Another ObamaCare element appears dead on arrival, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, the “Class Act”, has shown to be another unaffordable provision of the federal government’s intrusion into yours and my health care decisions.

Although not having been rescinded by congressional action, CLASS appears now to have been kicked to the curb by the Administration.(Unless Congress kills it, CLASS can always re-emerge…just as the other-worldly villain in the Alien movies.)

CLASS was to have you and me sign up to pay the U.S. Government several hundred dollars, each month for five (5) years, into a fund to be used to provide Long Term Care benefits to those of us meeting certain claim requirements…primarily our not being able to perform certain activities of daily living (ADL’s), such as freely moving about, using a toilet, feeding ourselves, etc…and to provide for those with dementia…on the surface a laudable idea, but filled with devils in the details.

Devilish detail: CLASS could not tell you today with certainty what your monthly benefits amount would be at time of claim after you sign up and pay into the fund for five (5) years. Instead, your dollars would be pooled and the Washington crowd would figure out your benefit amount later. Proposed minimum daily benefit would have been $50.00.

Remember another Federal program wherein you pay into a “pool” of funds each payday, then the government tells you what you get back starting somewhere in your sixties? Can you spell S-O-C-I-A-L S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y? What happened to that pool of cash?

Starting in The late ’60′s the Johnson (LBJ) administration waded into that pool to suck out cash for some of his pet projects, leaving OIU’s to cover the debt…and each administration since has followed LBJ’s lead, so that today your Social Security pool is a dry lake bed covered with OIU’s…OIU’s that the U.S. (US!) must borrow from China and others to cover. If you ever used a cash advance from one credit card to pay an installment on another credit card, you understand what we, as a nation, are doing to cover our Social Security debt, and a whole lot more.

One of ObamaCare’s selling points was that it would provide access to health care for all while saving costs all around. Hello? It’s a Federal Government Program! Government programs ALWAYS cost More than projected. Only one, Part D of Medicare, has been the exception, and that is because it relies on private sector health insurance companies and individual choice to work.

But ObamaCare’s authors knew all that, and they were willing to do anything necessary to sell their project. One ploy was to start collecting additional taxes immediately to cover costs that would not begin in earnest until 2014 and later. CLASS fits that template: collect billions from the tax payers over five years leading up to 2014 and put it into their Long Term Care pool of cash. Meanwhile,tap into the pool for other ObamaCare uses and leave more IOU paper to cover the debt. Voila! Cash freed up, and debt paper left for the next administration.

Oh, and what happens to your CLASS monthly contributions if you retain your health and never become a claim? As I told you earlier, it’s a Government Program…they win…you lose.

As with ObamaCare’s mandate for immediate health insurance coverage for all regardless of health history starting in 2014, CLASS Act is open to any and all. Guess who will jump into the CLASS Act boat? You are correct, those who are aged or at risk will join while those not at risk will stay away. But wait. That model will not generate enough dollars to pay claims over the long run. In a few words, it is actuarially unsound, and that is just what the Government’s number crunchers verified recently.

For CLASS Act to survive Washington would have to force all of us to pay into the CLASS Act “pool”. Having learned from attempting to force everyone to buy health insurance, the tax and spend crowd will just slide CLASS into the Social Security system, then increase your Social Security/Medicare Taxes to cover CLASS obligations.
Don’t think that will never happen. Just keep sending Socialists to Washington to guarantee that it will happen.

As of now the CLASS Act witch is dead…killed off by simple math, which the politicians can’t slant.

Carpe Diem

New for 2012…Medicare Annual Election Period starts October 15, 2011, running through December 7,2011….a change from prior years. During that window of opportunity, qualified Medicare Beneficiaries can enroll in Medicare Advantage Plans to be effective on January 1, 2012. Those already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan can disenroll from or change to a different Medicare Advantage plan during that period.

Those enrolled in a Medicare Prescription Plan (PDP) may do likewise.

Those disenrolling from a Medicare Advantage Plan containing Prescription Drug Benefit coverage can return to Original Medicare and buy a separate Medicare Prescription Drug (PDP) plan, during that time period.

Discuss your Medicare insurance options with a qualified health insurance broker or agent. Make sure you understand your proposed new insurance before signing the application. Ask questions! There are no dumb questions…only dumb answers. Make sure the agent or broker you are talking to has the proper licenses and certifications required by your state insurance department and Medicare.

Always remember…THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH! Some Medicare Advantage plans do not require that you pay a monthly premium…but you Will be required to pay annual deductibles, co-payments or co-insurance amounts when you obtain health insurance services under your Medicare Advantage Plan.

If you elect to remain under, or return to, Original Medicare, and obtain Medicare Supplement Insurance and/or separate Medicare Prescription Drug insurance, you will pay a monthly premium for those…but, depending upon the Medicare Supplement plan selected, you may avoid additional out-of-pocket costs for most non-Rx Medicare Approved medical expenses.

Your separate Medicare Prescription Drug policy may or may not contain an annual deductible. Your prescription drugs will require co-payments from you, and you may encounter other out of pocket costs as detailed in Medicare Prescription Drug legislation.

Finding one’s way through the Medicare maze is daunting, and that is why it is important to you to discuss your situation with a qualified agent or broker. The right health insurance broker for you will have several Medicare plan resources for you to consider rather than just one insurance company to present.

If you are a Florida resident, contact me for more information on this subject. (ksmith6288@aol.com)

Here are a few websites you may use to obtain more information about Medicare:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS): http://www.cms.gov/

U.S. Gov’t. Site for People with Medicare: http://www.medicare.gov/

Medicare and You 2011: http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/10050.pdf

Carpe Diem

If you have been following the ObamaCare saga through its court hearings and federal appeals courts decisions, you know that the suit brought by twentysix (26) states is finally on track for a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

As the states can’t simply present a challenge to ObamaCare saying ,”It just ain’t right, judge”, they must present arguments against specific provisions of the law. In this case the twentysix states argue that requiring you and me to purchase a product, in this instance health insurance, or face cash penalties for failing to do so, is unconstitutional. The Administration in Washington, D.C. contends that the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause [Article 1, Section 8] does provide for imposing the requirement to purchase such.

Okay, what would be next?…that all of us must buy a Smart Car manufactured by GM?…that wearing high heels are bad for you, so you must buy only flats from now on?

Keeping in mind that the Washington crowd has hidden behind the Commerce Clause as an excuse for chipping away at our rights and freedoms for many years, anything can happen when ObamaCare lands in front of the Supremes. Those ladies and gentlemen are charged with interpreting the Constitution, as written, as it applies to laws passed by both houses of congress and signed by the president.

You can bet that when the Court votes, it will not be unanimous. Recall that in a 1942 decision the Court declared that, under the Commerce Clause, the federal government had the right to fine a wheat farmer for growing grain to feed his own family…an act which had zero effect on interstate commerce. (Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 [1942])

Supreme Court Justices are there for life, and once in place some look past the U.S. Constiutution as the basis for their decisions. Take fifteen minutes to read through our Constitution…our by-laws. That document was written in clear language. Changes to it require vetting and agreement by the states.

Over the years Supreme Court judges have read meanings into the Constitution that simply are not there!

Why the debate over the Second Amendment? It says this: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Looks clear to me. How about you?

The First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Congress is thus prohibited from establishing a “Church of the United States”…as the founders saw the “Church of England” as not to be copied in the U.S. (Read your history.)At the same time, freedom of religion is guaranteed…so where does “separation of church and state” come from?

Bear in mind that our Constitution does not bestow Rights! It protects rights you were born with. It is a wonderful document and let’s hope our present Supreme Court sticks to it.

Stay tuned in…Our Supreme Court’s decision on ObamaCare’s constitutionality could mark a paradign shift in our history.

First, I want to thank all of you who have taken time to respond to my blogs and to comment on my website. Several hundred of you are sending your comments every week and that is very humbling. I appriciate your support and, sometimes, constructive suggestions about improvement.

When time allows, I respond to your questions. One question many of you have asked is, who designed and manages my website? Here is the web address: www.elykinnovation.com. Those folk are headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, (904)-998-1935, X11.

Others ask permission to quote or otherwise use content from my blogs. My answer is yes…but please attribute back to me…AND, my blogs are personal observations, so do your fact checking before publishing anything.

A few have observed that they have seen my blog content exactly reproduced in others’ blog sites. Let me say that my blogs are MY BLOGS. Plagiarists are lazy and dwell among vandals, and other lowlife. Those who attempt to steal my words also cheat at golf and pass gas in crowded elevators.

What do I do when I’m not creating gems of wisdom on this website? I am entering my 50th year as an independent life and health insurance broker. People choosing to place their trust in me are able to put those fifty years of experience to work for them. I help them leverage premium dollars into thousands of dollars in income tax free benefits…wherein the event that creates the need creates the cash.

Our US economy is bumping along the bottom of a rut which seems to deepen every month. The ancient Chinese coined a saying that goes something like this:”Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” Rather than curse the economy, you and I can “light a candle” which will give our economy a boost. It won’t make a wave, but it will make a ripple…just like the bystanders who jumped in to rescue the motorcyclist trapped under the burning car this week…one alone made little difference, but when six or eight more jumped in to help they created their own miracle.

Here’s the deal: September 24th is my birthday…(So What?). I ask each of you to spend an EXTRA five (5) dollars on that day with a local small business, mom & pop store, the lawn service guy, the deli down the street…you get the idea. If this idea goes viral maybe ten million of us will invest a five spot in our community…creating a $50,000,000
bump in our economy. But wait, it gets better. Let’s assume those extra fivers generate a multiplier effect (look it up) of four (4). Suddenly, your five dollar purchase expands into $200,000,000. Effectively, you have helped “Grow” the economy by Two Hundred Million Dollars. On 9/24/11, let’s do it!

Carpe Diem

Well, it’s around 5:00 PM here in Paradise, as our latest hurricane scare plows north to scour clean the streets of the Big Apple. For you newbies, Paradise is beautiful Ponte Vedra Beach, home of the PGA and ATP Tours, in the No-Income-Tax state of Florida.

Now that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has agreed with a twenty-six (26) state challenge to ObamaCare’s mandate that most all of us must buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty, let’s push to place that challenge on the Supreme Court’s docket soon…the sooner the better.

ObamaCare is Bad Law. It should be rescinded and replaced with legislation that focuses on means to reduce medical costs to us consumers. ObamaCare’s price controls and excess additional taxation do nothing to reduce those costs. Knocking down barriers to competition, and removing the Administration’s micro-management offer a couple places to start. If you agree, get on the phone, often, to your Reprsentatives and Senators and let them know how you feel.

If you disagree, why are you so anxious to pay for some well to do retiree’s knee replacement, when you live in New Jersey and our retiree lives in Palm Springs? If the guy down the street needs an appendectomy, should somebody from the IRS go knocking on every door in your neighborhood and, at gun point, take $100 from everybody to pay for the surgery?

Listen, Americans are the most giving people in the world. It is in our national genes to give a hand when needed. However, it is not in us to allow the Sheriff of Nottingham to rip off our hard earned cash to then spread it around as he sees fit. Remember, Robin Hood did not steal from the rich to give to the poor. He stole from the sheriff, who stole from everybody as the King’s tax collector, as a way to steal from a corrupt King.

Hey, I saw a headline today saying the Social Security Administration is running out of money to pay those on disability, and the well may run dry within the next five or six years. SHAZAM! That is really shocking, shocking, as the Vichy French police inspector said to Rick in the movie Casa Blanca commenting on the obvious. Also obvious, Medicare is on a sandbar now and will be on the rocks before much longer. Better bone up on Wisconsin’s Representative Paul Ryan’s proposals regarding saving both programs. I know his ideas are good. How?…because the Dem’s and the Press spend so much time demonizing him personally. (The Politics of Personal Destruction 101, artfully developed during Bubba Clinton’s years.)

Ever heard of the Tea Party Movement? bet you have…love ‘em or hate ‘em, get involved now, because 2012 is going to be a water shed year for our country, and you don’t want to be kicking yourself in 2013 for letting the crossed hammer and sickle replace the stars on our flag.

…and if you live in Florida, contact me for your life, health, and Medicare Insurance needs. I need the money in order to continue my lavish life style.

Carpe Diem ‘yall

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but in 1927 the opera Schwanda the Bagpiper was first performed at the Czech National Opera in Prague.

Schwanda had been married to Dorota for a week when the local robber, Babinsky, took refuge in Schwanda’s house and fell in love with Dorota. (Hey. It’s an opera in only two acts, so things happen fast.)

Babinsky persuades Schwanda to go away with him on a great adventure during which they arrive at the court of the Queen, with a heart of ice and the death of her bethrothed on her hands, who is under the power of an evil magician. Schwanda plays his bagpipes for the queen and breaks the spell, freeing her from the magician.

Grateful, the queen offers herself in marriage to Schwanda and he, carried away by the moment, accepts and kisses her passionately…just as Dorota appears (oops!)

The queen, being a poor sport, throws both into the dungeon and condems Schwanda to death.

Babinsky saves Schwanda by replacing the headsman’s axe with a broom. (I told you…it’s opera.) Schwanda plays his bagpipes for the throng gathered to watch him lose his head at the queens command, enchanting them, then escapes with Dorota.

Dorota questions Schwanda’s fidelity, and he avers that he would go to Hell if he ever kissed the queen…forgetting that little tryst back in the castle. Schwanda immediately drops straight into Hell.

Bad timing being one of Babinsky’s better traits, he immediately tells Dorota that he loves her. She makes him promise to rescue Schwanda…action first, then we’ll talk.

In Hell, the Devil challenges Schwanda to a card game. As the new guy he doesn’t know what a card cheat the Devil is. (Schwanda doesn’t get out much.) Just then, Babinsky appears and agrees to play a hand with the Devil with Schwanda’s freedom being the stake. Babinsky out-cheats the Devil and wins, thus freeing Schwanda.

Back on earth Schwanda and Dorota reconcile, as Babinski leaves, stage left, to search for new adventures.

As I read this libretto, my mind kept drifting to Bill Clinton…think about it.

A finding in favor of the Obama Administration was handed down in early July ’11, by a three (3) judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Long story, short, the Court, by a two to one vote, sided with ObamaCare’s mandate that you and I must obtain health insurance or pay fines for failing to do so.

In the Court’s words: “We find that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause [of the U.S. Constitution.]”

The Court ruled on a case brought by the Thomas Moore Law Center, contending that the buy-insurance-or-pay-a-fine provision of ObamaCare is unconstitutional. Note that the Thomas Moore suit is not attached to a similar case brought by Florida and 26 other states now under consideration by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

As these cases work their way through the Courts-of-Appeals-pin-ball-machine, they will eventually ricochet their way into the Supreme Court.

No matter which way the Supremes decide, we have a national referrendum that can change everything coming up in November 2012. If you like ObamaCare, vote with the Dem’s. If you favor repeal and replace, vote with the GOP. If you are one of the “Undecided”, do us all a favor and stay at home on election day, because if your mind isn’t made up by now, it has an out-of-order sign hanging on it.

Many of the issues dealing with ObamaCare orbit around the courts’ interpretations of the Commerce Clause, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3, of our U.S. Constitution…our national by-laws. We all have our own opinions (“interpretations”) about the Constitution, but those opinions, when emanating from the mind of a federal judge, can change your life forever. So remember, if you don’t like a law, work to have it changed rather than complaining about it. Don’t leave your destiny in the hands of some federal judge whose opinion may have no real world connection to the Constitution or its intent.

Originally, the Commerce Clause was an item placed in our Constitution to regulate business issues (Commerce) between the several states…regulating interstate commerce… It did not purport to regulate Intra-State commerce…commerce within a soverign state. Over the years, mostly through interpretations from Federal judges, the Federal government has insinuated itself more and more into our daily lives…riding in on the Commerce Clause…which says the U.S. Congress shall have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes.

Suppose you owned a farm in Ohio in Depression era 1938… And suppose you raised wheat on around 12 twelve acres which you consumed on your farm, either as feed for your chickens or flour for your kitchen…and suppose you planted wheat on another twelve or so remaining acres, selling it on the open market. Have you broken any Federal laws?

Well, in 1938, the brain trust in Washington, D.C., passed a law called the Agricultural Adjustment Act limiting the number of acres a farmer could devote to wheat production, the purpose of which was to stabilize the price of wheat nationally by limiting the amount of wheat produced.

If you are the farmer mentioned above, your wheat allocation under the 1938 Federal law was 11.1 acres, and planting that other 12 acres for use within the confines of your farm
made you an outlaw. This case is known as Wickard v. Filburn. Claude R. Wickard, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture vs Roscoe C. Filburn, little guy dirt farmer in Dayton, Ohio.

Filburn was hauled into court for producing more wheat than the Federal Government allowed. He argued that his excess wheat was produced for his private consumption, and since it never left his farm to enter the general marketplace, it was not subject to the Commerce Clause as it never entered “commerce”, and could not cross a state line.

In 1942, in the midst of World War II, with the whole country being encouraged to grow as much of everything possible to support the war effort, the Supreme Court held that Filburn was indeed guilty of breaching the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938. Their reasoning?…If every farmer acted as Filburn had, the effect would have been to reduce the amount of wheat each would buy on the open market, thus depressing total sales of wheat nationally…so his action did fall within the Commerce Clause as it affected inter-state commerce.

Wow! Did every other farmer in the U.S. follow Filburn’s actions? No! This is a case of setting up a “what-if” scenario, then projecting it onto Filburn, then hanging him from the highest limb for something that may or may not have come to pass.

Be careful…very careful, when you entrust your destiny to lawyers and the Supreme Court….and pay attention to what politician do, not what they say, then vote accordingly in November 2012.

Beginning in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, world changing events began to unfold off France’s Normandy coast. The largest armada ever assembled began to land U.S. and allied soldiers on the beaches at dawn, while in the earlier darkenss paratroopers descended from the sky to disrupt the entrenched german army from the rear.

We all know the story: On that fateful day allied casualties were estimated to be 230,200, with 29,000 U.S. dead…yes 29,000 U.S. military dead in one day. Great Britain lost 11,000 dead, and Canada, 5,000….and what were those brave souls fighting for?

They were struggling to overcome an enemy determined to destroy our way of life and bring the world under the jackboot of the National Socialist German Workers Party, the NAZI’s…where the government controls every aspect of one’s life, censors what you read, controls your medical care, and determines the time at which you are no longer useful and too expensive to continue living, a government fraught with anti-Semitism, among manifold other evils.

Our military fought to save America’s Republic, with its democratically elected representatives, and America’s capitalist economic system, which grew from its roots as a collection British colonies into the greatest industrial civilization the world had known. A nation that struggled to survive, a country that nearly committed nation suicide over the issue of state’s rights and the issue of whether one man should own another, a country in which opportunity is there for anyone willing to risk failure in order to reap great rewards…a country covered with many warts, but still a better choice than any other.

How many people are fleeing the U.S. to slip into Mexico, Venezuela, or Russia seeking better economic opportunity? Back in the fifties, I recall seeing a political cartoon, when Hawaii and Alaska were about to achieve statehood, as Nikita Khrushchev put the finishing touches on his Berlin wall. In one frame, an East German is shown climbing the wall with a caption reading, “You can’t keep me in!” In a second frame, a Hawaiian and an Inuit are shown jumping into a U.S. map. Their inscription read: “You can’t keep us out!”

So, where are we now? An anti-capitalist administration in Washington, D.C., has put into place a cumbersome law covering more than 2,000 pages, which puts the Federal Government in charge of our health care, sets up a panel of un-elected bureaucrats to decide what healthcare you and I should have and at what point should that healthcare be withdrawn to allow us to go ahead and die to save taxpayer dollars. That same administration appears downright hostile to our strongest ally in the middle east, Israel.

Shortly, we must, by law, purchase a product we may or may not want, health insurance, or pay a fine.

Starting right now, taxes will start to increase, and increase a lot on those of us who expended the effort to achieve the American Dream, to pay our “fair share”…and who decides what a Fair Share is?…yep, the Federal Government in D.C.

Want to drain a pond on your property? Uh-huh, Bud, can’t stick a shovel into the ground without EPA permission.

But, I digress. The question is, “Just what did 29,000 American soldiers die for on June 6, 1944?” They did it so that we could keep on electing the government we deserve, even if a majority of us failed to pay attention and read between lines in 2008, and now we are sliding into the NAZI’s dream of more than 60 years ago, without a shot having been fired….so, how is that Change You Can Believe In working out for you? I still see those old Obama stickers on bumpers and back windows. That kool-aid must taste just great!

Many years ago, I ghost wrote an article to be placed in an insurance company’s monthly publication. Yesterday it surfaced as I was sending several boxes of old files to the shredder.

Written on a typewriter (an ancient mechanical device in use when Bill Gates was still in diapers) on now yellowing paper, it is as true today as it was those many years ago and, with a couple edits, I would like to share some of it with you:

Recently, I was reminded of an interview between a T.V. talk show host and Lynn Caine, author of the [then] best seller, Widow.

Before his untimely death, Lynn’s husband, a prominent attorney whose war wounds left him a high-substandard risk for life insurance, had passed up coverting his G.I. life insurance to a personal policy. His comment was that the $10,000 policy, [a princely sum then], was only “peanuts”. He also rejected buying other insurance because of its “high cost” to him.

To her interviewer, Lynn Caine observed that she came to realize that $10,000 “peanuts” policy really was peanuts…peanut butter…blue jeans…trips to the orthodontist for her kids…and a whole lot of other things.

Sometimes we in the life insurance business get so caught up in the details that we lose sight of just what it is that we sell. We sell a unique product, a product that pays the rent, or pays off the mortgage, puts food on the table and sandwiches in the lunch box. It puts warmth in the home and presents under the tree at Christmas. It buys shoes for little feet and a chair by the fire for feet too old to walk anymore. It provides the dollars to allow a widow to give her children her time…to be there when knees get banged and someone to kiss away the tears…something she could not do if forced to leave them for work. It provides the old person a chance to live with dignity rather than surviving on the public dole.

It gives people , like you and me, piece of mind, and don’t sell that point short. If you have family or others depending upon you for support, think about that as you blast down the interstate at 80 miles per hour, with the guy in the old pickup truck passing you like you were parked, then cutting you off as he cuts into your lane and hits the breaks. [ Been there, right?]

Lynn Caine’s interviewer asked what advice she could give to the life insurance agents of the world. Her answer was simple and direct…Pursue, Pursue, Pursue…because tomorrow you may be on that same door step with a claim check in your hand at a time when the bill collectors and creditors are all lined up to the corner.

Written in January 1977.