Healthcare Roundup – what small business owners and employees need to know about the health care debate

Thu, Jun 25, 2009

Please visit the links below. I’ve compiled several resources that will quickly get us all up to speed on the health care debate. Many are from Cato

The current Congress and Administration Proposal and its Problems

What is Barack Obama’s Plan for Health Care Reform? (Cato) (be sure to check out the Questions for the President section)

Higher taxes for Health Care, Fewer Jobs (Cato)

Will Obama Raise Middle Class Taxes to Pay for Health Care? (Cato – pdf)

Why the Democrat’s Proposal Will not Work (Cato)

The public plan deception – it’s not about choice. (YouTube)

What should be proposed – real Solutions

Health-Status Insurance: How Markets Can Provide Health Security (Cato)

And, on an encouraging note, Americans want smaller government. (Cato)

What can we do?

I’d suggest immediately enlisting with DownsizeDC.org – they have the best program going to help Small Businesses put the heat on Big Government.

Please add additional resources/links in the comments below along with your suggestions for what we can do. Thanks.

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This post was written by:

admin - who has written 71 posts on Small Business Against Big Government.

4 Responses to “Healthcare Roundup – what small business owners and employees need to know about the health care debate”

Janel DeRusha Lamb Says:
June 25th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Last Saturday in the car I was complaining to my 12 year old son about trying to find Glenn Beck’s Sense book for my husband for Father’s day. He asked what the book was about and I told him “its basically about politics, where they are headed and what we and politicians can be doing to make things better” to which he answered “That sounds like something I would be very bored reading” and I replied “Well……the reason we are trying to keep our country on track and so many adults are worried and paying close attention to things is so that YOU PERSONALLY don’t end up paying 50% of the money you earn as a dad to taxes to fix Washington’s mistakes, you can pick where you buy your car and what kind you want to buy, when and where you go to the doctor and hospital, and you can afford to use electricity as you choose”. His eyes kind of got big, and I think he “got it”, even as I was explaining it on the spot. It made me realize that we need to get kids these days up to speed of what is going on.

Unfortunately I have more questions than answers

Richard Rice Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 9:17 am

I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want is a bunch of lawyers and bureaucrats running health care. Look at the job they’re doing with welfare, 70 cents of every dollar spent goes to bureaucracy, can we afford health care like that? If doctors who support thid think they’re going to make out,look at the numbers. $.30 of every dollar spent will have to be split between doctors, hospitals,pharmacuticals and other things. The only ones making out here is a government that would grow in power and scope.

Warren Taryle, CPA Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

I think the issue with health insurance is that it is not really insurance or at least it is not used as insurance. What health “insurance” has evolved into is pre-paid medical. Insurance is supposed to be used for the unexpected, the unforeseen incident that we can do little to protect ourselves from. Fire insurance in case our home burns down. We have theft insurance in case we are burglarized. We buy auto insurance in case of an accident. If we treated auto insurance as we treat health insurance it would pay for our gas, oil changes and even routine repairs.

I believe that many of the problems we have today with our health care system can be solved if we went back to a true insurance model. Use our health insurance only for major medical expenses. We should pay for our regular doctor visits, minor illnesses and yes even prescriptions out of our own pockets. But wait you say you cannot afford that! I think that we cannot afford not to. The only way to bring down the cost of health services while maintaining quality is to have the people using the services pay for the services directly. Let’s say that a routine doctor visit cost $350. I have no idea how much it actually costs and I would bet that most you don’t either. Many of us would rightly say that we cannot afford to go to the doctor and we would no longer go. This is where the miracle happens; doctors’ not wanting to go out of business find away to reduce the $350 office visit to $150 or want ever it takes to get patients back in the door. Medical costs are high because they can be.

If the government takes over the payment of medical expenses from insurance companies we have not fixed the problem only masked the symptom. Artificial price controls will only lead to shortages and lower quality. This has been true ever time price controls have been used in every industry I have no reason to believe that this time will be the exception

Drex Davis Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

Warren,
I’m currently reading two books that essentially argue strongly that your belief is correct.

Healthy Competition by Michael F. Cannon and Michael D. Tanner
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&pid=1441272

and

Crisis of Abundance by Arnold Kling
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=43&pid=1441301

I highly recommend both books.

Health Savings Accounts have assisted this process, but instead of evolving Big Government is about to try and reverse all of the gains that have been made, incrementally, through HSAs.

Drex

Janel DeRusha Lamb Says:
June 25th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Last Saturday in the car I was complaining to my 12 year old son about trying to find Glenn Beck’s Sense book for my husband for Father’s day. He asked what the book was about and I told him “its basically about politics, where they are headed and what we and politicians can be doing to make things better” to which he answered “That sounds like something I would be very bored reading” and I replied “Well……the reason we are trying to keep our country on track and so many adults are worried and paying close attention to things is so that YOU PERSONALLY don’t end up paying 50% of the money you earn as a dad to taxes to fix Washington’s mistakes, you can pick where you buy your car and what kind you want to buy, when and where you go to the doctor and hospital, and you can afford to use electricity as you choose”. His eyes kind of got big, and I think he “got it”, even as I was explaining it on the spot. It made me realize that we need to get kids these days up to speed of what is going on.

Unfortunately I have more questions than answers
Richard Rice Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want is a bunch of lawyers and bureaucrats running health care. Look at the job they’re doing with welfare, 70 cents of every dollar spent goes to bureaucracy, can we afford health care like that? If doctors who support thid think they’re going to make out,look at the numbers. $.30 of every dollar spent will have to be split between doctors, hospitals,pharmacuticals and other things. The only ones making out here is a government that would grow in power and scope.
Warren Taryle, CPA Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I think the issue with health insurance is that it is not really insurance or at least it is not used as insurance. What health “insurance” has evolved into is pre-paid medical. Insurance is supposed to be used for the unexpected, the unforeseen incident that we can do little to protect ourselves from. Fire insurance in case our home burns down. We have theft insurance in case we are burglarized. We buy auto insurance in case of an accident. If we treated auto insurance as we treat health insurance it would pay for our gas, oil changes and even routine repairs.

I believe that many of the problems we have today with our health care system can be solved if we went back to a true insurance model. Use our health insurance only for major medical expenses. We should pay for our regular doctor visits, minor illnesses and yes even prescriptions out of our own pockets. But wait you say you cannot afford that! I think that we cannot afford not to. The only way to bring down the cost of health services while maintaining quality is to have the people using the services pay for the services directly. Let’s say that a routine doctor visit cost $350. I have no idea how much it actually costs and I would bet that most you don’t either. Many of us would rightly say that we cannot afford to go to the doctor and we would no longer go. This is where the miracle happens; doctors’ not wanting to go out of business find away to reduce the $350 office visit to $150 or want ever it takes to get patients back in the door. Medical costs are high because they can be.

If the government takes over the payment of medical expenses from insurance companies we have not fixed the problem only masked the symptom. Artificial price controls will only lead to shortages and lower quality. This has been true ever time price controls have been used in every industry I have no reason to believe that this time will be the exception
Drex Davis Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Warren,
I’m currently reading two books that essentially argue strongly that your belief is correct.

Healthy Competition by Michael F. Cannon and Michael D. Tanner
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&pid=1441272

and

Crisis of Abundance by Arnold Kling
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=43&pid=1441301

I highly recommend both books.

Health Savings Accounts have assisted this process, but instead of evolving Big Government is about to try and reverse all of the gains that have been made, incrementally, through HSAs.

Drex

Small Business Against Big Government