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Solutions and Advantages to Problems of the U.S. Government and Citizens

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The government reviewed the problems that its citizens were facing and it concentrated on dealing with the issues. The problem of state employees not getting their retirement benefits has been taken seriously. Many counties have taken measures to ensure that employees retire at a certain age. If they do not, then there are conditions that have been set to ensure that they looked after. The government has taken to putting funds to the right investments by investing in a good healthcare system, giving laws on how children are supposed to feed in public schools and so on.

The government has been between a hard rock to ensure that public employees are given retirement benefits. The government has proposed to raise taxes to be able to cater for the citizen’s health benefits. The majority have taken it positively while others argue that it will drain their pockets. In this case, some will view it as beneficial for them to pay more to have the raise in tax money but be assured of healthcare insurance.

The issue of health benefits has also led to the bankruptcy of some governments, and others are afraid of following suit (Johnson 1995). This is because there have been an increase in costs of health, pension is sometimes not available and lack of government support.

In some cities however, they have found solutions that have enabled their retired workers to be assured of benefits even for those of their families. There are those cities that have come up with solutions to help public employees to enjoy their retirement age. However, this has not come without its limits as the employee will be required to retire after a period of serving the government. It has varied in various cities around the States. For some, the retirement age to those that have served for more than five years is 60. Those that have served for longer, retire at their desired age. This has been used as a way to limit people from retiring early and expecting retirement benefits.

There are solutions that different cities have come up with to benefit the retired employees. The government of certain cities saw the need for them to implement programs that would benefit the retired employees. We will look at some of the measures taken by different cities to ensure that the retired workers are covered in health insurance. The strategies that these cities have come up with are faced with challenges, but they are beneficial to the retired public workers. Like;

In California, they have come up with a strategy that ensures that the pensions of retired employees are addressed this is because the health care sector is not developed. This has also come with its challenges. OPEB has been seen as a fiscal problem, and the only way out is to have revenues being channeled to finance it. This has proved difficult because it will not be fair to use money that is meant for taxes in order to fill the fiscal gap. This kind of program has brought a change to the pay-as-you-go method to a more reliable program.

The advantage of this program is, it provides cover for its retired public employees compared to those private sectors. However, this will depend on how established the company is because the larger companies will present retirement benefits for its employees. This insurance will look after dependants; cover dental costs, life and vision covers.

The employers that wish to retire at a young age are also considered, and they are required to join their risks with other young employees. This way, their premium rates will be lower. The government gives young employees the chance to choose another share in the employee’s premium for them to acquire another health cover once they have left employment.

In some other cities, we see that there is a law that has been passed that, retired law makers receive insurance for free after serving for four years while the judges will get the same benefit after serving for six years. Those from the university and public servants get free insurance after working for twenty years. The retirees will be required to pay for the years that will have worked for the government and their ability to pay law. Teachers are not included in this insurance.

It is excellent news to those in Illinois because retirees will still be in a position to have access to their retirement benefits. This will lead to lowering of costs for the tax payers. However, this has changed with time requiring all employees to pay a premium rate for insurance.

In United States, there is an insurance cover that has bee designed to capitalize in dealing with the elderly. It caters for people who are 65 years and older, people that are less than 65 but have disabilities and people of all ages that have succumbed to renal disease. For the various parts, it seeks to cover different costs. In part A, it covers hospital bills for the elderly, part B caters for the cover of a medical insurance while covers the cost of drugs prescribed in part C.

The advantage of this program is, it receives funding not only from the government. This means that the employees will not have to pay for the covers.

In social security, it gets its funds from Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA). The employees and employers are required to make their payments through FICA. The workers are given cover in retirement and disability benefits. Incase of death, the spouse and children, will benefit from the insurance cover. In this case though, investments are not made on behalf of the beneficiaries they are used to gauge the levels of benefit. The retirees will collect benefits for longer because of the life expectancy.

In Illinois, the retirees are divided according to the jobs that they do. Terms and conditions will vary for the different sectors. There are advantages for the retirees because they have the opportunity to choose if, to take a cover that is sponsored by the government or to have their payments added to their pension schemes. The people that have worked for the government for twenty years will not pay health insurance premiums after retiring. The amount that the government has been able to fund is $800 million. This is according to the Department of Central Management Services, and premiums for the employees cover will only be 3% of that amount.

There formation of another scheme called Tennessee Consolidated Retirement system has enabled the retirees have access to medical insurance (Great Britain2011). It has concentrated on different sectors in the job industry. The advantage of this program is that, it provides cover even after disability; death and beneficiaries are also covered in this insurance. Once members have been covered with this insurance, and they get a disability that prevents them from gaining employment they are still eligible for the benefit. This is despite the fact that they have worked for a period of time. This will apply when the employee also get injured when in their line of duty.

The budget of Florida is financed by money collected from taxes. Employees that are regular and deal with Special Risk are entitled to retirement benefits at1.6%-1.68% annually. There are five classes of employees that will be given retirement benefits though they will vary in percentage. The higher rates are placed to encourage early retirement.

In North Carolina, a variety of benefit swill be given to permanent employees once they reach the retirement age. They will receive disability income, sick leave, credit union and so many other benefits. For the employees that have reached the age of 60, ought to have worked for 25 years while those that have attained the age of 65 should have served for 5 years. The employees that retire after five years, but have not worked for more than 10 years will be considered for a State Health Plan after they have paid the full amount of their premiums. Those that have worked for one year and happen to die, they will receive death benefits that will be not less than $25,000 and not more than $50,000.

In this county, there are added advantages of paying for health insurance. This is because they will cater for a number of illnesses, even the ones that are terminal like cancer and they will offer long-term insurance and for those that become critically ill and cannot get into employment.

The Connecticut state government salaries were rated as one of the highest public paying employee salaries (United States2005). The public employees must pay 3% for those that have worked for less than five years. This scheme has allowed the public workers to retire at the age of 52 instead of 55. The number has risen from 175 people in the previous years. For retirees that feel they would want to enhance their life insurance cover they are allowed to buy a universal life insurance cover. The state in thus case pays seventy percent of the health care costs. Beneficiaries of employees are covered in this kind of insurance.

In Massachusetts, they have a board that looks into the retirement issues. This board is for the public employees, and it consists of five members one of whom must not be retired, an employee nor a member of the commonwealth. Attaining membership is necessary for employees of the state be it part-time or full-time (Great Britain. 2011).

The members contribute towards their retirement by paying before- taxes in their deductions of the payroll. For the employees that are full-time, they will be eligible for creditable service for ever year completed, while, for the part-time employees, the will get an equal percentage from the full-time service rate. By doing this, even short term employees are bound to benefit despite having worked for a period of time.

In Kentucky, the employees have the chance to either accept or reject retirement cover. Once the employee rejects the cover and decides to join later on, they are allowed to do so in the first day of the month (Snook 1981). They will not be required to pay for the services that they did no gain before joining. The employees that are seasonal, part-time interns those on probation, independent contractors and temporary workers are not eligible to this scheme.

Once employment is terminated, the employee has three options to retire if they have reached the retirement age, to leave the contributions that they have made at KRS until they retire or they could get a refund of their account balance. The funds could be paid to another retirement plan of the employee’s choice, or they could be paid directly to the individual. However, no funds or benefits are received until the employee has completed a form, and it has been approved by the KRS offices.

If the government raises the amount of tax ceilings, it will be able to curb debt ceiling that gives the country room to borrow money so that it is able to support its expenses. If the debt ceiling is not raised, the country will have to cut its expense by 40%. If the government raises its debt limit, it will be able to fulfill its obligation like paying for Medicare benefits and Social Security benefits.

The government has reviewed issues to do with using funds for the exploration of space program (Kay 1995). It has improved the medical sector by ensuring that people have access to hospitals and medicine is available. The government has collaborated with other non-governmental organizations to put people in shelters for those that are homeless. The government has been in a position to provide food security to its citizens. To the extent that U.S gives relief food to third world counties that are engulfed in drought and hunger. The use of space has resulted into changing the planet to a greener technology planet, and it has led to advanced stewardship of the planet (McCurdy2001).

At the same time, space exploration has continued to be a substantial benefit to the citizens of U.S because they will be in a position to enjoy connectivity from various options. This technology has been viewed by many as a crucial investment that has brought about change in terms of efficiency and reliability. The use of GPRS has contributed to easier tracking of stolen cars and giving directions (Kay 1995). This investment has helped save lives. There are those medicines that can only be made from the space and such medicines have helped prolong life.

The development of a space program has brought about satellite technology, measurement of bone-density, heart pumps and many more technologies. There is the innovation of purifying water, wireless switches, coming up with robots that are used in the war zone countries to detect bombs (McCurdy2001). It has brought about convenience in knowing weather changes, about the natural calamities, and it has been used to detect the minerals that are underground.

In conclusion, all states are unique, and they all experience different problems be it structural or monetary. It seems as though the investment that have done by the government are not rising to keep up with the rising need for benefit payments. Some of the states have taken to increasing rates of taxes in order to cater for these covers for the state employees. The government has tried to weigh what works for the country and its citizens.

References

Brown, H. D. 1910. Civil-service retirement: New South Wales, Australia. Washington: Govt.

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Great Britain. 2011. Public service pensions: Good pensions that last. London: Stationery

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Johnson, R. W. 1995. Pension underfunding and liberal retirement benefits among state and

local government workers. Santa Monica, California: Rand

Macklin, J. P. 1968. Adjusting public employees' retirement benefits for economic changes.

Snook, D. W., Greenberg, J., Wilson, D., & United States. (1981). Civil service retirement

system: History, provisions, and financing. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.

United States. 2005. H.R. 4391: The "Public Servant Retirement Protection Act" : hearing before

the Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House

of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, second session. Washington U.S.

G.P.O.

Kay, W. D. 1995. Can democracies fly in space?: The challenge of revitalizing the U.S. space

McCurdy, H. E. 2001. Faster, better, cheaper: Low-cost innovation in the U.S. space program.

program. Westport, Conn.