On the day before Labor Day my wife and I went down to the Don Pablos restaurant in Covington to eat, drink, and watch the fireworks. I was not interested in the drinking part so I tried some night time photos using the HI-ISO setting. These are the photos I found most interesting.
Last week my boss and I were talking about health care insurance. He said the reason our company offers a Health Reimbursement Account is because the the price offered to corporations for health insurance is so much higher than the price offered to individuals. Although I did not have specific knowledge on corporate rates, I am familiar with individual rates. I am amazed that the individual rates for a high deductable plan, $4,000/year, are so low compared to the rates reported in news stories for Verizon($20,000/year) and an Ohio lobbyist($30,000/year). The high rates paid at Verizon and others makes me wonder why such “smart” people can be so dumb.
Today an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Another Health-Care Invention, reaffirms that point.
The Congressional Budget Office expects premiums for employer-sponsored coverage to cost about $5,000 for singles and $13,000 for families this year on average. "Premiums for policies purchased in the individual market," adds CBO, "are much lower””about one-third lower for single coverage and half that level for family policies."
The best health care deal for a frugal, healthy family is to combine a high deductable plan with a savings account for medical expenses.
Here’s what I think one of our “dis-respectful” elderly might say to Stevie about his post, An open letter to America, in which he says,
Dear Everyone,
Stop debating health care reform. You have no idea what you are talking about. …
Stephen, you need to calm down a bit. The sound you hear from these town hall meetings is just our legislators going through a California legislative moment. Our elderly are taking their Congressman and Congresswoman back to the wood shed for a little Bible study. Stephen, we are old but we are not senile. The TARP bill was supposed to stem the tide of foreclosures. It didn’t. The stimulus bill was supposed to stimulate the economy and stem the rate of unemployment. It didn’t. Now you are trying to ram a Health Care Reform bill through Congress and the bulk of the “savings” is going to come out of Medicare benefits for the elderly and you want us to believe that we won’t notice it! Which part of “Thou shall not lie” do you not understand?
I was actually amused by the whole "You Lie" affair. Like most Americans I was watching "So you Think You Can Dance!" at the time of the speech. When I heard about the interruption I thought the President had said something no one expected like, "No public option". I immediately envisioned the Democratic legislators rising and shouting in anger, "Bush-Hitler!" Oops! My bad! My bad! When I heard that an obscure Republican congressman yelled, "You lie!", I was disappointed. Republicans are notoriously bad at theatrics. Joe should have at least thrown a shoe at the President. Considering the President’s basketball skills I have no doubt he would have avoided the shoe and could then proceed to taunt his opponent with a victory dance. In a moment of political unity both legislators from both parties would then rise and start jiving to "You Bad! You Bad!" Now that’s entertainment!
In this piece, The Death of the Middle Class?, Chris Larsen tries to make the argument that the middle class is over with this statement.
Unfortunately this middle class will not recover; the patient died.
For a person who got his first real job during the Carter administration I reject Chris’s reasoning on both a personal experience level and and a pragmatic level. On a personal level I got a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1976 but my interests were in computers and networks. I could of taken a job in the power industry but I pursued jobs in the practically unknown computer industry. Today I am maintaining a web site for an internet retailer. The words "web site" and "internet retailer" did not exist when I graduated and now it is part of my resume. I do not consider myself unique since I have met a lot of people whose career path has been equally diverse. Chris is asking me to believe that the middle class can not adapt to changes in the market place when my experience shouts "Yes, we can adapt because I have done it!".
Then Chris tries to make the following argument .
If you’re part of the rich elite, you’re also much better off.
Legislators from California to Washington D.C. are saddened by the hardships facing the poor and the middle class but the problems facing the "rich elite" is a disaster of biblical proportions. When the top 1% are paying as much taxes as the bottom 95%, the one group you really do not want to get sick is the rich elite. As California voters showed us the average voter would rather cut social programs than raise taxes on the stressed middle class. If the rich elite are so well off, why did Boone Pickens cancel his massive wind farm? A few months ago Boone was confident he would proceed with or without government support.
The plain and simple fact is that the drop in tax revenues at the state and federal level shows that the rich elite got clobbered with the recession. My guess is that the rich elite are also looking at massive unreported losses in their stock portfolio and real estate. The rich do not feel very rich right now! The real tragedy is when you combine the loss of income with huge paper losses on their investments and a Democratic party that is actively pursuing increased taxes, fees, and other penalties targeted at the rich, you have an almost impossible environment to create wealth. Without the lure of wealth you will have a very diminished base of willing entrepreneurs. I do not think I know a single entrepreneur who does not dream of making lots of money. Its not the only motive for an entrepreneur but it is a very important one. Although you may find if difficult to sympathize with the plight of the rich elite, the impact on our future entrepreneurs is a more serious problem. More than ever this country needs the a group of entrepreneurs to take the chance and start working on the "next great idea". Some of these entrepreneurs will fail and lose all of their money. The successful few will create businesses that will create lots of good paying jobs and become the heroes of future businessmen and women. Eventually our admiration and gratefulness for the successful few will fade and we will see them like the plantation owners in our country’s early history.
So what should the country do? A pragmatic Democratic party should be stealing a page from the Republican playbook and embracing policies for a more enticing business climate for investment. History shows that the Reagan and Bush tax cuts when combined with reduced government spending stimulated the economy and lowered unemployment. Since the administration’s plan is widely viewed as a failure at stimulating the economy and creating jobs, it makes sense to try something that has worked in the past. The time for increasing the tax on the rich has come and gone. Redistribution of wealth is so 2007. Now is the time to entice the next of group plantation owners out of their seats and get this country working again.
One of the interesting ironies of the government option in the health care reform plan is that it is supposed to increase competitiveness in the health care insurance market. For those of us who have studied markets in a micro-economics class or read the Wall Street Journal, the key to increasing competitiveness has been to make it easier for competitors to enter into the market. When I look at the existing health care insurance market and compare it to the reform plan, I do not find any significant changes that will make it easier for companies to enter into the market. In fact a very good argument could be made that the increased regulations from the proposed Health Care Reform will make it even harder for companies or organizations to enter into the market.
Why Don’t the Health Insurance companies complain more?
When you consider the scenario that a government option could be the end of the health care insurance industry, you would think that the health insurance companies would be gathering up their supporters and flooding the airwaves with “public interest” commercials. The fact that we do not see the commercials tells me something. Although it is difficult to determine the insurance companies strategy, I think the insurance companies look at the government option as a likely failure. If the government option is modeled after Medicare the insurance companies are betting that they will be up against a very weak competitor. Up until this year Medicare was widely thought of as the high cost provider of health insurance and a poor model for state health care plans. The complaints about Medicare are fairly numerous. Unless something miraculous has occurred to Medicare, it is unlikely Medicare will be an adequate model for a new and improved health system. The biggest problem with this option is that it does not provide any incentive to improve efficiency at insurance companies.
If the government option is modeled after the Massachusetts or TennCare system, the insurance companies are betting that it will heavily subsidized and probably fail in a couple of years. TennCare was closed down because it failed at controlling costs. The Massachusetts system has been effective at enrolling people but has not yet reduced the rate of health care cost increases. This leaves us with a scenario in which the government option fails to reduce health care costs and the people will demand the insurance companies to come and rescue us. It looks like a win-win situation for the insurance companies and an unnecessary detour for the people who desire a health care reform that actually gets us more bang for our buck.
Here’s a nice article on health care from a local newspaper for those who are frustrated with the current plans. The article highlighted an alternative health care bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah. The key provisions of the bill are:
The Congressional Budget Office says this plan will quickly pay for itself and studies indicate it might reduce health care costs.
Health reform: Hit the Reset button | Cincinnati.com | The Cincinnati Enquirer