Mandated health insurance with a combination of sponsored government and private insurance is necessary to prevent bankruptcy of small businesses and individuals due to medical costs. One element of mandated insurance should include catastrophic insurance for those exceptions where regular insurance will not cover.

To a certain degree government has mandated the ability to gain treatment. However, the government has not guaranteed that you will not go bankrupt. This is especially more important because of the number of medical fields that are now selling the debt to third parties, like GE who charge interest on the debt. The transfer of the debt is not base on your ability to pay. The medical establishment gets paid a percent of the bill immediately and closes your account. Affordable health care requires standardization of rates. It also requires the setting of a ceiling of how much any one citizen should pay.

Medicine should be treated on two levels; like a utility service in that rates are set by one entity for all of us; and like an entitlement that government has guaranteed equal access to treatment regardless of an ability to pay.

Solution:

The federal government has specified that 7.5% of a persons adjusted income paid for medical expenses is not deductible on Form 1040 Schedule A. Thereby, setting the standard that anything above 7.5% of a person’s income spent on medical expenses should reduce other liabilities. The other standard the federal government has provided is the creation of the Medical expense flexible spending account with a $5,000 maximum.

Therefore, I would propose that individuals not be held liable for medical expenses, which exceed 7.5% of their adjusted income. Any amount to exceed such should be paid by a portion of a catastrophic health insurance policy that is mandated as a component of health care insurance and then the government as the payee of last resort. However, the cost of the procedures must be set at the government rate for any amount above the 7.5%.

Immigrants depend on their network of trust for advice.All of us are programmed to work towards the American Dream of owning our own home. The government is supposed to protect everyone from predatory practices, illegal practices and outright fraud. They just do not have the staff to adequately police the billions involved.

The government has been trying to create a resolution to support the investment field from collapsing. The end result was not supporting people from losing their homes. It did not attack the issue that home prices were inflated, interest rates calculated to be misleading and considered predatory when the entire math was done.

There has been little discussion about taking legal action against the originators of the loans. Investors of the securities like any shareholder should sue the creator of the loan for providing loan securities that were not worth the house value. In turn, the homeowner should have loans at reasonable rate for what the house is worth minus what they have already paid.

When rules are broken or an individual is abused, it is the government’s duty to protect its citizens in the future and provide its citizens recourse to correct the harm done to them.

Regardless of what ones opinion of how an individual got into the situation of a predatory loan, billions were made on the backs of these individuals. It is why the investment industry called it Sub prime. The investment community created the mess and now needs to deal with the consequences of inappropriate practices. The practice of reselling loans into securities and not taking possession of the property is a secret that must be address. The beneficiary should be the homeowner and/or your organization.

To the degree an organizations can step up and buy housing today under foreclosure and short sales is a good opportunity. Create affordable housing at a level where a living wage can afford it. The investor is not interested in becoming a landlord. Offer a price you can afford and use for staff under a living wage. Submit bids for as many deals as you can afford and wait. A firm known deal is better than no deal. Remember in foreclosure and short sales the investor or bank is trying to walk away with the lowest cash loss possible and will write off the amount they cannot recover on their taxes. So are they really losing? Do not feel sorry for them when negotiating. Play hard and protect your interest in affordable housing for your employees and the community.

Loan forgiveness, fellowships, employee reimbursement, loan cancellation, whatever you may want to call it; the reduction of loan costs is the key to encouraging individuals to follow their dreams and work in the nonprofit or government sector.
Any program that has the individual working for a number of years to forgive the balance of the loan does not provide the correct incentive. It is the entry-level stage of an individual’s career that requires the individual to be able to afford their expenses first in selecting a job.College loans require the individual to have to obtain a salary above a living wage.
An individual will have monthly college loan payments in the range of $150-$450 a month, which is $1,800-$5,400 a year.
Training is an ongoing need regardless of whether it’s in the nonprofit and government field.Therefore, your organization should have linkages and affiliations with your local colleges. Provide the colleges with a list of the specific skill set needs of your organization. As part of your retention and recruitment initiative set aside funds to provide hiring bonuses and employee reimbursement to cover the college expense or loan cost.

College expenses have exceeded inflation every year for many years for a while causing their nonprofit status to begin to be questioned. How does a college expect anyone to afford college loan. What is the living wage in your local area? The sample below is an outline to consider when calculating a living wage for your local area.

When should the IRS review an organization to see whether their nonprofit status is allowing the organization to take an advantage of avoiding taxes, charge top dollar and have an advantage over a for-profit?

What percentage of an organization’s expenses should be charitable?  What amount of charitable fundraising should be required to lower their costs to offset the fees that would be charged?

Educational and medical hospital institutions are the two types of nonprofit organizations whom have fierce competition against each other and for whom branding is important.  It is the one environment where private pay and the level of subsidy are an every day balancing act. 

I challenge one area of statistics these organizations use when stating the amount of free care that is provided.  It’s called the depreciation expense built into the rate structure.  Most of the organization raised the capital through donors to cover the expense to build a building and to maintain it.  This amount is placed in a reserve and used to pay the loans to cover the construction.  If invested wisely the investment income completely covers the loan and some.  So should the rate charged to individuals include the depreciation and loan principle?  Should the allowance used to reduce the cost to the individual show the actually means for which the cost is to be covered?  Do any of us really care?

With this ability for an organization to show a paper loss but not cash loss it is important to know both. 

While the accounting practices are legal acceptable practices it is a misperception presented to the public and government oversight bodies that I find needing change.

These are nonprofits and the lack of control over their inflationary direction should require more scrutiny of their giving back to the public good. 

Colleges should be increasing the amount of grants, lowing the amount in loans and offsetting their inflation costs with fundraising. 

The medical field must reduce the costs of construction and medical devices that they incur above the inflation factor by allocating the expenses to fundraising.  The other aspect to fundraising is to lower the cost of medical personnel loans.  Those whom are part of an educational institution need to work to have the educational loans become grants.  I find it to be a conflict of interest when an educational system is also running a medical system.  Where is the incentive to lower costs?

If an employee or constituent is at risk of losing their home, have them have an attorney check the current Deed for the name of the authorized party who could take action to foreclose or negotiate a settlement.

If the owner is found and wants to auction the house under foreclosure instead of negotiating with you, you are not prevented from bidding to buy your home for its true value.

Organizations need to be proactive to educate when rules are passed that do not make sense or are unfair. Recent election laws while intended to improve reliability have in turn caused more unfairness. Voting is the first and foremost means to exercise the direction of public policy.

Some states have been passing laws requiring voters to present a picture ID when voting. For fairness to occur there is an assumption by those who have passed the law that everyone has a picture ID. To register to vote one only needs to prove residency in that community. Those who do not drive and/or choose not to obtain a license are placed at a disadvantage. The effect of which would place an unfair burden on the aging population, the poor and those living in urban settings.

There is an easy solution. The federal government should pass a law  stating that where a picture ID is required to vote that the registering body be required to issue a picture voter card for each person who cannot provide a picture ID at time of registration. Government needs to incur those costs that an individual needs to incur for the right to vote.

If government fails to provide the fairness, organizations should produce their own identification cards for their employees and those utilizing their services.  An Identification tool will provide other benefits for the individual such as check cashing and helping the person if they unable to communicate in an emergency.

I am going to be a little bold today and set a new standard. All public parks should be publicly owned by the government but be privately run and funded by nonprofits. This is the right opportunity for businesses to make a pledge to effect the environmental future of the US. Congress should pass a law that exempts these nonprofit entities from being sued. Government has never adequately funded its parks and people use these facilities at their own risk. The exclusion from lawsuits to the stewards for the people does not take away a benefit that people already had.

Government should be out of the business of running services. They are just lousy at it. Some of you might say that government should not cut what parks it already funds. I would disagree and state that there should be a gradual decline to zero. The parks of our nation need to have an endowment established by business and individual donors to support their access to all people and manage them. To adequately manage the parks takes commitment by many of us to volunteer to be stewards and the endowed funds to ensure a standard for their preservation. Any employee necessary to support the park functions should be an employee of the nonprofit steward organization.

The only part that an organization should not be responsible for is security. Security is the function of federal, state and local officials.
Government needs to have the political strength to set a plan and request volunteers, organizations and donors to step forward to take on the stewardship of their respective park system.

The election process is in full swing for selecting nominees for the various parties. I have not heard any conversation yet from any candidates of the role they foresee of nonprofits in their goals for America. I have heard over and over and over the words “An Agent of Change” and “Making Corporate America Accountable”.

Here are just four questions for your organization and its employees to think about as to which candidate really will make the difference.

As a tax exempt organization you still pay a tax on gasoline and fuel. Exxon made 20 billion in profits. The other fuel companies made comparable profits as well. Government and nonprofits do not have enough money available to heat peoples homes who need it. How does your organization absorb the increases in the gasoline and fuel costs without making cuts?

The government pays farmers, mostly large conglomerates, not to grow food. This policy was to help the small farmers to have fixed prices on food. People are going hungry, cannot afford to buy enough food, and food pantries are unable to meet demand. Most of your employees make less than a living wage and worry about feeding their family. How does paying millions for not growing food help people buy food or make food available to people?

The government has been trying to resolve the credit crunch due to the bad deals that big financial businesses created. The securities were in many ways a pyramid scheme that was dependent upon prying on US citizens and others peoples money. Now the government wants to help the investors pain and change the rules under the guise it will help everyone. What help has the government provided your organization to lower your exposure to cover costs they do not fund? How does the fact that in foreclosures the investors evict paying renters. How does this help the fact that most of your employees struggle to find affordable housing?

Government has mandated educational standards and yet does not allocate sufficient funds to bring schools up to the standard. While there has been an increase in funding that is to be spent in each corner of the USA. Not much for each school to help students. Business demands tax breaks, uses tax loopholes to lower or not pay taxes. The US government spends billions overseas to help the economic growth of other countries and people. How has the standard helped your organization obtain the trained people you need?

We all have a choice. Vote and be heard.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Services and H & R Block are the two largest entities offering refund loans and audit insurance to individuals through affiliations with HSBC Holdings or JPMorgan Chase.  It is one of the biggest predatory practices on people that needs to be stopped.  Each organization should make sure that its employees are aware of these practices before they see anyone offering to do their taxes.

Most federal and state filings will result in a check  being received within two-three  pay periods.

When your organization issues the next pay check or the W2’s  provide your employee with consumer information from your local network not to participate in these practices.

Winter is the time across the country when many cities and towns count their homeless populations. The increase in homelessness in most areas has predominately been families.

Across the country record a record number of homes are boarded up and no longer used for housing.  The number increasing each day due to foreclosure.

Government and nonprofits are using shelters and motels for temporary housing the families and individuals.  These organizations spend million of dollars monthly for  putting people under a roof, usually in mass. These situations do not create permanecy and stability for families.

There are thousands of properties abandoned by its owner, including institutions. The foreclosures occurring over the past year and continuing into the new year bring even more abandoned properties.

Government has the tools to create permanent housing options: seize the abandon properties under eminent domain, issue summons for code violations, issue fines, place liens on properties and ultimately seize property for payment of liens.  Affordable housing has been at a crisis point and government needs to take a hard stand.  The use of local government powers and the courts can make a difference.

The for-profit sector creation of affordable housing is a joke when the definition of affordable housing does not allow  a person with a living wage to afford to own.

Create permanent affordable housing  by creating cooperatives.   Government should gain control of the properties and land; work with nonprofits and the faith base community to fix the properties and then place families and individuals into  permanent housing that can be supported by a living wage.