Small Business Health Insurance Tips & Advice

Saturday, January 9, 2010

INTELLIGENT Health Insurance Reform Using The Free Market and LIMITED Government

As a multi-state Licensed Health & Life Insurance Broker, I have been providing quality Health Insurance services for hundreds of families and Small Businesses around the country for the last 15 years. I have seen first hand how WELL our health care system works AND how well our Health Insurance system CAN work. I have seen first hand (over and over again) what happens when a Health Insurance company pays claims (by the hundreds of thousands) thereby protecting the financial future of their insureds and ensuring that they receive the very best medical treatment. Specifically by allowing them access to expensive medical procedures that they could never afford on their own. I have also helped many consumers obtain access to legitimate major medical Health Insurance coverage even if they were labeled as "uninsurable" on the open market.

That being said, I have also seen first hand where our Health Insurance system has failed. Most especially when it comes to denying applicants coverage for pre-existing conditions when they apply for Individual (non Group) Health Insurance. In fact, it is arguably this one systemic problem (over all others) that has led to the current fever pitch amongst the Democrat Majority to push their idea of health insurance "reform" on to the American public. Sadly, even though President Obama promised unprecedented Transparency during the current Health Insurance "reform" negotiations. We have seen no such thing since the process began. Thankfully both the House & Senate bills have been released for the American Public to review. One thing I can tell you after reading both bills is that neither bill is about health insurance reform. They are instead about Tyranny.

Nonetheless, we still definitely need Health Insurance reform on many levels and if Government must play a part, there are intelligent things that can be done. Here’s where they can actually help:

Eliminate the ridiculous State imposed Mandates that PROHIBIT Health Insurers from offering coverage in EVERY SINGLE STATE! For example, Small Businesses in California have roughly 6 (yes that's six) options for Health Insurance. Yet there are 1,300 Health Insurance companies in America! States like Colorado FORCE carriers to cover "substance abuse" which DOUBLES the Health Insurance premiums in Colorado (you can now waive "substance abuse" coverage and your premium is subsequently reduced BY HALF!). This kind of State Mandate (and so many more) is what prevent the majority of Health Insurance carriers from offering their products in every State.

Basic economics 101 teaches us that NOTHING increases quality and drives down prices LIKE COMPETITION! How can we increase quality and competition when we stifle it by imposing ridiculous mandates that inhibit competition from the get go? All 1,300 Health Insurance carriers should be able to offer ALL of their products in EVERY SINGLE STATE. This way if you do not like your current coverage you have 1, 299 OTHER OPTIONS. With that many options available, carriers are NATURALLY FORCED BY THE RULES OF COMPETITION AND FREE MARKET ENTERPRISE to IMPROVE not only the quality of their products but to also improve their customer service OR THE CONSUMER WILL PURCHASE their Health Insurance from 1,299 other carriers! It's as simple as that! Also, actuarial tables teach us that the more lives that are in the pool, the lower the premiums for all. How much lower could premiums be if everyone in EVERY state had 1300 carriers to choose from? How can NONE of the bills proposed in the House or the Senate not address repealing the McCarran-Ferguson-Act of 1945?

Instead of bailing out GM with Billions of our blood sweat and tears and then letting them file bankruptcy 3 months later. Why not expand State Run High Risk Pools to ALL States for those who are rendered uninsurable? We already have such State Run High Risk Health Insurance pools in the majority of States. These Risk Pools will cover anyone regardless of their medical history. The problem is they are under funded so the premiums are extremely high. Instead of spending up to $2.6 TRILLION over the next decade to insure only 20 Million of the 45 Million uninsured. LEAVE the bulk of the nation's risk where the money is, namely with the insurance companies. Since the uninsured FAR outweigh the uninsurable, this would cost far less than the currently proposed $2.6 Trillion over the next 10 years.

Update the outdated Health Insurance Portability laws (regarding credit for pre-existing conditions) to INCLUDE Individual Health Insurance Policies. As it stands now, HIPAA law allows an insured to move from one "Employer Sponsored Group Health Insurance Plan" to another "Employer Sponsored Group Health Insurance Plan" and receive FULL coverage for "pre-existing" conditions so long as they can prove to the new carrier that they have had 18 months of prior coverage with no lapse of more than 63 days. Millions of American Entrepreneurs have chosen to leave Corporate America and strike out on their own since these archaic laws were written in the 1980's. As the face of our work force changes so too should the laws that protect it. Most especially since these entrepreneurs shoulder the BULK of the nation's risk and PAY the bulk of the nation's tax load! Throw them a legal bone!

Educate the American consumer about the primary reason for the high cost of health insurance! Namely, LOW DEDUCTIBLE, LOW CO PAY (a.k.a. Traditional) Health Insurance. NOTHING drives up the cost of Health Insurance like maintaining a low deductible, low co pay plan. Instead, offer new more intelligent option to the American Consumer like "Consumer Driven Tax Qualified Health Insurance". There simply is no more intelligent or cost effective way to insure anyone. The sad part is, these Consumer Driven Tax Qualified concepts have been around for more than a DECADE! Yet, only a small minority of the American population has even explored these intelligent (& much lower priced) Health Insurance alternatives. Those that have, are WAY AHEAD of the rest of population when it comes to managing medical risk.

I would say weed out the 12 million Illegals (that we know about) who are sucking our Medicaid system dry...but as Congressman Joe Wilson so aptly stated, Obama CLEARLY wants to "provide a PATH TO CITIZENSHIP for the 10 to 12 million Illegals in our country". Once they're legal, he can then cover them ALL on our tax dollar! So YES his plan IS to cover Illegals, he'll just make em legal first! Think they're not sucking our Medicaid system dry? Just visit California or Illinois. Good old “Blago” enrolled thousands of Illegals in to our Medicaid system, thereby running the program in the ground & leaving our Illinois Medicaid system approx. $1.5 BILLION behind in payment of claims to physicians who have been providing “free” care to all illegals who were lucky enough to flock to the State of Illinois to insure themselves for “free”. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 10 to 12 Million of the Uninsured in America are illegal aliens. Who comprise the rest? Find out here.

TORT REFORM! This is one area of reform that is rarely spoken of by the Liberal left. Medical malpractice liability forces providers into practicing defensive medicine. In other words, it causes medical practitioners to order multiple expensive (and often times unnecessary) tests and procedures "in defense of" potential lawsuits, JUST IN CASE they miss something in a patient's case. All for fear of being sued for ridiculous amounts in a malpractice lawsuit. Limiting liability lawsuit awards to reasonable amounts will deter those who seek the "big pay day" by filing frivolous lawsuits against medical practitioner.

Establish a Federal oversight committee to regulate and hold accountable physicians who make medical mistakes. What’s one of the biggest reasons why health care is so expensive? Hint: It’s not “rich CEO’s” and “outdated medical records transfer processes.” It’s Medical Mistakes! Here’s the real facts you won’t find in the media outlets:

1994: Five years after a groundbreaking Institute of Medicine report focused attention on medical errors in hospitals, Americans say that they do not believe that the nation’s quality of care has improved. In fact, 1 out of 3 patients states that they have experienced a serious medical error http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w4.534

1995: A Study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) found that only two percent of medication errors that occurred during the medication administration process were intercepted.
a. More people die from medication errors than from work place injuries
b. Medication errors account for approximately one out of 131 outpatient deaths and one out of 854 inpatient deaths.

1999: Institute of Medicine (IOM) releases its first report on healthcare quality and medical errors. http://www.iom.edu/?id=12735 The Study finds in part that:

a. Medical errors are responsible for injury in as many as 1 out of every 25 hospital patients.
b. Between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors in hospitals alone.
c. The deaths from preventable medical mistakes are equivalent to the number of people who would die if a jumbo jet crashed EACH AND EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR, and all its passengers died!
d. Medical errors cause more deaths than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer or AIDS…..and this study is TEN YEARS OLD and STILL no Federal oversight committee! Oh wait! It gets worse!

2002: A Study issued by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) concluded that more than 200,000 medication errors occurred during 2002

2004: CDC reports that 90,000 patient deaths occur each year due to patients contracting hospital acquired infections. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/nnis/2004NNISreport.pdf
a. Many hospital acquired infections are caused by health care workers who fail to wash their hands in between patients.

2006: Studies assessing the state of hospital patient safety conclude that current progress is slow, results in general are at best modest, and the gap between the best possible care and actual care remains large. http://www.healthgrades.com/media/dms/pdf/PatientSafetyInAmericanHospitalsStudy2006.pdf

More Facts:

Preventable medical errors result in extended hospital stays, expensive treatment for chronic medical conditions and astronomical medical costs that are associated with treating debilitating life-long illnesses. Some experts state that these costs may be in the range of $150-200 Billion dollars per year. Gee, where else could we spend that money??? Quick reminder:

ALL of the aforementioned happened under the nose of our Federal Government. And we want them to regulate Health Care?? Let’s not save ALL of our anger for the “greedy” insurance companies and “over paid” doctors and CEO’s. Let’s focus our Anger on our GOVERNMENT who has allowed this systemic problem to continue over three administrations!

Ask yourself, why does the health care industry basically regulate and report on itself? Why is certification and accreditation voluntary? Why don’t we have a Federal agency that acts like the FAA and investigate medical mistakes, just like airline accidents or near misses? Why do only some states have mandatory reporting requirements of medical errors? All Good Questions that need to be answered before we hand over our very health freedoms to the same Government to “regulate”.

In summary, REAL healthcare reform can be accomplished through consumer education, weeding out abuse of existing Federal entitlement programs (via a legitimate needs assessment) and increased funding and expansion of existing State sponsored Risk Pools so that people who are declined for insurance have an affordable option to continue coverage if declined on the individual major medical market. Following these few simple steps will go a long way towards not only maintaining our current health care system, but also towards keeping the bulk of our nations risk where it belongs, namely with the private health insurance industry. In light of the recent multi Trillion Dollar "Bail Outs" and many other failing corporations coming to the table with their hats in their hands (and their private jets on the tarmac) the last thing our government should do is start cutting more blind "bail out" checks in an effort to "reform" the U.S. health care system.

But hey what do I know? The video below sure makes Government sound wonderful! I mean just look at their track record!

By the way, unlike the lies told by many. Conservative Republicans DO HAVE a plan to reform our nation's health insurance system. It is called the "Empowering Patient's First Act" or HR3400.

Tyranny Disguised as Health Care "Reform"

So now that the "Public Option" is dead & the Medicare "Buy In Option" is dead and the Democrats have now passed their 'Historic" Health Care "reform" bill in the Senate. What's next? Well, it's now a 3 Step Process. I will attempt to outline these steps below:

1.) The Senate bill could go directly to the House for consideration. At that time, the House could decide to give it a "Yes" or "No" vote right then and there. This is not likely though, because the bill coming to them for a majority vote is MUCH different than what was sent to the Senate.

2.) What is most likely going to happen is that after January 1st, 2010 the Senate Bill will go to a "Conference Committee". This would mean that a select group of Congressmen from both chambers would meet once AGAIN "behind closed doors" in an attempt to reconcile both bills in to one MASSIVE bill.

3.) From there, a finished bill would have to be voted on in both chambers. The House will go first and then the Senate. Afterwards, the bill would be sent to the President's desk for a signature. This would be a dream for the Democrats because their ultimate goal here is to get SOME SORT of reform bill passed before the President's State of the Union address in February 2010.

Politico Senior Editor David Mark does a GREAT Job of Decoding what's left in the current Bills & what happens from here on CBS:

Before I even begin trying to describe what the Democrats consider to be "Health Care Reform" let me first expose a little piece of information that they DO NOT want you to know. If we were to simply cut the $760 BILLION in annual waste that exists in our current Health Care system, we could provide EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 46 Million Uninsured a Gold Plated Health Care plan that would make the CEOs of Blue Cross Blue Shield GREEN with envy. Oh, and it would only cost us HALF of the aforementioned $760 BILLION. So WHY in GOD's NAME do the Democrats want to spend $2.4 TRILLION over the next 10 years to cover the 46 Million Uninsured AND also MANDATE the purchase of GOVERNMENT APPROVED HEALTH INSURANCE? Because it's not about health care, it's about Tyranny.

The massive 2074 pg. Senate Health Care reform bill is called the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act and Harry Reid SWEARS it's "deficit neutral" and that it "protects" Medicare. Even though he planned to expand Medicare to Americans as young as age 55. This was a "trade off" that took place when the Public Option was FINALLY killed on December 9, 2009 and replaced with the now equally dead Medicare "Buy In Option". Did I mention that Medicare is already BANKRUPT with a $43 Trillion deficit as of January 2008? Maybe this is why Timothy Geithner, Kathleen Sebelius, Hilda Solis and Michael Astrue were less than encouraging in their troubling 2009 annual report on Social Security & Medicare. Did I also mention that in order to GET Medicare at age 55 they were planning on charging $7,600 a year in premiums to each enrollee at a cost to Tax Payers of more than $1 TRILLION? I'm glad that's Dead. But wait! The bill still cuts Medicare by $500 BILLION! Here's the BEST PART of these bills! No health care "Hope" or "Change" begins until 2014! In fact, the only thing that begins is HIGHER TAXES for all of us who actually pay taxes and who most likely ALREADY HAVE OUR OWN HEALTH INSURANCE!

Even before the "Public Option" provision in the Senate bill was killed, there was a provision in the bill for States to "opt out" of the Government Health Insurance option. I wonder if this is because they actually READ the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th or 10th Amendment of our Constitution which clearly prove that these bills are UNCONSTITUTIONAL? Remember when Speaker Pelosi said that the bill will "not add ONE dime to the deficit"? I can only assume that she "mis-spoke" because these bills will add MILLIONS OF DIMES TO OUR DEFICIT. In fact, they are Ponzi schemes that would make Bernie Madoff look like a philanthropist!

These bills are economy KILLERS, Small Business KILLERS and Middle Class destroyers! Equally troubling is the fact that those who have been chosen to represent our best interests apparently have NO IDEA that we have NO MONEY to pay for this! We have now amassed a $12 TRILLION National Deficit. With this reckless spending comes consequences. The Inflation Institute outlines exactly what those consequences will be below in their short but powerful film:

By the way, if you think EITHER of these bills will cost less than $2.4 Trillion, you might want to do your own due diligence like the CATO Institute did. John Boehner tells us ALL ABOUT these bloated pieces of Govt. special interest payola on America's News Room:

An even better assessment was made on 10/30/09 by Constitutional Attorney Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation. This could be the reason why the Wall Street Journal called the House bill "The Worst Bill EVER". Worse yet! These bills literally commit HARD TYRANNY on the American citizen BY IMPRISONING AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR UP TO 5 YEARS if they don't BUY HEALTH INSURANCE! Oh yeah it's in there! I have a natural aversion to fine print. So I've taken the Liberty of "blowing up the IRS code" (pun intended).

Want more proof? Here's some clarification on the fine and prison time clauses directly from Congress http://bit.ly/25P0Y0. One of the most enjoyable videos I have seen in a LONG time is the one where Speaker Pelosi was asked by an intrepid reporter if she felt it was "fair" to imprison people who do not buy Health Insurance. Always nice to see a politician squirm when questioned about their OWN LEGISLATION!

How are former Health Care reform activists responding to this? Watch MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Yell at Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) as she tries to "spin" the truth about the health care "reform" bills.

Even the Patron Saint of health care "reform" Dr. Howard Dean is now saying KILL THIS BILL!

Keith Olbermann goes a step further and states "I will got to jail before I buy Obamacare Insurance!" KILL THIS BILL!

Pelosi's Bill will also cut $500 BILLION in Medicare. What will that do? Listen to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on 11/17/09

Congressman Ed Whitfield (Kentucky) lists some other "ugly truths" about Pelosi's "health care reform" bill (also on 11/17/09):

Did I also mention that Senator Barbara Mikulski's (Maryland Democrat) bill that designates ABORTION AS PREVENTATIVE CARE just passed in the Senate as well? This is MADNESS! According to CBS News, there are ONE MILLION VETERANS WAITING for their disability claims RIGHT NOW through the Veterans Administration & we want to expand this bloated bureaucracy nationwide? More MADNESS:

You may be asking yourself. HOW DID THIS BILL GET PASSED? Well at first it was hopeful that AT LEAST A FEW Democrats would have a 'crisis of conscience" and vote against the Senate bill. However, their guilty conscience was quickly appeased with MILLIONS & MILLIONS of YOUR TAX DOLLARS. First, there was the $300 MILLION bribe to Senator Mary Landreiu (which is now known as the new "Louisiana Purchase"). Senator Landreiu was very public about her lack of support for the health care bill. She even told the press that "I can not be bought" But after she received YOUR MILLIONS for her State, she quickly changed her vote to "YES".

Then there was the "Nebraska Purchase" to Senator Ben Nelson. He was the last "holdout" in the Senate. First, the Whitehouse threatened to close Offutt Air Force Base in Nelson's home state if he did not vote "Yes". Once this threat was exposed in the media, the Democrats chose to fall back on the tried and true negotiation tactic known as "PAYOLA". After Senator Nelson & Senator Reid spent 13 hours behind closed doors. Senator Nelson (a former staunch advocate against funding abortions with tax dollars) ALL OF A SUDDEN changed his vote to a "YES". Why? Because his State would now be EXEMPT FROM PAYING ANY ADDITIONAL MEDICAID COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PASSAGE OF THIS BUREAUCRATIC MONSTROSITY! Funny how a MILLIONS OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS can "ease the conscience" of your elected officials!

Those are only 2 of the dirty back room deals cut by Harry Reid. For a complete list of every "dirty deed" see The Washington Post.

How exactly can President Obama state that he "will not increase taxes on the middle class" if he allows these massive 1,990 & 2074 paged TRAIN WRECKS to pass? Does he not know what American's think about these bills? Did he not here us in Washington D.C on the steps of our nation's capitol at the "KILL THE BILL" rally on November 5, 2009?

OR at the Code Red Rally on December 15, 2009?

JUST LOOK at all the new TAXES nestled deep in side these massive bills! Not to mention the $6.7 BILLION in new Premium Taxes!

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). nsulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Flexible Spending Accounts) (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000
($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

How will ALL of these new taxes affect us? Forbes Magazine does a GREAT job of breaking it all down.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) pointed out some VERY DISTURBING language in the Senate health care bill during floor remarks on 12/21/09. First, he noted that there are a number of changes to Senate rules in the bill--and it's supposed to take a 2/3 vote to change the rules! And then he pointed out that the Reid bill declares on page 1020 that the Independent Medicare Advisory Board cannot be repealed by future Congresses! This is unprecedented legislation that is tantamount to TYRANNY!

With all of the aforementioned evidence stacked against the health care bills. Senate Democrats STILL say Republicans are "evil" for opposing it. My favorite video showing the Democrat's "righteous indignation" towards Republicans was the recent drunken tirade by Max Baucus from the floor of the U.S. Senate. That's right, I said DRUNKEN tirade from the floor of the US Senate:

All of this insanity began last July, when the Congressional Budget Office scored the Democrat's HR3200 Health Insurance reform bill BEFORE Democrats snuck 75 "phantom" amendments in to the bill (which were NOT scored by the CBO). On October 7th, 2009 the CBO was then commissioned to score the first 1502 paged Senate reform bill hilariously named America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. The assessment (at first) seemed to be more favorable than the earlier score given to HR3200 back in July. That is of course, until Price Waterhouse Cooper exposed the TRUE COST of the Democrat's Health Insurance reform bills. Let's just say the word ROB doesn't even begin to describe what an abject failure the Democrats "reform" bills would be. Moreover, not only will the bills NOT be deficit neutral, they will actually end up costing Tax Payers dramatically more for their health insurance For excellent in depth video commentary on Price Waterhouse Cooper's cost analysis please watch the informative video below:

Democrats have made it clear that they believe that health care is a "Fundamental Right". However, no one seems to be discussing the "fundamental rights" we LOSE under both of these bills. In fact, if it were not for Patriotic American Tax Paying Citizens voicing their INFORMED dissent at Town Hall Meetings across the country AND the ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX THOUSAND Patriots who showed up in Washington D.C. on 09/12/09. President Obama and a Democrat controlled House & Senate would have MOST DEFINITELY passed HR3200 in it's original UGLY form!

The sad truth is the vast majority of the population (and the majority of Senators) have not bothered to actually READ the 1,000 plus paged HR3200 bill or the 1,502 paged "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. To save us time the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlined the fundamental rights we loose under the HR3200 bill Click here to read their analysis. An even better in depth analysis was recently completed by...wait for it....an ACTUAL Insurance Broker with 22 years of experience in.....wait for it.....The Health Insurance Industry! What a concept! Consult with those who actually know what they're talking about! His excellent in depth analysis of the HR3200 bill can be found on his web site @ www.wrongreform.com

Regarding America's Healthy Choices Act. All you need to do is read Section 2203 entitled "Guaranteed Issue and Renewal For Insurance Plans" (starting on Page 19). In this section we enter in to what I like to call "Lawmaker La La Land" where not only must an Insurance company COVER ALL APPLICANTS REGARDLESS OF PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, but they also are PROHIBITED from charging ANYTHING EXTRA because of pre-existing conditions. For those that have no idea how health insurance works (like those in the Senate who actually wrote this ridiculous legislation) I'll quote (in part) directly from the Wall Street Journal article of 8/12/09.

"If insurers are forced to sell coverage to everyone at any time, many people will buy insurance only when they need medical care. This raises the cost of insurance for everyone else, in particular those who are responsible enough to buy insurance before they need it; they end up paying even higher premiums. And the more expensive the insurance, the less likely people will buy it before they need it.

That's one reason that only five states—Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont—have Mr. Obama's proposal for "guaranteed issue" on the books today. New Hampshire and Kentucky repealed such laws after finding that they soon had an even smaller individual insurance market as companies fled the state.

Another proposed reform known as "community rating" imposes uniform premiums regardless of health condition. This also blows up the individual insurance market, by making it far more expensive for young, healthy or low-risk consumers to join pools—if they join at all. And if the healthy don't join risk pools, then premiums go up for everyone and insurers have little choice but to reduce their risk by refusing to cover those who have a high chance of getting sick, such as people with a history of cancer. This is why 35 states today impose no limits whatsoever on how much insurers can vary premiums and six states allow wide variation among consumers.

New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have both community rating and guaranteed issue. And, no surprise, they have the three most expensive individual insurance markets among all 50 states, with premiums roughly two to three times higher than the rest of the country. In 2007, the average annual premium in New Jersey was $5,326 for singles and in New York $12,254 for a family, versus the national average of $2,613 and $5,799, respectively. Obama Care would impose New York-type rates nationwide."

So you see Health Insurance is about MANAGEMENT of RISK. Insuring everyone regardless of medical history and without charging anything extra is actuarially UNSOUND. Since Health Insurance companies have to be fiscally responsible, such practices lead to unmanageable risk and in turn unaffordable premiums. This is exactly why a Federal "Public Option" could NEVER POSSIBLY be considered "Healthy Competition". Why? Because insurance companies can not tap in to the Federal reserve when claims exceed revenue. A Federal "Public Option" would most certainly do so (as the Federal Government has been doing feverishly lately).

This is clearly NOT the way to "reform" our health care system and this is why we have seen predominantly Liberal news outlets like The New York Post, The Huffington Post, Salon.com and The Washington Post vehemently condemn President Obama's "Health Care"...er...."Health Insurance" reform plans. Whilst both parties (and most American's) feel that something has to be done. The question is, what is the best course of action? There are still those who actually believe that a "Single Payer" system would be the best option. The President does not agree, although he clearly stated his support for such a system prior to his election.

One of the most passionate statements made by any Congressman thus far on the current health insurance reform debate was made by Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers. After actually READING the bills, he had some genuine concerns and he was not afraid to voice them and boy did he EVER voice his concerns!

For those of you old enough to remember Jack Webb, you will thoroughly enjoy his thoughts on President Obama's plans here:

Nevertheless, we still definitely need health care reform on many levels and if Government must play a part, there are intelligent things they can do. Here’s where they can actually help:

2002: A Study issued by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) concluded that more than 200,000 medication errors occurred during 2002

More Facts:

What this Administration (and others before it) do not seem to understand are the basic fundamental principles and guidelines our Founders knew long before our current fiscal insolvency. For a refresher course on the wisdom of our Founders watch this:

By the way, unlike the lies told by the Democrats. Conservative Republicans DO HAVE a plan to reform our nation's health insurance system. It is called the "Empowering Patient's First Act" or HR3400. If you ever wondered what the differences are between Conservatives and Liberals this Power Point Presentation sums it up quite nicely. Here's what's coming this year for Democrats: