Teetering on the edge of destruction

It’s hardly surprising that the Hartford Business Journal is happy about the new Health Care Takeover legislation: Hartford has long been considered the Insurance Capital of the World, and the insurance companies are thrilled with the forced enrollment of 32 million Americans into their health insurance plans.

With sweeping federal health care reform now on the books, business owners are scrambling to make sense of a new range of tax breaks, coverage responsibilities and potential pitfalls by turning to benefits consultants, accountants and insurance brokers for advice and perspective.

Although the $940 billion legislation alters the way small businesses buy and supply health insurance, many of the changes won’t kick in until 2014. And clear answers are at a premium today.

“Small business owners will have more choices and greater accessibility to affordable health insurance, which will help them to attract and keep a talented workforce,” said Kevin Galvin, owner of Connecticut Commercial Maintenance Inc. in Hartford. He says small businesses like his will be the big winners under health care reform.

In fact, in the entire article, only one opponent to the legislation is quoted. Four proponents are interviewed, and two of those are from advocacy groups specifically in favor of the legislation. One more is a health insurance executive, and even Mr. Galvin quoted above, a small business owner, is also an organizer of a pro-legislation political organization.

Filed under: economics, Government, insurance, media, business journal, connecticut, democrat, hartford, hcr, health care, health insurance, obama, propaganda, takeover

Almost Forgotten: The Insurance Mandate Lie

The other day, I was reminded of one of the lies we’ve been fed about the Health Care Takeover the Democrats are desperately trying to pass through the Houses of Congress: The Individual Mandate, which would be just like your mandated automobile insurance. This specious line of reasoning has been almost forgotten amidst the arguments over abortion funding and the Constitutionality of reconciliation and trying to “deem” a bill passed by rule.

The individual mandate would require every American to purchase health insurance, or to pay a penalty (I call it a fine, because that’s what it really is) if they choose to go without. Proponents of this insurance mandate argue that it is like automobile insurance, where we are required to purchase liability insurance for our automobiles before we can drive them on the roads. They say that this mandate protects individuals from the financial harm of medical bills they cannot afford.

In this limited line of reasoning, they are correct, but that isn’t the whole story.

Filed under: economics, health care, insurance, cost, democrats, health care, healthcare, mandate, premium, public option, reconciliation, takeover

Time Magazine to small business owners: Take your medicine!

It seems the writers and editors at Time Magazine can’t comprehend why small business owners would not want to have the Democrat’s House Health Care “Reform” bill enacted into law. Why wouldn’t these small business owners want to increase their regulatory and financial burden? Don’t they realize that we have 5-10 million people who legitimately cannot afford health insurance? Don’t they realize that their profits and the future of their businesses are just gifts given them by our magnanimous Federal Government?

I apologize for the sarcasm, but the article from Time’s website is ridiculous:

When it comes to finding quality, affordable health insurance, few have it worse than small-business owners and their workers shopping for coverage on the open market. They are charged the most per person, have the least amount of choice and, as a result, are some of the most likely to be uninsured.

Lawmakers know this, which is why many of the key elements in the health care bill just passed by the House — and being considered in the Senate — are aimed squarely at small business. A wide array of economists and health-policy experts say insurance reforms (like prohibiting insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions), a new transparent marketplace to shop for coverage and a government-run insurance plan all have the potential to help small business.

Nowhere does the article cite any source for its assertion that “a wide array of economists and health-policy experts” say these reforms will be helpful to business. This is simply presented as accepted common knowledge.

Filed under: economics, insurance, media, taxes, Chamber of Commerce, health care, insurance, NFIB, small business, Time Magazine

Mandated Madness

In all the fuss about the House Health Care “Reform” bill, we have failed to talk about one of the biggest drivers of health insurance costs in the nation today: Insurance mandates.

What insurance mandates do is force these small risk pools together in a negative way: When the risk pool for broken leg is combined with the risk pool for cancer, the risk pool is not more efficient, it is simply more risky. If the likelihood of a broken leg in a given year is 2%, and the likelihood of being diagnosed with cancer is also 2%, combining those risk pools does not result in a larger risk pool of 2%. Cancer and a broken legs are generally exclusive; that is to say, people who get cancer are unlikely to suffer a broken leg at the same time. So the risk index has grown from 2% to a combined 3.99% (after all, some people who break their legs will also develop cancer). The more mandates that are added, the more the insurer is required to cover, the greater the cost of the risk pool.

The financial risk pool is even more complex, but I’ll try to simplify it.

Filed under: economics, Government, insurance, liberty, democrats, health care, house, insurance, local, mandate, reform, state

Waiting lists in the health care bill? But I thought…

(H/T @JamieDupree)

Wait a second. I thought there wasn’t going to be any rationing? I thought the Democrats promised us we wouldn’t see any of the problems detailed in Steven Crowder’s video about the Canadian Health Care System in our wonderful new Democrat-sponsored Health Care “Reform” bill?

Yeah, like anyone actually believed that.

Filed under: Government, insurance, socialism, health, health care, insurance, rationing, reform, waiting list

Health Care is Two Words

Just a short note on a pet-peeve of mine:

The term is not “healthcare.”  Healthcare is not a word.  The proper term is “health care.”  Two words, not one.

Yes, the English language is full of redundancy, allowing us to understand colloquial mistakes such as this, and I am by no means a grammarian.  It doesn’t mean we should just abandon the proper terminology.

Carry on.

Filed under: education, pet peeve, english, grammar, health care, healthcare, language, pet peeve, redundancy, redundant

Take the Hit

Author’s note: I use an extended metaphor relating politics to football throughout this post.

I’m not alone when I say that I love sports.  Whether it’s watching the Atlanta Braves or the Kansas City Royals, the Georgia Bulldogs or the Washington Redskins, the Detroit Redwings or the Philadelphia Flyers, I enjoy watching and sometimes playing sports, as do most Americans and people throughout the world.

Most sports are physical, where some form of contact between players is either a happenstance of the game or designed into the sport itself.  Take a look at football, where linemen push each other around attempting to either protect or sack the quarterback, and where tackling the ball carrier is a requirement.  In hockey hard hits, checking and the occasional shove are common.  Baseball sometimes requires a base runner to plow over a catcher.  In most sports, there is some manner of either striking, moving or standing in the path of another player.

The other day, I wrote about Barack Obama’s being upset with George Stephanopoulos’ use of a dictionary during an interview to define the word “tax.”  Since then, the analogy between politics and sports has been impossible for me to ignore.

Probably the most important position in football is Quarterback.  I’m a defense-minded fan and like to argue that linebackers make or break a team, but the reality is that without a quarterback to lead and to hand-off, toss, pass and occasionally even run the ball, the team cannot score points to win.  In the analogy between football and politics, the Democrats are currently on offense, that is, they are trying to push their agenda.  On the other hand the Republicans are on defense trying to stop the Democrats from “scoring,” or passing legislation.  Barack Obama is the quarterback, while Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and other Democrats are other offensive players. 

Filed under: Government, health care, media, politics, analogy, cap and trade, democrats, football, health care, metaphor, obama, politics, republicans, sports

Lies, Damn Lies and Public Relations

I wish I hadn’t been driving to work this morning (Thursday 8/13) when I heard this on the radio.  That’s because I could not write down any names, including the individual making the claim or the PAC/think tank where he’s now working, “Democracy” somethingorother.  Fortunately, I was able to find a similar story from UPI.

Former Public Relations executive at CIGNA Wendell Potter, who now works for the Center for Media and Democracy, is claiming he saw the insurance industry’s fingerprints all over the protests at the Democrat town halls.  He says that this is just like 1993, and that the talking points are the same.  The protesters are lying or have been mislead, spewing falsehoods.

Actually, that sounds an awful lot like Democrat talking points.

Filed under: health care, insurance, media, health care, healthcare, insurance, media, public relations

I was looking around over at RedState and found this blog post.

In case you’re not going to click-over, here’s the attached video:

The video appears to have been filmed in Kansas City, MO, a town with which I have some history.  I graduated from high school there, lived there for a third of my life, and I consider it my “hometown,” if someone as nomadic as I am can have such a thing.

There isn’t much else to say that what is one the video, though I’d like to make a couple of points:

Filed under: health care, media, health care, kansas city, media, obamacare, protest, taxes