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Working Moms
AlisaS
member
How would the gov't and businesses fund 1 year of maternity leave?
AlisaS
member
in Working Moms
Help the poor, send everyone to college for free, preschool and daycare for all. Free healthcare, every women can transition to working from home..... I love it when people support all these ideas but when it comes to the actual economics and specifics of program admin and funding................
crickets......
This discussion has been closed.
Re: How would the gov't and businesses fund 1 year of maternity leave?
If everyone in the US had free healthcare...where would all those doctors and nurses come from?
Other countries do it, why can't the US?
Standard evasive maneuver.............
Mostly because we don't pay the high taxes (yes, even higher than here) they do in many countries and we have such a strong national defense. It's a lot more complicated than that, but, in short, it's too expensive.
As for the private sector, the federal government is generally not in the business of telling companies how to run or what benefits to provide to their employees. There are exceptions, of course, but I can't see parental leave being one of those, probably in our lifetimes.
No, that's really an honest question. Even if it wasn't free - but if everyone had healthcare where are all these doctors and nurses going to come from?
Military healthcare is gov't-run. And most of them are doctors who couldn't pass the requirements to practice as a civilian, so they join the Army. Is that what we want, sub-par doctors filling in the gaps?
Uhmmmmmm, hold on there. Where are you getting this information? Can you offer proof that miltary healthcare MD positions are filled by docs who can't cut it as civilians?
While I am against universal healthcare, I have worked with many a VA doc - have you?
My DH was in the Army for 7 years. I don't have any internet proof but I'll see if I can dig something up....
And where did you get this information?
Where do you think the doctors and nurses come from in Canada???
Here's the first article I found...haven't read the whole thing yet so bear with me
https://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6159
it's pretty simple - HIGH taxes. That is how other countries do it.
They also have systems where people have to wait months to get procedures done by doctors- b/c there is such a waiting list.... free does not = great health care, that is for sure. People die waiting for their procedures.
I prefer to keep the money I make instead of letting our f-ed up govn't decide how to spend it. GOP or DEM - you have to admit- govn't run organizations generally are NOT run well --- do you want your heath care to be part of THAT??
would more maternity leave be great? sure- but I prefer to save for mine and keep the govn't out of my life.
as for doctors- I'm a drug rep and talk to them all day long. Most are not getting paid what they used to get as it is- and many are leaving practice becuase of this- and the high cost of insurance. They also discourage their children from becoming doctors.... so we are already losing good (potential) doctors as it is.... UHC would make matters worse.
Doctors spend a LOT of time in med school/residency, etc... they make very little for a LONG time- while trying to pay back loans, etc.... then, when they are finally in practice and doing OK -that comes at a price- meaning- time away from their family, being on call at all hours of the day/night, etc. They deserve every penny they can get IMO - and then some. I would certainly never want to be a doc- esp in this current day.
DITTO!!!
it would come at a cost, lower standard of living, lower take-home pay, higher taxes. i'm w/ goldie... i'd rather keep the $, and pick and choose where my $ goes. if you want a year-long mat leave, why don't you save up for it? if u don't want kids or u prefer a shorter leave, then u do what you want w/ the money you have.
the only downside to our system is that companies don't guarantee jobs upon a woman's return should she choose to take such a long break. that perpetuates an anti-family mentality.
Other than high taxes, there are other downsides to gov't run programs, aside from the obvious which Goldie mentions with respect to healthcare - I do not trust the government to run healthcare since they do a crappy job of running many other programs. Unfortunately, when there is no financial incentive, this can lead to mediocrity in service. They are finding the same issues with education and finding out that incentive pay at charter schools is actually resulting in improved test scores but that is a whole other topic... The other downside is that it's harder to find a job because it is more expensive for employers to provide services and guarantees jobs for a long period of time. This leads to higher unemployment because companies are less inclined to hire employees when they know they are stuck with them for a long time and could potentially have to pay a temp to do their job for an extended period of time. In addition, wages are typically lower as a result.
I know we all wish that there were a perfect solution to all of this, but there isn't - there is always an upside and a downside. So we should just try to be happy with what we have!
What would be wrong with having the private/public healthcare system like the do in the UK? ?Everyone gets free gov't healthcare that's so-so, with waits for procedures, shared hospital rooms, etc. ?That way, no one dies because they can't afford to go to the doctor, and people get preventative care instead of crowding the ERs or waiting until their condition is critical (and thereby more $$$)
Those of us with cash to spare can still get private insurance and go to our own private doctors and private hospitals??
Oh, and newsflash: ?people are still getting free healthcare in the country, and those of us with insurance are paying for it by way of higher healthcare costs. ?Hospitals have to raise the price for paying customers to cover their losses from the uninsured who don't pay.?
I'm no expert on this, but my cousin was in the army and they paid for medical school for him. In return, he has to serve time as a medical doctor every few years. Has nothing to do with him not being able to pass the requirements as a civilian. When he's not working for the army he works in civilian hospital.
https://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6159
This is what I was talking about it. It still goes on.
Man, you have a wide brush with that paint! Go to any crappy hospital in the country and you will find similar issues with unqualified staff. Your example is the kind of inflammatory journalism I hate..
It just amazes me that our country is now a country full of people who think they are entitled to everything and hardwork is a thing of the past. Everyone wants free health care and free college and free this and that. Well the Government does not make money the way an individual company does. They make their money off of taxes. When you want free programs then your taxes sky rocket. Then everyone B*tches cause taxes are too high. They try to lower taxes and cut out programs and your free health care is the first to go. Then everyone B*tches about that. It is a lose-lose situation. No one is going to be happy at the way the gov't runs all of their programs. I personally want gov't to stay out of my life as much as possible. When they intrude into certain sectors of my life then that is when it becomes a socialist society.
The reason there are people out there that can't afford insurance is because we have had people comment insurance fraud. This is why prices have risen not because of big bad insurance companies. It just makes sense that if they have 500 people suing them for 25 million a piece they have to make up that cost somehow.
I'm not sure why you're arguing with me on this. I brought it up in the first place to reinforce your point that the gov't should not run everything, because they don't do such a good job of it.
And to reinforce - I was referring to active duty military doctors. VA Doctors are completely different. VA Drs are civilian doctors who are contracted by the US Govt. They are civilians, not military.
Article here explains the problems with finding quality doctors to work for the VA because they are offered much lower pay than the private sector.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62681-2004Jul19.html
This is a very interesting topic. I think every country's infrastructure is different and this will certainly effect how a country can provide longer maternity leave, free or cheaper medical care and child care etc. I come from Australia which has ~21 Million people and so the government is able to offer these incentives however income is taxed at a higher rate and the standard of living is higher. We do have a very generous maternity leave program. When you are on maternity leave your job is secured for a year. You receive 100% of your salary for 3 months, ~70% at 6 months, ~40% at 9 months and a small amount or zero at 12 months. I honestly cant remember the accurate percentages but its something like this. You also receive a cash incentive or baby bonus for having a baby. I think it was $5-7000 last time I checked. On top of this each family can apply for a family allowance for each child that they have and families with 3 or more children can also apply for supplementary allowance. These allowances are dependant on your taxable income. School fee's are so much lower and back when i went to school my entire Bsc, Honors (like a masters) and PhD degree cost me $15,000! I did however receive a PhD scholarship so that helped a lot! My mother was a single working mother (parents divorced) so we had a lot of assistance and I am forever grateful for it! Of course there are PLENTY of people who do abuse the system which is very sad however they do crack down on this.
Health care is paid for by medicare and again this is by your taxable income so if you are low income you pay nothing for this however if you have middle or higher income then you pay for this but I definitely dont remember it to be more than $100 a month. I will also add that I have never waited for more than 30-40 mins at a Dr's office as a walk in in Australia (which is what i did all the time) and no more than 2 hrs in emergency. I could go to any family practice dr I wanted and they would swipe my medicare card. For surgery and xrays etc I would either pay the difference after medicare paid their part. i did have some health insurance for vision and pharmacy but it was about $30 a month. Dental was very expensive and not covered by medicare.
The waitlist can be very long for elective surgical procedures but if you were general healthy then it worked.
Personally I was pretty shocked when i first came here but I love America and there are many reasons why i live here today aside from husband and baby. For me the job opportunities are great although I definitely ams till trying to get use to the freaking cold winters here in IL! Food, clothing, eletrical goods and cars etc are MUCh cheaper here and I also believe the income taxes here are much lower also. So you win some and you lose some.
I just hope that the new president can improve the state of America in any way that he can.
one more thing- I was laid off last year and actually stressed for DAYS about applying for unemployment but when I actually went and applied I was SHOCKED at how easy it was! I had all my documents together ie letters to prove I had been laid off etc and no one wanted to see them! The whole unemployment system here is very easy. in Australia you need supporting documents and they check to see if you ahev applied for a job every 2 wks. They also make you attend classes on how to better look for jobs and you need to be volunteering during that time etc...its hard stuff and so the money you earn is not free. this was a result of people abusing the system!
Asd it turned out I applied for unemployment and was offered a new position (went on job interview) 2 days later!
I think the issue with healthcare is that if you are relatively healthy, the cost of care is minimal. Basic healthcare and preventative stuff is not what costs the big bucks in our healthcare system. It is the massive costs of chronic illness and end-of-life care etc.
People in the US would have to accept not only a lower level of care but rationing.
I've never been able to figure it out. And, I've never been able to figure out which co-workers would be over-the-moon glad to do my job for a year and then give it back to me. Maybe if I didn't have an expertise in an area it would be easier to do that. But, if I left my job for a year, the person that was filling in for me would become the expert and they wouldn't need me anymore.
I'm not sure if there is a right amount. Twelve weeks wasn't long enough for my first (he was colicy, right when he started to get over it I had to go back to work, it sucked). But, I couldn't wait to go back after my 2nd. There's just never a good time to go back, even if you're off for a year it's going to hurt.
It is not just personal income taxes that are lower, it is the taxes that businesses must pay that are much, much lower.
The money is there, it's just been misappropriated for so long that a lot of people can't fathom where it's going to come from. I firmly believe that every policy you mentioned in this post is on the horizon in the not too distant future... I really don't think that it's a matter of "if," so much as it's a matter of "when?"