White House Trying to Woo Small Businesses on Health Care Reform

On LinkedIn right now, Romer will “pose a question” about the report to solicit questions and comments from others in a sort of comment thread. LinkedIn officials will then choose five questions to be the primary focus of an online chat with Romer on Wednesday.
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If there is anybody I trust to manage the health care debate, it is LinkedIn.

Come on into my web said the spider to the fly. I won’t eat you!!
Socialized Medicine is “NOT” Health Care Reform!!
Government has “NO” business touching 1/6 of the American economy. Barry certainly does not know one thing about business much less how to run a country and you can to that to the government run banks!!

Beth: Interesting analysis, but I see why you don’t bother to give the actual number: “As discussed in CBO’s letter of July 17, we estimate that the proposal as a whole would increase federal deficits by $239 billion over the 2010–2019 period.”
So that’s $24 billion a year to deal with the uninsured problem and rein in the unsustainable growth in health care costs. Hardly an insurmountable cost to fund in the next draft.
Know how much health care costs have risen for businesses in every other first world nation over the last 10 years? 0%. As your boss about how much of your paycheck goes to health care.

Posted by: Wayne | Jul 27, 2009 12:35:26 PM
Wayne,
Sacrifices are for Other People. As is public education, AGW indoctrination/policies, paying taxes and so on. Now please behave and be a better subject. And take your pain pill…

Bela:”Ask the Eastern Europeans about that….”
That’s absurd. Eastern Europe is socialist now? Why not look at the last half century in Western Europe – you know, compare the US to first world nations rather than the second world nation Republicans are trying to starve the government into creating?

“…rather than the second world nation Republicans are trying to starve the government into creating?”
Hey, I’m eating. I work for Goldman Sachs!

Bela:”Easy for you to say. I lived it in Hungary. And now I see people here agitating for the same decrepit system we used to have. ”
Well, my grandparents lived “socialist” medicine to a ripe old age in Britian, and my four aunts growing old can work u up a good rant about the NHS, but are quick to acknowledge “At least it’s better than that rubbish in America.”
What is being proposed is NOT anything like what was used a generation ago in Hungary. You have been sorely mislead if you think it is.

Posted by: MayBee | Jul 27, 2009 1:28:28 PM
What’s all the fuss? Medicare and Medicaid are great examples of how well the gov’t runs healthcare programs. No fraud or abuse ever. Plenty of funding as well, at least until 2016.

Well, my grandparents lived “socialist” medicine to a ripe old age in Britian, and my four aunts growing old can work u up a good rant about the NHS, but are quick to acknowledge “At least it’s better than that rubbish in America.”
I’ll bet. Nothing like personal anecdote to make policy for hundreds of millions!

Traffic Cop Timmy:
“- Tax Reform”
Let me guess – cut taxes on the rich, right? The Republican answer to the 2001 surplus, recessions, booms, deficits, and war.
“BTW: Govt run Medicare has an estimated 3-4% fraud rate compared to credit card companies which have a 0.03% rate.”
Credit card companies? And the rate of testicular cancer in Republican women is shockingly lower than in Democratic Congressmen. Why don’t you compare the rate of Medicare fraud to the rate of fraud seen by private insurers?
The last study I saw, by the George Washington
University School of Public Health and Health Services, put the total rate of health fraud at 10% in 2007. Just like Medicare has documented far lower overhead costs than private insurers, those numbers suggest it is better about cracking down on fraud (to give credit where it is due, anti-fraud was a MAJOR effort under the Republican administration that yielded a number of shocking successes – such as the hospital that performed hundreds of unnecessary heart surgeries just to pad their profit).

Posted by: jhw539 | Jul 27, 2009 1:43:01 PM
Look it up yourself.

Posted by: Traffic Cop Timmy | Jul 27, 2009 1:55:51 PM
Goldman Sachs rules!

Bela:”Look it up yourself. ”
That’s a convincing argument for why national health care, offered in Britain, France, Spain, Canada, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, etc is just like Communism in Hungary during the cold war.

“White House Trying to Woo Small Businesses on Health Care Reform”
Is Obama going to ask them to the White House for a beer with his buddy, poseur intellectual and full time race-baiter, Gates?

As a health insurance broker who deals exclusively with small businesses (less than 100 lives); most employers are already reducing benefits through cost-shifting; i.e. reducing benefits and increasing employee premium contributions. Penalizing small employers who don’t offer coverage through a payroll tax is short sighted and ineffective. I am all for reform, even if it means putting me out of a job; however i do not believe in change for the sake of change. Let’s have a meaningful thoughtful debate on the topic and then critique other’s positions. I have seen no mention of the fact that we are the ONLY NATION IN THE WORLD that allows direct to consumer marketing for pharmaceuticals via T.V. and radio. We need tort reform, and we need to move to an outcome based system not a fee based. If a doctor prescribes multiple tests/procedures he is compensated for each one – not on an effective outcome or treatment!!! Would you pay your mechanic multiple thousands of dollars to “eliminate all possibilites” instead of just paying him/her to fix the problem??? Why is it different with health care???

Being a Utah health insurance underwriter for http://www.BenefitsManager.net and http://www.DentalInsuranceUtah.net I have the opportunity to consult within many state insurance committee meetings. Some interesting changes took place in Utah with the passage of House Bill 188 that other states should pay attention to and perhaps the federal legislation. The bill created a state insurance pool requiring private health insurance carriers to come together and underwrite risk. Through governmental guidelines (which I have traditionally opposed in the past) they created a arena of underwriting rules that essentially guarantees the participating insurance carriers a ?no loss? or ?no gain? over each other. What this essentially means is that they pool the underwriting medical risk and spread it evenly among each carrier. All the sudden, we see guaranteed issued policies. We see rates drop by as much as 13% In Utah, our average monthly family rate is $867 for a $500 deductible plan. Some of the family rates within the ?Utah Insurance Exchange Portal? are approaching $700.00 now. To see more of HB 188 and see how Utah wrangled change without increasing taxes or rationing go to: http://www.prweb.com/releases/utah_health_insurance/health_care_reform/prweb2614544.htm
The private insurance sector can be corralled into cooperation where they can meet their goals. You have to understand that health insurance carriers are only looking for a 4-5% administration fee. That is it and they are more efficient as compared to a governmental portal that will cost more money. Take a look at Utah folks!

To James Danley,
I really dislike misinformation.
There is no ‘plan’.
The public insurance option clearly states you can choose your own doctor. The public insurance is an option, not a mandate, you can keep your own private insurance.
A big part of health care reform is to encourage doctors who help keep their patients healthy, as well as educate folks on healthy living.
Anyone can write a bunch of misinformation and post it on the internet. I would hope people would go to credible news sites for facts, the Congressional sites to read the actual bills or factcheck.org.
Remember folks, anyone can post what they believe will happen if we get health care reform. They will try to scare you because they most likely are making a lot of money keeping the system the way it is. Please note they don’t quote anything, or give references from the actual health care bills. Because they aren’t being truthful. They are just giving you their ‘opinion’. But it isn’t based on facts.
This news article clearly shows how small businesses would be helped with their high health care costs. Just another benefit of health care reform.

Another GOP talking point bites the dust:
Mitch McConnell’s favorite Canadian health service horror story is that of Shona Holmes, cancer patient who didn’t want to wait for Canadian care.
Holmes’ “brain tumour” was actually a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, “Rathke’s Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts.”

Jhw, I must echo MayBee’s brilliant response to your statement, “Know how much health care costs have risen for businesses in every other first world nation over the last 10 years? 0%.” Of course that statement is true if you only speak of DIRECT costs. But you cannot pretend that there is vastly superior cost containment in all those first world countries, and the cost of the health care must be shouldered by SOMEONE. So businesses and individuals must pay for those costs one way or another. And as you’ll see below, in at least one case, it seems, the cost to businesses has gone up in recent years (France).
I know that, for example, there are major problems with funding NHS in England at the moment, with it heading toward bankruptcy unless they find a way to cut costs further or raise revenue. And in France, which is often rated first in the world in those surveys about health care that folks around here love to cite, “To fund universal health care in France, workers are required to pay about 21 percent of their income into the national health care system. Employers pick up a little more than half of that. (French employers say these high taxes constrain their ability to hire more people.)…France, like all countries, faces rising costs for health care. In a country that’s so generous, it’s even harder to get those expenses under control.
Last year, the national health system ran nearly $9 billion in debt. Although it is a smaller deficit than in previous years, it forced the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy to start charging patients more for some drugs, ambulance costs and other services. Debates over cost-cutting have become an expected part of the national dialogue on health care.” The “right wing” source of this information? NPR, that bastion of liberalism. Oops.
As your boss about how much of your paycheck goes to health care.”

“Does anyone know how the Health Care Reform bill might impact my business?”
______________________________________
I’m sure it will depend on which plan finally gets adopted, but the last I read you would receive a tax credit for insuring your employees.

It was Shona Holmes’ Canadian doctor who diagnosed her as having a brain tumor. She knew that she could not wait the 5-6 months to see a neurologist or endocrinologist in Canada. So she called the Mayo Clinic and got an appointment the same day (in Scottsdale, AZ). Their neurosurgeon, Dr. Naresh Patel, diagnosed Shona Holmes as having a Rathke’s cleft cyst (RCC). He determined that the cyst was causing her to go blind. She had only 50% sight in her right eye and 25% sight in her right eye. After several weeks of tests they finally performed the surgery and her vision was completely restored. Had she waited the 5-6 months, she might have been permanently blind.

Imitating Hugo Chavez, Obama wants to nationalize everything, including our health care system! “Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama!” Chavez cheered on Venezuelan TV. He added that he and Cuba’s Fidel Castro would now have to work harder just to keep up.

I have but one, simple question. What if the 8% payroll tax is LARGER than the gross profit of the business?….which is the case here. This is a plan?………..