New issue in Health Reform

The title of this post is linked to an article that prompted this post about the issue of abortion related to the Health Reform bill.

We are a country that is greatly divided over the issue of abortion. Well as we are working through a health reform that will likely include government subsidies in some form for insurance premiums, the concern came up as to whether these government subsidies will end up paying for abortions directly or indirectly.

As the bill is currently written in the Senate, it is very possible that government subsidies will end up paying for abortions. Without the addition of a restriction of government funds, many are saying that this bill may not pass.

So the next question is how much of a separation of funds is enough? Is it enough for insurance companies just to keep separate government subsidies and private premium costs, allocating only the private premium costs towards abortions? In which case, abortions may still be paid for indirectly through government subsidies that make it financially feasible for people to afford plans that allow abortion when they otherwise may not have.

Or does the government need to go as far as not providing subsidies for plans that pay for abortions? In which case those who currently have insurance coverage that covers abortions may lose that coverage. This option will likely lose support of those who are strong pro-choice supporters. But will the other option be enough to gain the support of pro-life supporters?

Tomorrow is the big day!

I've studied all that I can. I'm consistently scoring raw scores in the mid 80s which results in an LSAT score in the mid 160s. My arguments scores are really good with few mistakes. My logic scores have been really good with perfect scores occasionally. My reading is really all that keeps my scores down.

I printed my ticket, looked up directions (only to find several main roads into the city of my LSAT closed), and printed a few logic problems and arguments to warm up on before I go into the test center tomorrow. I figure that way the first LSAT problems I'm seeing aren't the actual test.

So I'm taking the day off to focus on relaxing and de-stressing. It's nice as the last few weeks have been quite busy with studying and job searching.

LSAT studying

I have hit a road block. My logic puzzle time has gone up so that I'm not finishing them all when I used to. I'm not improving my scores on even untimed arguments sections even after going through the whole Logic Reasoning Bible. I'm not sure what direction to go now.

Nothing in life is free

Click on the title to see the blog post by MauledAgain that sparked this post.

Nobody likes taxes and in conversations with people around me, I constantly hear complaints about Wisconsin, the state I live in, being among the top states that have the highest overall taxes. And it is true. But what all of those complaining seem to forget is that we get a lot for our taxes here. Our education system is top notch. Our roads are actually pretty decent despite all the construction that is prevelant in any state and despite how hard winters are on the roads. Wisconsin has an unspoken "dry pavement" rule in the winter making our roads far easier to get around on after winter storms than even our neighbor Minnesota. These among other things are the result of us paying a little higher taxes.

I'm not saying that we need to all feel good about paying lots of taxes or even agree with it. But I think we need to remember that we need to pay for what we want. Nothing in life is free.