Immigration Reform to Extend DACA is a No-Brainer

It is a No-Brainer

Passing immigration reform to extend DACA in order to give the Dreamers (undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children) a legitimate and legal place in our society is a no-brainer. We have to do it. Most Americans know that, and poll after poll has shown that they support it. Moreover, this is one of the rare cases where we can do the right thing while serving our own interest at the same time.  

It is Right and Just 

Giving the Dreamers a legal and legitimate place in our society is right and just, and it is also good for our economy and ultimately, for all of us. It is right and just for two reasons. First, the Dreamers were brought here through no decision of their own. They did not set out to break any law, and they should not be punished. 

Second, the Dreamers have become integral parts of our communities. They attend our schools, serve in our military and work in our businesses.  They pay our taxes. We have accepted their participation in our community life for many years, and it would be wrong for us to turn around now and say, “Sorry bud, you will have to move on.”   

We cannot become the kinds of people who would treat long-time members of our communities so heartlessly. We must heed the biblical injunction, which says (Exodus 22:21), “You shall not oppress the foreigner who lives among you. For you know the heart of a foreigner. For you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”

It is in Our Financial Interest

Giving the Dreamers a legitimate and legal place in our society is also in our own financial interest. Our economy is strong and growing, and our population is aging. We need skilled workers to power the continued growth of our economy, and the Dreamers are precisely the workers we need. They are educated; they speak our language and understand our customs; and they have an immigrant’s drive and determination to succeed. In short, they are ideal workers.

The Dreamers also help our economy as consumers. They buy houses and cars, and they shop in our malls. They pay taxes to support our public institutions. 

Act Now: Call Your Legislators

So, this is a no-brainer. No one with an ounce of compassion or an ounce of good sense can oppose passing a law to extend DACA and to give the Dreamers a legitimate and legal place in our society. They have earned it.

Call your senators and representatives and tell them to support legislation to extend the protections that DACA has offered.

Invest in Prevention of Chronic Diseases to Save Money and Make People's Lives Better

Caring for People with Chronic Diseases

     Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal’s recent article in the New York Times shows how our health care system is failing people with chronic diseases that require expensive, ongoing treatment. Our failure causes unnecessary suffering and at the same time wastes a great deal of money. Millions of Americans suffer from chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke or cancer, and more than three quarters of American health care spending goes to pay for care for their care.  

     Patients suffering from end-stage kidney failure are eligible for Medicare, and Dr. Rosenthal suggests that patients with other chronic diseases should be similarly covered. I believe that she is correct in this because we have a moral responsibility to provide health care for ever American who needs it. However, covering treatment through Medicare is only one of the things that we should do about chronic diseases.

 Preventing Chronic Diseases is Key

      We should also work to prevent people from becoming victims of such diseases in the first place. According to the federal government’s Center for Disease Control. “Chronic diseases and conditions—such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and arthritis—are among the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems.”

     Working to prevent diseases is not a new idea. For more than a century, we have used public health measures to reduce the occurrence of food and water borne diseases. We do not deal with cholera or typhoid fever merely by hospitalizing hundreds of thousands of people when they get sick. Instead, we build sewage systems to separate human waste from our drinking water; we treat the water to make it safe to drink; we inspect food to make sure that it is clean; and we educate our children to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. These methods are expensive, but they are far cheaper than hospitalizing hundreds of thousands of sick people, and they have all but eliminated food and water borne diseases from our country.

     Similarly, we can focus on preventing chronic diseases. The methods will be different, but they will be effective. To prevent chronic diseases, we can focus on two things: education and primary care. 

Health Education Can Help to Prevent Chronic Illness 

     First, we can educate ourselves and our children to live in healthy ways. The CDC says, “Health risk behaviors are unhealthy behaviors you can change. Four of these health risk behaviors—lack of exercise or physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and drinking too much alcohol—cause much of the illness, suffering, and early death related to chronic diseases and conditions.” Through education, we can encourage people to live in healthy ways, and we can reduce the number of people who suffer from chronic diseases.  We cannot eliminate them completely because health risk behaviors are not the only causes of chronic diseases. (Other causes are genetic.) However, we can save a lot of money and improve life for many people if we succeed in persuading them to live in healthier ways than they do now. So, if we are serious about preventing chronic illnesses, we should put money into health education. 

Primary Health Care Has an Important Role to Play 

     We can also invest in primary care, which is very cheap compared to hospitalization. The role of primary care is important. Primary care providers can assess patients’ health and behavior, educate them about changing their behavior, refer them to services to help them to change their behavior and monitor their progress.  We cannot change the behavior of all of the patients, but we can improve many people’s lives and save a lot of money. 

    In short, while we should expand our Medicare program to provide care for patients with chronic illnesses, we should not stop there.  We should act to improve people’s lives and to reduce the cost of treating such illnesses by investing in health education and primary care.