Conversations and Coffee Hour: Week 4

Hello All,

Thanks to everyone that came out to Conversations and Coffee Hour despite the rain. I think we had a very informative conversation. The next meeting will be about immigration reform. There is a push to change the distribution of what type of immigrants are going to be accepted into the US each year. The change will lower the proportions of reunification immigration to increase the proportion of skilled workers. Below is the link to that article. There are also links within the article for additional information for anyone who is interested. As always everyone is invited and welcomed.

Report: U.S. Should Give Preference to Skilled Immigrants Over Relatives:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2009100602168.html

Meeting Date: Thursday Nov. 5

Time: 8-9 pm

Place: Steep and Brew

Thanks,

Ly

lylo.olyl@gmail.com

Conversations and Coffee Hour: 3 Meeting

I think that the last discussion we had was great. I learned a lot about Wisconsin's health care and about the personal stories and issues that are in our group. From the feedback of last week's meeting I think that we want to stay on the subject of health care for one more week but to have it more policy orientated. So below is an op-ed from the Wall Street Journal that I thought we can discuss. So come with your agreements or disagreements and lets discuss it.
WSJ.com - Opinion: At the Table, but on the Menu*
FYI: -The Senate Finance Committee just approved the Health Bill today. -The America's Health Insurance Plans released a report out yesterday that says that the new health bill will increase family health-insurance policy in the near future.
For additional information:
*****I thought the BBC did a great job explaining, in more simple terms, the system we have and what we want we may change.
The BBC news website explains the Obama administration's attempts to reform the American healthcare system.< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8160058.stm >
*****This was from Liz and it goes into a lot of details on where the cost of rising health care is coming from.
The Factors Fueling Rising Health Care Costs http://www.ahip.org/content/default.aspx?docid=25127
*****NPR also has a great interactive chart that helps us to understand what each of the health proposals mean to us depending on our health insurance status.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111499109

Additionl links for AAAGS Reading Group Week 2

I know that it is a little late but I found some nice resources concerning our discussion topic for this Thursday. I just wanted to pass the information on for those who are interested.

This is from the Wall Street Journal where it has many links to articles concerning the Health-Care Overhaul:

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/health-care-overhaul.html

This is also from the Wall Street Journal but it is a quick table comparing the different proposals:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/st_healthcareproposals_20090912.html

The Economist is also hosting a debate on health care that just opened today. They are usually very insightful.

http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/155/Health%20care?source=hptextfeature