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jps

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:10:59 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:38:58 -0700, jps wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:21:55 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:37:40 -0700, jps wrote:

snipped for brevity

There's a ton of small businesses like mine that are already stressed
by the cost of providing health care. Expect there are a lots having
to drop coverage because of cost. Ours has been going up at more than
10% a year and we've had to opt for inferior coverage to what we had
originally to keep it within our means.

I suppose if you're not currently operating a business, you might be
unaware how challenging the situation is...

If the business is stressed by providing health care, why provide it?
There is no governmental mandate that you do so. The only mandate in
most states is for the provisioin of Workman's Comp.

It's standard in our industry where I'm a small player. Large
employers provide and I compete in the same market for expert
employess.

Are your
employees incapable of providing thier own? Is the compensation given
your employees inadequate for their needs? Do you pay full cost of
their insurance? It is a common practice for businesses to help
relieve the (voluntary) stress of coverage by putting part or all of
the cost of coverage on the employee, even if their coverage is a
group.

We cover employee only and deduct for spouse and dependents. There's
no way we could cover families.

Have you explored HSA's, HRA's, FSA's?

We have an FSA in place.

Are you aware that
insurance companies compete for you business?

Yes, painfully.

Are you aware that
HDHP's are desgined to keep premiums low?

Yes, we're considering a move to one.

If your insurance is a
group, is it a PPO?

Yes, Regence.

If you are genuinely concerned about covering
your employees, have you earnestly explored all insurance options?

Abso-****ing-lutely.

(I owned a manufacturing concern for more than a decade. It wouldn't
in your best interest to complain about any naivete on my part, in
asking these questions. (And I am also a licensed insurance agent.))

When I moved my company from CA to WA we enjoyed significantly lower
premiums. CA had already started the steep climb. After double digit
hikes in rates, it has become painful.

I identified the problem to a state representative 5 years ago at a
small dinner reception. And while it was a known problem, it wasn't
the state's only problem nor high on the priority list. I expect it's
higher now.

Do you think that health insurance reform legislation won't require
that employers pay for health insurance, in some measure, for all of
their employees?

So, I answered all your questions and narry a syllable retort. You
seem only to want to take pot shots.

My sincere hope is that the public option represents a competitive bid
against the scammers that currently make profit through health care.

I take it you're among the profiteers whose living comes from taxing
our access to proper health care?

Why should I waste energy and time on tired ad hominem? I've worked
my myself silly today (a Sunday, no less), and I haven't had time to
enjoy a persistent, johnny-on-the-spot debate to prove my polemical
prowess to you or anyone else. It's an unfortunate risk I take when
I engage these discussions. I've spent the day mowing a yard that has
been too long neglected. I helped my sister (who is blind by virtue
of diabetic retinopathy) apply her lettering of her windows to her law
office. I took my sister shopping, as she is handicapped. I tended
to my garden. I worked on following up on insurance inquiry leads.
And I've done some other various, sundry things that needed attention.
And do you care to know what my current commissions are? I suspect
the issue is pointless, as you are demonstrably dogmatic. My
commssions are nil. Are you empathetic (less condescending to those
that don't share your political persuasion)? Then you have no problem
expressing your empathy for those thousands and hundred of thousands
of people who are involved in providing a means to finance health care
who are facing the prospect of losing their respective livelihoods to
a failed idealogy, I take it? The actuaries, the secretaries, the
managers, the general agents, the marketing specialists, the risk
specialists, the accountants, the producers, the CE providers, et al,
should thank the heavens above that the government will be there to
help their transition to their new lives. And what is "proper health
care"? Who in this government-take-all world determines what proper
health care is? Get your damnable government out of my life. And take
your red-herring arguments with you.

I want my freedom back, the freedom the government was originally
structured to protect.

Congrats, you're little rant embodies two of your favorite forms of
communication, ad-hominem and palaver.

Well done.