Knowing full well that this is pointless, but in all seriousness
anyway, what in the world makes you or anyone else think coverage
would cost any less then the aforementioned $1200/mo. under this
"fixed" health plan? Nothing in the plan seems to actually address
cost of coverage - it does seem to play musical chairs with who is
going to actually pay for it. Since they tout the plan as a zero cost
to the gvmt - that means that all costs included the additional cost
of the gvmt agencies overseeing this thing are going to have to be
covered by business (for their employees) or by the individual (suzy
homemaker maybe has to pay her own way I suppose)- ultimately it is
the private individual that gets the bill.

It will, of course, have to be paid for - dr's, hospitals,
chiropractors, lawyers, ins. co's, etc. all are going to get paid, or
they aren't going to exist. In this case, the way the new deal reads,
I think your friends would have a bigger problem than they have now -
because as a business they would have had to provide coverage for
themselves - or else the bill will just be added to their tax bill.
If it is a crippling cost to the business- then go get a real job.

As near as I can tell the latest plan is about a 1000 pages that says,
"you will have health coverage- because it is the law." So either
your employeer is going to have to adjust his cost of doing business
to accomodate the 1200 ish dollars per family/couple/whatever the hell
the family unit is. Or medicare or something suspiciously like
medicare is going to cough up the care costs - and whack the taxpayer
accordingly.

Where is the money going to come from for city, county, state
employees? oh, thats right- the same place the money comes from to
cover the private business employees.

Of course, no one will mind the added cost to all goods and serivces
across the board to fund coverage for 100% of the population - even
those unemployed or unemployable.

What I find interesting is that as a small employeer of union
ironworkers and carpenters, we are struggling to get work. Primarily
the issue is labor cost. A huge portion of our labor cost is the cost
of the union health and retirement funds. Nobody wants to pay the
rates we have to charge to keep my employees covered. As an example,
when was the last time you insisted that the builder who built your
home, deck, patio, installed your new range, installed your new
carpet, etc prove that he had health coverage for his employees? I'd
guess you took the low bid and ran with it.

I'm all for fixing health care - but lets fix costs. If the costs can
be contained - people will get coverage.

jh