Go to prison, live longer and other ramblings for today
What an odd little bit of trivia.
State prisoners living longer than people outside | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
WASHINGTON — State prison inmates, particularly blacks, are living
longer on average than people on the outside, the government said
Sunday.Inmates in state prisons are dying at an average yearly rate of 250
per 100,000, according to the latest figures reported to the Justice
Department by state prison officials. By comparison, the overall
population of people between ages 15 and 64 is dying at a rate of 308 a
year.For black inmates, the rate was 57 percent lower than among the
overall black population — 206 versus 484. But white and Hispanic
prisoners both had death rates slightly above their counterparts in the
overall population.
I have the feeling most people would prefer to take their chances with mortality out of prison as opposed to in. This is certainly an interesting statistic I am not terribly sure what anyone could use it for, but it struck me as funny and so I posted it.
MySA.com: Metro |$1 tax increase on smokes seen fueling black market
Tax effect
Since the tax increase, some evidence exists that Texans are looking elsewhere for cheaper smokes.
Through Jan. 19 of this year, there have been 11 seizures of undeclared
cigarettes coming from Mexico that were being smuggled into the United
States to evade the tax.In the same period in 2006,
there were four seizures in that border area, which includes eight
ports of entry from Brownsville to Del Rio, said Rick Pauza, spokesman
for the Laredo field office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.All of this year’s seized cigarettes were believed to have been for
personal use, and one case involved 25 cartons hidden in a car’s
spare-tire compartment.“Definitely, it seems there is an increase,” Pauza said.
First, let me just say if you have objections and don’t want to pay a “sin” tax then there are legal ways to do so. Don’t do anything stupid, if you can bring 5 cartons a day legally into the United States from Mexico then why in the world would you risk a fine and record to smuggle in 25? There are dozens reservations within driving distance of Texas and many that have internet storefronts. You will wait a little longer because the legitimate and legal ones do not accept credit cards.
Okay, that was my public service announcement for this month. Now on to what is really bugging me about this tax.
The comptroller’s office estimates
Texas will make $1.12 billion in additional revenue in fiscal year
2008. The state estimates that figure at $1.22 billion in fiscal 2009.
This particular tax was touted as a way to get people to quit smoking for their health. If that was truly the case why in the world are they expecting it to add 1.12 billion dollars into the Texas budget? I am not sure I would have stomached this particular tax no matter how it was packaged but nothing makes me madder than being told outright lies.
It’s there because it can be, don’t pretend that Republicans are for cutting taxes when they consistantly vote for raising any kind of tax that doesn’t affect big business or the billionaires among us. I find it laughable that anyone among us can even remotely think of the republican party as the one that wants to lessen the burden on the common man. The common man isn’t someone they worry terribly much about because, sadly, we don’t seem to be getting out there to vote their bottoms out of office. We just accept their lies and watch our paychecks and benefits dwindle away week after week, month after month while the rich just keep getting richer and we can’t remember why buying groceries is now a strain on our budgets.
Health Insurance
I know I sound a little bitter, this week our new insurance premium kicked into effect and of course we are paying more and getting less. Several of my husbands co-workers are paying 14% of their gross incomes for coverage of 60 to 80% of medical expenses. That is of course in-network expenses, I won’t even bother to mention the out-of-network deductibles because they are obscene. The insurance provider decided to send me an advertisement for a medicine they want me to switch to along with a nice long letter about all the benefits I will get from using the new drug. It was quite an elaborate advertisement from the pharmaceutical company and I am sure they paid a pretty penny to target me. So now I am paying what seems like a king’s ransom for the priveledge of the insurance company maketing me to prospective advertisers. Lovely, just lovely.
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Filed under: Prescription, health insurance, marketing, pharmaceutical, politics, prison, scam, smoking, smuggling, texas politics, tobacco
What is meant health protection? It is necessary to increase deductions from the budget in free-of-charge medical clinics. WBR LeoP