The Obamacare debacle is not helping the Common Core roll-out

Implementation challenges have made the Common Core look more and more like Obamacare.

… States that raced to adopt the standards in 2010, including Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, have expressed second thoughts on participating. In New York, Common Core critics have called for the resignation of education commissioner John King after he threatened to cancel a series of town halls on the topic. At a convening hosted by the Education Writers Association earlier this week, the president of the American Federation of Teachers declared that the implementation of the Common Core is “far worse” than the troubled launch of Obamacare.

Glenn Reynolds finds it interesting “that the opposition comes from a broad political spectrum”.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan probably regrets injecting race into the debate with this clumsy declaration.

“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,”

He later “apologized” by basically slapping “himself on the wrist for calling out one group instead of everybody who objects to top-down standardization”.

The reality is that education standards have fallen.

As a “suburban mom”, I agree with Duncan in feeling frustrated at “the educational reality” of low standards that falsely show our children are achieving at high levels.  At the same time, I sympathize with the opponents of the top-down, heavy-handed design and implementation of Common Core.

Its similarities to Obamacare leave Common Core more open to criticism.

In his blog post about problems with Common Core implementation, Andy Smarick writes about the federal government’s promise that “If you like your federal education policy, you can keep it!”  At one point the Department of Education found itself “offering states a waiver from their waivers“.

Related:

• Dumbing down algebra in high school leads to remedial classes in college (Cost of College)
• 2012 New York Regents ‘English exam appears to be the easiest in memory’ (Cost of College)
  

Can young college graduates burdened by student loans be convinced to buy health insurance?

Young college graduates saddled with student loan debt may find it difficult to comply with new Obamacare mandates.

The success of Obamacare depends on young people buying health insurance.

Experts say that young, healthy people must enroll in ObamaCare’s health exchanges to cover the cost of insuring sicker, older people. It’s a simple math equation: Charge everyone roughly the same rate for access to basically the same product. The people who use it less will subsidize the people who use it more.

It may be hard to convince young adults to buy insurance, as illustrated by the example of Ron Geibel, a young college graduate recently profiled by LoHud.com.  Geibel is considering his options among the New York state health plan marketplace created as part f the Affordable Care Act..

Profile:  Ron Geibel is a 28 year-old artist living in White Plains, New York.

• Currently has no insurance
• Income is less than $25,000 a year
• In good health
• Student loan has been deferred, but requirement to start paying will soon kick in

Geibel can choose from among seven plans with varying options.

Cost: A bronze plan from Health Republic is $307 a month ($3,000 deductible, pays 60 percent), but Geibel would pay $55. A silver plan from the same company is $387 a month ($2,000 deductible, pays 70 percent); Geibel would pay $135. A catastrophic plan would cost $186 to $418 a month, with a $6,350 deductible. The maximum out-of-pocket he would pay per year is $6,350 for the bronze or catastrophic plan; $5,500 for the silver.

Assuming a student loan balance of $26,600, the average for 2011 graduates, Geibel’s monthly payments would be $306*.  Here’s a hypothetical illustrations of his overall monthly income and expenses if he were to choose the silver plan.

The illustration shows a very tight budget, with little room for “extras” like health insurance.  Here’s how this young college graduate puts it.

“So for me if I have to prioritize right now it’s feeding myself and living as opposed to worrying about the health insurance.”

Like many young people, he thinks his odds are good enough to run the risk of foregoing health insurance.  The ACA penalty in this case would be $250, so his annual net savings for not buying insurance would be $1370 if he does not get sick.

New York is one of five states where health insurance premiums for millennials are not expected rise, so Geibel might be considered lucky in that respect.  For residents of the other 45 states and for many who do not want the type of coverage mandated by the ACA, it remains to be seen if enough young people will sign up for the new policies.

* Payments will be less if borrower qualifies for the IBR.

Related:  It’s not always possible to avoid college debt, but try anyway (Cost of College)

Obamacare may boost some careers

From MarketWatch comes positive news amid recent negative reports about job losses caused by Obamacare.

… lost in the debate over whether the law will result in layoffs and shorter hours, recruiters and hiring analysts say Obamacare is certain to create a number of new positions — and not just in health care.

10 careers boosted by Obamacare

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants

When an estimated 25 million to 30 million people gain health coverage through the Affordable Care Act next year, many of them will likely pay a visit to the doctor . . . Demand for physician services is expected to increase at least 2% to 3%, especially for regular checkups and other preventive medicine . . .

. . . physician assistants and nurse practitioners, who can perform many of the same services at a fraction of a doctor’s salary, are filling the ranks. The BLS forecasts PA jobs will grow 30% to more than 108,000 from 2010 to 2020; registered nurses will increase 26% to more than 3 million. . .

Payroll

The law requires employers to offer insurance to employees who work an average of 30 hours a week or more, at a cost for workers of not more than 9.5% of their annual salary. The responsibility of tracking work hours and health spending will fall to payroll departments, or companies that provide paycheck services such as ADP, human resources professionals say. Indeed, ADP’s new business bookings for its employer services, including payroll, grew 9% in the third quarter, CEO Carlos Rodriguez said when the company released earnings in May. . .

Computer programmers

Under the Affordable Care Act, doctors and hospitals must use electronic medical records, but taking their old paper system into the digital age is a giant technological construction project. “You need an army of programmers to put these things together,” says Osborne, of Staffing Industry Analysts. Indeed, the number of medical records and health information technicians employed in the U.S. has grown 7% to more than 182,000 since 2009, before the ACA was enacted, according to BLS data. Employment in other occupations, meanwhile, decreased or stayed flat during the same period, Osborne says. . .

Lawyers

The Affordable Care Act is now required reading at many law schools. If there is one thing about Obamacare that everyone agrees on, it is that the regulations are highly detailed, complex and still in flux — requiring experts to continually break down what they mean and how they should be followed. As a result, many companies are bringing in attorneys: “Everybody’s in sort of a muddle about it, so there is going to be an army of people at least in the short-term trying to figure out what people are supposed to be doing,” Osborne says. . . .

Medical billing coders

With millions of new patients comes millions of bills. And even before those bills come in, the work is piling up for physician and hospital billing offices, which are racing to prepare for the new ways they will have to submit patient claims to insurance companies. . . .

Consultants

Employers, especially those who will offer health insurance for the first time or dramatically overhaul their plans to comply with the law, are struggling to figure out what type of coverage makes the most sense for their workers. Teams of consultants are being brought in to analyze the health risks and needs of their employees and design health benefits to suit them. . . .

Customer service reps

Opening the new exchange marketplaces, where consumers will be able to purchase health insurance, will also require huge customer support staff. Known as “navigators,” these employees will combine a form of customer service with health insurance knowledge. . . .

Occupational therapists

Insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage to people with disabilities in 2014, so more of them will likely have health insurance. Occupational therapists, which help optimize disabled people’s homes and workplaces to meet their mobility needs, were already in high demand: The unemployment rate in the field is just 1%, according to Osborne, at Staffing Industry Analysts. . . .

Human resources

Between administering companies’ health plans, tracking employees’ hours to determine whether they are eligible to enroll, and making sure the employer is in compliance with new regulations, human resources departments have been swamped gearing up for the ACA. . . .

Wellness and fitness coaches

The law puts pressure on employers to reduce their health spending by making workers healthier. That movement is taking the form of new worksite-based wellness programs and classes, such as Weight Watchers and fitness challenges. Often, companies will hire coaches to help strategize with employees and design personalized nutrition and fitness programs, and offer workers incentives to participate. Indeed, health educators, who teach people about healthy habits and develop programs to promote those behaviors, are on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s list of fastest-growing jobs: The field will grow 37% to nearly 87,000 positions in 2020, according to the BLS. Many of these coaches, who specialize in helping people manage chronic conditions and diseases like diabetes, are employed by wellness companies that sell their services to employers.

More research is advised.

College students may want to research these fields as they decide upon their majors.  Some of these occupations seem to have more staying power than others, keeping in mind that technology will continue to undercut employment numbers in many areas.  I shudder to think of the growth in bureacracy.  And I wouldn’t count on Obamacare to put a significant dent in the huge slump in jobs for lawyers.

Related:

• Gloomy outlook for radiologists (Cost of College)
• Nurse practitioners are projected to nearly double in number by 2025 (Cost of College)
• Don’t pick a college major based on today’s hot jobs (Cost of College)

Tough choices – the political tug between funding healthcare and education

Michael J. Petrilli lays out the options for choosing between healthcare or education spending.  The choices are easier if economic growth is robust.

You can either “ration” health care or you can “ration” education (and all other social spending). Take your pick.

The basic challenge—this is hardly news—is that America is aging and, as a result, is spending a lot of money on healthcare and retirement expenses. These expenses will go up and up in coming decades; they’re built into our demography. Unless economic growth can outpace the cost increase, however, that means less money for everything else—education included.

So let’s say you want to protect the education budget and other investments in the young—in the future. The first thing you need to do is constrain public outlays for the old—which mostly means holding the line on healthcare spending. And the second thing you need to do is encourage maximum economic growth. Get both of these things right and you avoid Armageddon.

Now hold on, you say, there are other options. You can go after the defense budget. You can raise taxes on the rich. That’s true, and these might help at the margins, at least for a while. But as the chart below shows, defense spending is hardly putting pressure on education spending—healthcare is. And as many economists will tell you, if you tax the rich too aggressively, you’ll drive down economic growth. You might slice the pie more evenly but a smaller pie means less for everyone. (And taxing the rich won’t raise nearly enough revenue, anyway.)

State spending for Medicaid vs. higher education costs

“The two biggest items of every state budget are Medicaid and education,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told IBD recently. “As the Medicaid mandate rises, the educational funding declines. That is passed on to universities and they raise tuition in order to make up for it.”

A report from the State Budget Crisis Task Force found that even before ObamaCare kicks in, Medicaid costs have been growing “faster than the economy” and “faster than state revenue.” As a result, Medicaid now consumes 24% of state funds, and its ongoing growth “can no longer be absorbed without significant cuts to other essential state programs like education.”
Think College Is Expensive Now? Wait Until ObamaCare (Investors.com)