Health Care for everyone

Well I just heard Governor Ed Rendell state on television that Hilary's Health Care plan was completely laid out on her web site. So I decided to read it to see if there was something I missed over the years that might actually convince me that the Clinton's had changed their big government ways. I read a lot about the super plan for financing her health plan on the backs of the so called super rich. Any one making over $250,000 which I am not one but I was curious how they arrived at this number. Why not make it $160,000. This would include all the Senators in Congress. If her plan was correct, then this would save even more money. But that was just an aside before I get down to the meat of the plan. Since I own a small business and I can't afford the health care plans that are currently put before me as affordable, I am very interested in what the two candidates are suggesting. Forget about the Republicans, they offer nothing and definitely won't win. I say this as a Republican. So, reviewing the plans I see a big gap in Hilary's offer. Every time she discusses her plan, she put's her finger on eliminating the Bush tax cuts and then talks about a paltry savings of 4 billion dollars that can be recovered from pharmaceutical companies. To me, this is the biggest problem with health care but what do I know. Anyway, she writes that it will be the responsibility of the individual to get and "keep" their health care plan. Last I looked, no one had revamped the Cobra rules that allow an individual to stay on their corporate health care plans but they are responsible for paying the full cost of the plan. This cost is usually inflated and excessive and it is the primary reason that someone who is temporarily unemployed has no health insurance. If you have no income, then how the heck can you keep paying $600 plus a month for insurance. So you can't afford the insurance and then you get assessed a fine for not having insurance, probably the full cost of another government provided plan.

That's just one flaw, but the main issue that contains all the typical government double talk in the article is the addressing of small business supplied health care for the business employees. It offers no real incentives but has plenty of innuendos that it will cost you more. It talks about attracting more employees, (I didn't know this was important, attraction is based on pay in my world), and then getting some vague type of tax incentive. Since most small businesses operate at a loss, why would I need a tax incentive? Then it states that hilary herself will work with the small business community and Congress (thanks for nothing) to design parameters of the tax credit. Then she states that the credit might dovetail with the tax credit going to individuals and families to make premiums affordable. My question is, who is paying what and to whom. Is small business required to offer health care to its employees and then charge the full amount of the cost subtracting that cost from their pay and then claiming a tax credit for just offering it. Well that works for me, only I don't think any of my employees will take it. Also, again demonstrating that she has no idea of what the average middle class American is going through, she doesn't address that most people today work two and three jobs. So who pays the healthcare in that case? All these people out their earning 1099's. They are the backbone of the American working force. They struggle every day to keep out of debt and this plan just added extra debt to their burden. She seems to think that people work extra jobs just so they can buy expensive items or because they wanted a car they really shouldn't have bought.

Her plan completely left me in the dark, when it tried to get into how her plan can benefit the employers who have retirees on their health care payroll. She called them a "drag on competitiveness and job creation." Excuse me, but these corporations used retirement health care plans to lure employees to their low paying jobs in the beginning and now those employees are a drag on competitiveness. Hey, I have the perfect CLINTON SOLUTION. Why don't we just do like the federal government did under BILL and HILARY the last time. They promised health care to the military after they retire and then the Clintons closed all the bases where the health care was provided. Sounds like a perfect solution that worked once. Saved a lot money too. This is typical of the kind of big government solutions the Clinton's have offered in the past,

And then she wants to hold management responsible in her plan. This is a quote " The American Health Choice Plan (AHCP)( or as I call it American Hilary Clinton Plan) will provide a tax credit for qualifying private and public retiree health plans to offset a significant portion of catastrophic expenditures that exceed a certain threshold. Such reinsurance would be time-limited to reflect the short term demographic need of the aging baby boomers, and would be devised in a manner that does not add to our long term fiscal challenges. The policy will be designed to make companies more competitive and assist workers - and not to take pressure off the need for strong managerial leadership at the top. {Can any one make sense out this gibberish} What does all this have to do with retirees receiving the benefits they are entitled. To me it says to big companies, don't worry I'll take care of you again after I'm elected We'll let the government pay for your retirees health care (thus the referral to the public retiree) and then if you contribute to my re-election we won't go after your management in the second term. See how she slipped "Reinsurance " in there. Where did she put forth a plan for "reinsurance" ? Who will pay for that ? Maybe she'll close all the HMO's (Congress doesn't use HMO's) then you'll have to get your health care from Bethesda Naval Hospital if you live near there, once your HMO's are closed. Hey retirees, wake up - YOU ARE ABOUT TO LOSE MORE BENEFITS.

Truthfully, CHANGE doesn't identify the Clinton campaign, OUT OF TOUCH should be her slogan.