Obamacare Meltdown

[BeanCounter]

CdC, no one is forced to take Cobra. In fact now that we have creditable coverage laws a person could decline Cobra and take out a high deductible catastrophic plan for less than $150 per month. The problem today is that everyone thinks they must have 1st dollar coverage. Without deductibles and copays no one would think twice about going in for every little sniffle and ache. People fail to remember that insurance companies, unlike the Treasury, can't just print money if the premiums they charge do not cover the cost of the services. Remember there are a group of people out there who's yearly health costs run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That must be distributed out amongst all the people in the form of premiums to cover it. There are also people who use less than the average. Thankfully they far outweigh the high service users. I hear the liberals constantly blaming insurance companies but have not heard one of them quote numbers as to "obscene" returns on their business. They in fact make less of a return than what most businesses do.

VRM, excuse me but bull****. Yes I made over a $100,000 a year. But my Dad loaded 150 lb flour sacks in boxcars for General Mills and my Mom made Folgers coffee cans for the American Can company. We drove an old car and had a 850 sq ft house for the 5 of us. I got my winter coats from Goodwill. That was so my folks could save enough money to send all three of us to college. We all got our bachelors degrees and on our own got our MBA's. That's because our parents taught us right. No one helped them except us kids later on when we graduated and each of us made more than the two of them together. I live in a home that I paid off in 10 years. I could have afforded a larger one but I wanted to put money away for hard times and for retirement. I'm just about there to where I don't have much to worry about any more. I don't mind helping someone who truly needs help because they physically cannot help themselves. But when they've spurned opportunities and have taken the wrong paths in life well then............they can go screw themselves. And I don't want bleeding hearts taking what I've worked for and giving it to someone else. They can give their own money away.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. Wasn't Jerry Springer the "DEMOCRATIC" mayor of Cincinnati??

[VRM]

Originally Posted by BeanCounter

VRM, excuse me but bull****. Yes I made over a $100,000 a year. But my Dad loaded 150 lb flour sacks in boxcars for General Mills and my Mom made Folgers coffee cans for the American Can company. We drove an old car and had a 850 sq ft house for the 5 of us. I got my winter coats from Goodwill. That was so my folks could save enough money to send all three of us to college. We all got our bachelors degrees and on our own got our MBA's. That's because our parents taught us right. No one helped them except us kids later on when we graduated and each of us made more than the two of them together. I live in a home that I paid off in 10 years. I could have afforded a larger one but I wanted to put money away for hard times and for retirement. I'm just about there to where I don't have much to worry about any more. I don't mind helping someone who truly needs help because they physically cannot help themselves. But when they've spurned opportunities and have taken the wrong paths in life well then............they can go screw themselves. And I don't want bleeding hearts taking what I've worked for and giving it to someone else. They can give their own money away.

Bernie,
One of the things I also said on other threads is that along with legislative change will need to be a change in the way Americans function. America is the economic powerhouse that it is today because we have had a stong consumer base to buy/sell goods. We are also in the trouble we are in because we forgot to stop spending as we kept up with the Jonses. The upside to that is that with Americans spending every penny they earn that you, me, and a bunch of other people made more money than we would have otherwise if Americans were actually doing the smart thing and saving for a rainy day.

And I think your rant is pretty funny coming from a guy who lives in a state that takes more than it gives. My state has been helping to support your state for years. Your GDP for 2005 was $216B, mine was $326B. And talk about the right choices - MA has 6.5M people, your has 5.8M (as of 2007) yet you managed to have 4% more babies. You also have a significantly higher crime rate, and managed to have only 4000 less state and local government employees than we did (318K vs 322K). And most important to this thread; you have about 17% of your state population without health coverage, we have about 10%.

You GOP types are such states rights advocates, but I see lots of so-called 'liberal' states supporting the so called 'conservative' ones. I've been sick of it for years, and now we can no longer afford it. How about you guys stop whining and get your sh!t together locally before getting involved nationally.

Steve

[Ronbo]

I can tell you one thing about COBRA...

Part of the first "stimulus bill" is a new requirement that as an employer that provides medical insurance I now have to pay 65% of your first 9 months of COBRA should you elect to keep your medical insurance.

If I didn't offer insurance I'm off the hook.

A provision of the new Public offering includes a $1000/yr penalty per employee if they opt for private insurance that I provide. (I pay, not the employee) Basically, they're trying their best to get me to drop insurance so the uninsured number goes up and they can look like heros.

Not to mention collecting their taxes for free, filing I-9's, Paying property tax (on EVERYTHING), matching SS, Unemployment tax (plus pay half your unemployment payments if you actually take it)

All these taxes and no vote for the business, sounds fair. Why do you think there is lobbying? So businesses can bribe politicians legally to keep from getting burned even worse than they are. Washington could give a s**t about my 20 person operation, yet they always promise to help out small business. Yet the tax breaks, and bailouts go to the big guys that don't answer to anyone.

You think the government is on your back? Welcome to my world.

How about this for a fix, for every $10k in taxes you pay you get 1 vote. That's taxation with representation.