- Joined
- Feb 12, 2006
- Messages
- 15,998
- Reaction score
- 3,962
- Location
- Tiamat's better half
- Gender
- Female
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
If I was forced to pay higher corporate taxes i'd axe my very generous health plan for my employees and tell em to get the "free" obamacare.
but no, I have a very very comprehensive plan. I have no desire to downgrade.
It wouldn't be free. They would have to buy the public option.
My husband owns his own small business. The plans that we can buy, the ones that are available in this area for small employers, are crap. We have a high deductible plan combined with a health savings account. So basically for our family we pay close to $500 a month for a plan that doesn't kick in till we've met a $5000 a year deductible (haven't ever met in 5 years). So we pay $500 a month in the off chance that there's an expensive medical crisis emergency with one of us. Then we pay 100% of all our medical costs. It's outrageous but that's what's available to us, here. That's us.
Now let's look at my parents. My stepfather has a chronic issue with his arteries. Heart issues run in his family. His heart is healthy but he has abnormally small arteries and needs to have this routine blood thing done where blood is drawn out of him, they do crap to it-I don't know) and then put it back in. This condition makes him virtually impossible to insure with any new insurance company due to pre-existing condition laws. He is currently insured through my mom's work. She can never switch jobs or lose her current job because if that were to happen he would never be picked up by a new insurance. They would ALL turn him down. That's insanity.
If folks have to pay for the public option -just as folks pay for private options- then am I crazy for thinking it might be a good thing? If there was a decently priced, easily accessible public option it would cause the private options to become more competitively priced as well.
I'm sure ultimately this would lead to many employers advising their employees to go on the public plan. I'm also sure as a result many private companies would fail and close up shop. But, so?
My biggest fear would be that year to year more and more folks would be added to the list of folks who get the "public" option for free. Bigger welfare. However if they can keep that from happening and folks are simply paying for the public option I think it's worth trying.