staffers. Fairfax had 1,200.
“A big part of our cost savings is economy of scale,” says Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman Paul Reigner, who also happens to have worked for the NYS Department of Education a few years ago. “You’ve got all these different school systems while we have one big one, with one superintendent, one school board, one leadership team.”
State regulations and mandated services drive up other costs for Westchester’s schools, too. Davis says transportation is one example. “It used to be ninety percent funded by the state,” she says. “It’s next to nothing now. In a place like Northern Westchester, the state may say a kid can walk two miles to school, but not up there where there are no sidewalks—like in a lot of Westchester.” The state mandates that the farthest distance a student can walk is two miles for K-8 and three miles for 9-12. Some districts, like Lakeland, prohibit students walking to school at all because they deem it too unsafe. The cost to the district? Nearly $9 million or about $1,200 per pupil. Keep in mind the district covers 42 square miles.
Then there is special education. “New York State far exceeds the federal regulations, so the provision of services is much more expensive than in other places—and our results are no better,” Davis says. “The NYS Council of School Superintendents did a study that showed that we don’t get better results for our money despite the fact that we spend more.”
Between state and federal mandates, compulsory pension contributions, and the legacy of hefty union contracts, not to mention an inefficient patchwork of entrenched hyper-local school districts, our tax bills aren’t likely to shrink any time soon.
The other 40 percent of our tax bills are bloated in much the same way. According to the New York Attorney General, Westchester has 340 taxing entities—not counting school districts. We pay taxes to support one county government, six cities, 19 towns, 23 villages, 141 sewer districts, 54 water districts, 28 fire districts, 21 lighting districts, 16 drainage districts, 15 park districts, five garbage districts, and 21 districts that defy definition. Gee, do you think there might be some overlap?
“It’s self-evident,” says DelBello. “The local government structure has created innumerable duplications. The multiplicity of services is horrendous. Forty-eight police forces? It defies logic.”
As one example, DelBello points out that huge nationwide institutions like banks service millions of loans through centralized computer systems, yet we need a separate tax assessor, tax collector, and various clerks and support staff for every town. “You won’t find a single person who will disagree that there are too many layers of government,” Richard Olver, a former trustee for the Village of Croton, notes. “But no one will agree with any proposal for change. Any particular plan will result in somebody’s ox getting gored.”
Westchester voters bend over backward to make sure their bureaucracy is as local as local gets, to paraphrase News 12’s catchy slogan. Dobbs Ferry, for example, could save more than $2.5 million per year (about 16 percent of the total village budget) by combining police forces with the Town of Greenburgh’s, as recommended in a recent study. The town fathers didn’t go that far, but they did suggest combining dispatchers. They were roundly defeated in the November election. The village had tried earlier to share some police services with both Ardsley and Irvington but was shot down both times.
If ever there were a poster child for questionable government structure, Greenburgh would be it. There are six villages with a total population of 45,000 within the town, which itself provides services to a large unincorporated area with about 42,000 more residents. The town budget was $105 million in 2008, the villages’ $108 million. The town has a supervisor (earning $128,000), police chief ($140,000), and town clerk ($82,000)—as does each village. The salaries of those three positions at the town level are $350,000. The combined salaries for the same three positions in the six villages? It’s $2.2 million. Oh, and don’t forget the mayors and village trustees when you’re looking for oxen to gore.
“The average person likes that they know the mayor and can call him if their garbage isn’t picked up,” Greenburgh Supervisor Feiner says. “Years ago, if you got a traffic ticket, you called somebody in your town and it disappeared. That’s not the way it is now, but people still like to think so. A lot of people are willing to pay a premium for inefficient government they feel is more responsive.”
Even in the face of that attitude, Feiner is convinced there are savings to be achieved by consolidating some functions. The town recently commissioned a study of possibly combining three fire districts that serve 70 percent of the unincorporated portion of Greenburgh. “The police department that covers the entire unincorporated part of the town costs us twenty-three million dollars,” he says. “The three fire districts cost twenty-eight million.”
While attempting to centralize some functions at the town level, Feiner advocates eliminating the County government. His reason? Because nobody identifies with it so it would be the easiest to do away with politically. “If the state would allow us, it would be possible.” He cites Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts where county governments were eliminated. “The County government is patronage-heavy,” he says. “A lot of the services could be handled by the local governments or the state.” Without a major revision in state law, however, it’s not going to happen.
The other big driver of local government taxes is the same as schools: union contracts. “There is no question that the municipal unions just browbeat our legislators and they cave into it,” DelBello says.
Feiner adds, “Local government doesn’t really have control over the entire salary structure.” If local administrations and employee unions can’t come to agreement on contract terms, he notes, they are required by law to go to arbitration. “All the arbitration panels are awarding about four percent increases to all the police and fire departments before you add on longevity and other costs. In real dollars, many of the police and fire salaries are increasing in the range of five to six percent per year.” And how much, ahem, did your salary go up this year?
By state law, public employees can’t strike. On the other hand, the law also says they continue to receive all benefits and annual step increases to salaries while they negotiate a new contract, so there’s no big incentive to settle.
Westchester County Association Advocacy Director Amy Allen points out that the average public sector salary in the Mid-Hudson region that includes Westchester was $53,445 last year, about 6 percent above the average salary in the private sector. What’s more, state and local employees received $1.17 in new benefits for every dollar per hour pay increase from 2002 to 2008, compared to 58 cents for private sector workers. Is it any wonder the WCA is pushing for changes in tax policies at the state and local level? Their campaign slogan: “Call to Action.”
Dave Donelson was a successful entrepreneur, investor, and operator of a management consulting firm for many years before he “retired” to become a full-time writer.
Source: NY State Comptroller 2009. Data is for fiscal year 2008. For more information go to: www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/datanstat/findata/index_choice.htm
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333 answer me this - are you for or against medicare?
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333 answer me this - are you for or against medicare?
Definately against it. Its another example of government making promises it cant keep based on lies and made up shit.
KC - do you realize that the cost estimates for Medicare are off by a factor of 9?
Do you think that ObamaCare is going to be any different?
Check out this site and tell me Medicare is remotely sustainable?
www.usdebtclock.org
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So you're against medicare, yet here you are getting angry that medicare patients are being denied by Dr's. If you're against medicare wouldn't this be a good thing for you?
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So you're against medicare, yet here you are getting angry that medicare patients are being denied by Dr's. If you're against medicare wouldn't this be a good thing for you?
Here is the problem KC - people have paid in taxes their whole lives to pay for this crappola. However, the money was never earmarked for Medicare, and hence stolen from the Govt, and now the program is on the verge of collapse. so its not even as if the people can get their money back and buy private insurance.
Medicare, like SS, is nothing more than Maddoffian Ponzi scheme.
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Here is the problem KC - people have paid in taxes their whole lives to pay for this crappola. However, the money was never earmarked for Medicare, and hence stolen from the Govt, and now the program is on the verge of collapse. so its not even as if the people can get their money back and buy private insurance.
Medicare, like SS, is nothing more than Maddoffian Ponzi scheme.
So you're saying we should keep medicare because we all pay into it? I'm confused. You're either for medicare or you're not. You can't be both 333.
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I think i get what you're saying. We should pay back all those who have paid into medicare correct?
Do you view it as a failure by Reagan to keep this as you would say 'ponzi' scheme going without changing it to make sure the money was there when needed?
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I think i get what you're saying. We should pay back all those who have paid into medicare correct?
Do you view it as a failure by Reagan to keep this as you would say 'ponzi' scheme going without changing it to make sure the money was there when needed?
Absolutely. We have a combined unfunded liability of $130 Trillion in debt with no way to pay for it. Where is that money coming from?
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Absolutely. We have a combined unfunded liability of $130 Trillion in debt with no way to pay for it. Where is that money coming from?
Okay fair enough. I just wanted to understand your position. You have to understand it's a little hard to take your position on medicare seriously when you post anti-Obama threads about cuts to or lack of Dr's for medicare. It would seem to me that you support medicare wholeheartedly when you make those kinds of posts.
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Okay fair enough. I just wanted to understand your position. You have to understand it's a little hard to take your position on medicare seriously when you post anti-Obama threads about cuts to or lack of Dr's for medicare. It would seem to me that you support medicare wholeheartedly when you make those kinds of posts.
Its a program that is now going to result in misery all around due to its inherent unsustainability.
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The Medicare thing has been going on for years and will get much worse as practices prepare for transition into whatever nationalized mess our politicians end up creating.
Doctors hate uncertainty and the reason medical schools guilted physicians into taking Medicare won't work now that student loans are screwed.
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I warned Big Mal many times but he ignored me. His loss.
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LOL.
How can this be? According to the Libs this bill was soooo great because it expanded the number of people covered. But wait, now we have others not being covered?
You can't be for both, blah, blah, blah.
33, just wait until the real provisions of this thing kick in and major employers start dumping health coverage. I won't guarantee that will happen, but I think we are on that track.
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Doctors have known for years that the government can't efficiently run Medicare. Them attempting something on a larger scale will bankrupt practices that aren't well positioned enough to wait and see for a few years.
In the world of politics doctors saying no is probably a good thing. :)
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LOL.
How can this be? According to the Libs this bill was soooo great because it expanded the number of people covered. But wait, now we have others not being covered?
You can't be for both, blah, blah, blah.
33, just wait until the real provisions of this thing kick in and major employers start dumping health coverage. I won't guarantee that will happen, but I think we are on that track.
My insurance premium for myself just went up 20% for no reason. I have had no claims, nothing.
Now I read that the WH is threatening insurers over rate hikes due to ObamaCare. Like that is going to do anything. ::) ::)
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EVERYTHING THIS DISGUSTING POFS TOUCHES HE DESTROYS.
TALK ABOUT CYA ON A MASSIVE SCALE!
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As Law Takes Effect, Obama Gives Insurers a Warning
By KEVIN SACK and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 21, 2010
WWW.NYT.COM
WASHINGTON — President Obama, whose vilification of insurers helped push a landmark health care overhaul through Congress, plans to sternly warn industry executives at a White House meeting on Tuesday against imposing hefty rate increases in anticipation of tightening regulation under the new law, administration officials said Monday.
Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times
The White House is concerned that health insurers will blame the new law for increases in premiums that are intended to maximize profits rather than covering claims. The administration is also closely watching investigations by a number of states into the actuarial soundness of double-digit rate increases.
“Our message to them is to work with this law, not against it; don’t try and take advantage of it or we will work with state authorities and gather the authority we have to stop rate gouging,” David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, said in an interview. “Our concern is that they not try and, under the cover of the act, get in under the wire here on rate increases.”
The law does not grant the federal government new authority to regulate health care premiums, which remains the province of state insurance departments. But with important provisions taking effect this summer and fall, the Obama administration has repeatedly reminded insurers — and the public — that it will expose industry pricing to what the health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, has called a “bright spotlight.”
The White House meeting coincides with Monday’s release of a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health policy research group, that found that premiums for the policies most recently bought by individuals had increased by an average of 20 percent.
“The survey shows that the steep increases we have been reading about over the last several months are not just extreme cases,” said Drew Altman, the foundation’s president.
Mr. Obama’s message to insurers will serve to put the industry on notice and position the White House politically should voters start to link premium increases to the new law. With the law expected to play a significant role in the midterm elections, the president has been using his platform to sell the bill’s most immediate benefits and, by extension, to defend Democrats in Congress who risked their careers to vote for it.
He will do so again Tuesday; after his private meeting, Mr. Obama will appear in the East Room, where he will highlight new regulations to protect consumers from discriminatory insurance practices, end lifetime limits on coverage and ban unjustified revocations of coverage.
Mr. Axelrod likened them to “essentially a patients’ bill of rights, the strongest in history.”
White House officials said Tuesday’s attendees will include top executives from 13 leading health insurers, as well as Karen M. Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group. Five state insurance commissioners also are expected to attend.
The insurers have attributed this year’s increases to skyrocketing medical costs and to the economic downturn, which has prompted healthier consumers to forgo health insurance, leaving a sicker and costlier pool to cover.
“Our companies are receiving rate increase requests from hospitals across the country of 40, 50 and 60 percent,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the trade group. “That has a direct impact on the cost of health care coverage.”
But a report released Monday by Health Care for America Now, a coalition that supports the new law, stressed that the growth in premiums in the first eight years of this decade had far exceeded medical inflation — 97 percent to 39 percent.
The new law requires the health secretary to work with states to establish a process for annual reviews of “unreasonable increases in premiums.” Administration officials said Monday that they were still writing regulations to define “unreasonable increases.”
Mr. Obama’s approach to the health insurance industry has rarely been subtle, starting with his campaign, when he spoke of his dying mother’s struggle to persuade her insurer to cover her cancer treatments.
In March, with his health bill hanging by a thread in Congress, Mr. Obama ducked into a White House meeting with insurance executives to deliver a letter from an Ohio cancer survivor who had dropped her coverage after learning her premiums were rising 40 percent.
But for all of Mr. Obama’s browbeating, the new health care law stopped short of giving the administration the power to reject or limit rate increases. Instead, it established the annual reviews, starting next year, and makes available $250 million in grants to states to implement the review process.
States that accept the grants must recommend whether insurers with patterns of excessive pricing should be allowed to market policies through newly created exchanges, which will help individuals and businesses shop for coverage starting in 2014. Insurers also will be required to justify increases deemed unreasonable on their Web sites.
In the closing weeks of the health care debate, the White House offered a proposal to give the health secretary authority to deny unreasonable increases. It did not make it into the final legislation, but Senate Democrats have reintroduced it as a standalone bill.
The regulatory clout of state insurance departments varies widely, with some having minimal power to block rate increases. But in recent months, several states have taken unusually assertive steps.
In California, state regulators announced that they would order independent reviews of increases being sought by four large health insurers. That move came after the department discovered miscalculations in rate requests by Anthem Blue Cross, prompting the company to withdraw its plan to raise premiums by as much as 39 percent.
In Massachusetts, the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, used long-untapped power to deny 9 of 10 rate increases requested by the state’s insurers, provoking a lawsuit from the industry. A court in Maine recently upheld a smaller rate increase for that state’s largest insurer — 10.9 percent instead of 18.1 percent — that had been ordered by the insurance superintendent.
In New York, Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat, signed legislation this month giving the state power to block unreasonable rates. And in Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, also a Democrat, announced two weeks ago that his insurance commissioner, Joel Ario, would investigate large increases by the state’s biggest insurers.
“The plans are cherry-picking the best risk,” Mr. Ario, who will attend the White House session, said in an interview.
The federal law, which will require that most Americans obtain insurance, includes a number of provisions intended to slow the growth of premiums. For instance, insurance companies soon will have to spend at least 80 percent of revenue from premiums on claims, as opposed to administration and profit.
Insurers have warned since early in the debate that the overhaul might result in increased premiums for many consumers. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found otherwise, projecting that it would have minimal effect on group premiums, which account for 83 percent of the market. Their analysis forecast that premiums for individual policies would rise faster than they would without the new law, but that the increases would largely be offset by government subsidies.
Whatever the law’s ultimate effect, many of this year’s most egregious rate increases were announced well before it was clear the bill would pass.
Reed Abelson contributed reporting from New York.