1. Emma B. ’15, “ In Defense of Hedgehogs” by Pam Ayers
2. Jamie S. ’14, “ Gunga Din” by Rudyard Kipling
3. Cristina B. ‘15, “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
4. Rowen P. ’15, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe
5. Michael S. ’14, “ Revolution Is Coming” by Lady Gaga

Click here for the UStream link and be sure to bookmark it for tomorrow’s performance.

Picture author: erin m

I personally am against the Health Care Reform Bill for several reasons. To begin, Health Care used to be an incentive that would motivate people to find a job in order to obtain a “good deal” with Health Care through their employer. This bill passed by President Obama will eliminate this role causing a variety of effects. First, to state the obvious, the wealthier individual will now have higher taxes thrusted upon them in order to compensate for the individual that could not afford Health Care. Now this gets interesting because the particular individual that obtains free Health Care can decide not to work since a major incentive for working has been eliminated. Second, a large population of immigrants will decide to become citizens of the United States for the wrong reason. It will not be to succeed in life and work hard but to rather have something given to you for free. To me this seems completely unethical and as Mr. Glenn Beck says “an idea that our country was not built upon.” However Mr. Beck makes another intriguing point that suggests that this bill is merely a battle within a grander scheme of things, which can be summed up as “the fundamental transformation and restoration of this country.” Although I am only a senior in high school that still has much more to learn, I just know that this bill cannot have a positive affect on the big picture since reality does not include a population solely characterized by individuals that want to succeed in their lives. While I agree that Health Care is a necessity, I also strongly believe that anything for free will eventually lose its value.

Photo Credit: erin m

Union Hill, to the east of the Canal, was in the 1830s a barren outcropping with the Indian name Sagatabscot. The length of the Algonquin name was not appealing, but the land owners must have felt that the land had potential. They had a vision of developing the hill into a neighborhood of fine residences which would be quite profitable. But in order make the neighborhood more appealing to potential home buyers, they gave it the name Union Hill.

Union Hill in the 1830s

To attract homeowners, the surveyor A. Jacques was hired to design the neighborhood and A Map of Union Hill, Worcester, Mass was published in August, 1836. The map depicts a planned neighborhood with 60-foot-wide avenues. Following the patriotic theme of the Union Hill name, each of the streets was named for presidents of the United States. Washington and Adams streets are the longest and first avenues as each starts from Water Street at the canal and runs up the hill and at the crest they turn south. Continuing the sequence are Jefferson and Madison streets, which are parallel to the first streets. At right angles to the north/south streets, the later presidents form the grid in an east/west direction, with the names Monroe, Quincy, and Jackson streets.

Original Union Hill design-Courtesy American Antiquarian Society

The focal point of the neighborhood was to be a park at the center of the grid. It was not only at the top of the hill, but it had a commanding view of the town and canal below. At 400 feet along each of its four sides, the Square was 160,000 square feet or three and two-thirds acres. Since this was to be the most desirable section of the neighborhood, the largest house lots were designed to face the square. Each had 100 feet of frontage and at 200 feet in depth – a half acre parcel — big enough to build a large mansion facing the square. These must have been conceived to be the most expensive lots as they not only faced the park, but also had views of the town and canal below. In contrast, the house lots at the foot of Union Hill were much smaller, with 60 feet of frontage and 120 feet in depth, so they were about one-third the size of the lots at the top of the hill.

While the planned neighborhood was never built, several elements of the design came to be and remain significant parts of the neighborhood. First and foremost, the neighborhood is still known as Union Hill. Significantly, the map defined the perimeter of Union Hill by designating its boarder at Heywood and Vernon Streets. Finally, this is the first document indicating Vernon Street.

While the alignment of streets within the neighborhood is not the same, the pattern is similar. At the top of the hill, the grid of street is a similar pattern. Moreover, like the 1836 design, the streets originating from the Water Street travel up the hill in a direction that is diagonal to the grid of streets at the top of the hill.

Perhaps most significant is the parcel that was to be Union Square because it is roughly the same area as the campus of Worcester Academy. Later maps depict a three acre parcel that was much larger than the house lots that were created around it. That three acre parcel was sold to a medical school in 1846, and in 1869 Worcester Academy purchased the property which included the building built for the medical college.

Though the plan envisioned the prosperous growth of Worcester, it did not foresee the advent of the railroad or the need for living quarters for the thousands of factory workers who within a few decades would be employed in the factories along the Canal. During the following decades, the railroad system grew tremendously and in 1875 the Union Depot was built immediately north of Union Hill. The original plans did not design an avenue all the way to the train depot which was called “Union” Station.

Original Union Hill Map - Courtesy American Antiquarian Society

In extreme cases, after a serious illness, medical bills can be so steep they will force a declaration of bankruptcy. We need to support our citizens who are in need, just as we support countries that are in need. The new health care reform bill is needed in order to lessen the weight of health care for people in our country. Currently thirty-two million people in the United States do not have health insurance, primarily because of its rising costs. It is wrong that a person who needs health insurance most, for example someone with a preexisting condition, is more than likely to be turned down by the major providers. No one asks to be sick, and when it comes in a very serious form, paying the bills is a little more complicated than just picking up a part time job to bring in some extra cash each month.

A family I know is fortunate enough to be able to pay for excellent health care. They recently switched to a new provider. Almost everything was covered in their new policy, except for the costs medication and treatment for their daughter’s leukemia. The provider refused to cover her, therefore leaving the enormous bills to the family. The solution was to sign the daughter up for her university’s health care, adding another provider, and another bill to the family’s total cost of insurance. Their bills were much higher than they would have been had she been accepted to the original coverage, and everyone can understand wanting to save some money.

I know for my family personally, our health care bills are expected to decrease with the new bill. Other families are probably in the same situation, but it is not just about saving money for those who can. Everyone should have health care. Everyone is aware of how expensive this new reform will be. If you think about all the different things our government pumps money to every day, shouldn’t saving people’s lives be at the top of the list?

After months of disagreement, confusion, protest, and more disagreement, the Health Care Reform was finally signed by President Barack Obama last Monday, promising health coverage to everyone by 2014.  I personally do not like the fact it was a partisan bill because it separates our nation’s two parties even more when they should be working together.  I also agree with the speculation of unemployed workers, mainly from the lower class, taking advantage of such a system by taking unnecessary visits to the hospital or trying less to actually find a job with coverage.  This concept already exists today with unemployed workers relying on welfare.

However, it is time for America to finally progress with the rest of the industrialized nations of the world.  The United States, up until the passing Bill, was the only industrialized country without a universal health care system.  How can the most developed nation in the world not be able to protect its own?  How can it not better its citizens back home to the level it strives for in foreign disputes?  Often considered as the “global police,” the United States takes a sense of pride in attempting to regulate peace and maintain justice around the world, but that should come after its issues at home are taken care of.  The bottom line is 30 million more Americans will now be covered, a fact hard to complain about. 

Physicals, prescriptions, different types of therapy, surgery, and others are now available to anyone who was previously denied healthcare because they were considered a risk to the insurer.  Pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure and AIDS are not the patients fault, and in most cases, these are the people who probably need medical insurance more than anyone, but with the free market of American businesses, chances of these people receiving coverage was rather unlikely.  Also, Americans will still be covered after they retire, and since insurers can’t cap your coverage anymore, racking up debt in medical costs will no longer be an issue. 

Since Health Care will be a government program, they will now be able to regulate rates similar to other insurance types such as car and home insurance.  The competition between insurers will rise with such an increased market, helping keep rates down as well.  Even with these changes, it will cost more for the future generations, but a healthier nation means more workers having longer careers, and more consumers buying products over a longer period of time, helping our economy grow. 

The main protest of the bill is related to the cost, and the decision to take more from the upper class to pay for those who cannot afford healthcare alone.  This raises a problem that has grown over time in our country.  The distribution and taxation of incomes help the rich become richer and the poor to never crawl out of the darkness of poverty.  We’re leaving the lower class behind as the middle and upper classes develop financially and increase their savings, when we should be helping out our fellow citizens.  There are cases where lower class citizens depend on this help however, instead of earning their income on their own, but with so many citizens in our country, there are always going to be loopholes in any system of such size.  Our country is weakened by such a gap in not only health status, but also economic status.  Instead of dragging the poor to keep up and letting poverty hold our nation back, bumping up the national level of health and re-establishing a higher status quo will help strengthen America against up and coming power-nations like those in Asia.  After all, you’re only as strong as your weakest link.

Photo Credit: crafty

The recently passed health care reform is being put in place by the government to allow every legal U.S. citizen to have health insurance.  From first glimpses it seems like a good idea.  Affordable health insurance for everyone, nobody is going to be denied coverage, and covers preventive services for seniors.  Questions can be easily asked about this plan like:  How is healthcare going to be more affordable?  Who will be paying the money I would have been normally paying for my medical issues?  These questions can raise unlikeable answers.

Being denied health insurance because of a preexisting condition is an awful reason to be denied health care.  People without health insurance can still be denied health insurance because of a preexisting condition until Jan 1, 2014!  Only children being added onto their parent’s healthcare cannot be denied because of a preexisting condition.

John Q. Taxpayer now has a large co-pay waiting for them with this healthcare bill.  According to the Congressional Budget office it will be $940 billion over the first 10 year.  If you make over $250,000 as a family, your hospital insurance tax rate will jump from 0.9% to 2.35%.  As well as a completely new tax on unearned income of 3.8%.

A third point is pointing out who is going to be receiving this subsidized health care.  A family of four who makes below a combined income of $88,000 is available for this subsidized insurance.  Everyone is required to purchase health insurance.  People that make less get a bigger boost than those people making closer to the top getting a smaller one.

This bill has a large effect on small businesses and their decisions in the future.  If you are a company who has over fifty employees and does not offer health insurance as a benefit, the government gives the employee a subsidy to purchase health insurance on his or her own.  If every full time employee gets health insurance through the government, the company must pay the government $2,000 for every full time employee.  What if you are a single, full time employee of this company that does not provide health insurance?  You are making $45,000 a year.  You are not eligible for the government subsidized insurance because you make over $44,000 a year.  You still have to pay fully for health insurance even though other employees working at your company could potentially get discounted insurance.  How does this help this American?

This bill provides affordable health insurance to everyone.  Well, that is how it is marketed to the public.  It is cheap healthcare that gets the job done.  Yet the government takes money out of the wealthy Americans to pay for the poor Americans healthcare.  It makes small business pay fees for no providing healthcare when the small business might have trouble getting its employees weekly checks.  The bill creates problems for most people, and helps some.

All statistics came from the Christian Science Monitor. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0322/Health-care-reform-bill-101-what-the-bill-means-to-you

The topic of health care around the country is a sticky one to say the least. Depending on what political party you put your faith in or what point of view you examine the situation with, the main thought that should come to one’s mind is this, morality.
How is it that the self proclaimed powerhouse of the world, the most industrialized society, doesn’t have a universal health policy for protecting its citizens. How is it that health insurance companies can deny possible patients because they have too may jobs and are seen as a liability? The simple fact that one can be consider ‘working too much’ is appalling. How is that the very principles the country were built on, that hard work will get you somewhere in this country, is now being seen as a liability to health insurance everywhere.
The United States government is telling its citizens that the well being of the insurance agencies and the stability of the economy is more important than the health of the citizens. What the government is not telling the people is that the new health care bill would not only benefit them, but make the treatment more affordable. As mentioned in an article seen here, the addition of the uninsured to health insurances will dramatically cut the amount of uninsured. A woman with a $12,000 operation who is uninsured would now pay $5,000 for the same operation under the new health care bill. Numbers and instances like this across the country will only benefit the American people over time. On top of this, the American citizens who are born with a pre-existing disease that they can not control, will now be guaranteed coverage by health insurances.
I am not here to hammer away at the Republican Party or the doubters of the bill, I am simply stating that people need to stop looking at the numbers of the bill and focus on the key point at hand. The bill promises stability and peace of mind to citizens across the country, not just the old and fragile, but the young who were born into less than average circumstances or an individual with a pre-existing condition. The nay sayers who claim the bill is supporting those who are lazy and don’t work, need to take a look around and research how the business works. The overall health insurance market is an over priced scam and it is time for a change. I think people need to give the bill a chance and rather than bashing it, congratulate the president for finally making a change the people voted for.\

Photo Credit: N/A

There are people in the United States being denied healthcare for unjust reasons and this healthcare bill will hopefully fix this. For example, is it fair for a woman who gets laid off from her job and has to work three part time jobs to lose her healthcare because she is now too much of a risk? Is it acceptable for someone to go bankrupt because they cannot afford the necessary medication to live and no company will insure them? This healthcare bill will hopefully help these people. But how will all of this be paid for?

The issue of the money source that is funding this health plan is a problem. The country will acquire much debt from this new bill. Other branches will suffer from this such as Medicare. This bill the way it is now I do not believe can be afforded. One solution to this would be to more selectively distribute the free healthcare. Rather than give free healthcare to people who are taking advantage of the system and living off welfare and going to the hospital for every scratch, give it to the person working several jobs and struggling to make enough money.

Another issue with the bill is the private companies that will lose business. This will cause the public hospitals to fill up more and have to choose who to treat and who not to. There will be people who are seen as lost causes and not worth the treatment to be neglected which is wrong. There will be fewer doctors to treat the people as well because doctors will have to take pay cuts. Therefore many doctors may quit or look elsewhere for work. Furthermore I think a new solution should be sought after.

I believe that this bill is a very good idea to help people who are being kept from getting the help they need because of a disease that they have no control over having or not. Nobody should have to suffer and be discriminated against for a disease they were born with or is genetic. I also think that it is a great idea for people who cannot afford healthcare because the premium or deductible is ridiculously high because of their situation. However, although necessary, I don’t believe that this bill can be afforded with the economic status of the country right now and the amount of debt it would create.

Photo Credit: mr. nightshade, Shutr