Big Insurers Like ObamaCare

-by Linda Butts

Call Rape a Lollipop and Fools for Change clamor for a really big one!

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Healthcare Reform with 2020 Hindsight

Now, America and its lawmakers will wait four long years before the reforms begin to unfold.
But with little notice, a swarm of new taxes begins immediately.
Employees, consumers and patients will bear the burden.
- video

Biting the hand that feeds him

After presiding over a $787 billion economic stimulus package, bank bailouts and automaker rescues during his first year in office, the Democratic president rejects arguments that his administration is unfriendly to business.
Still, his tough words about Wall Street practices and sky-high bonuses caught many executives off guard.
Obama, while trying not to alienate business leaders whose support he needs to boost the economy, has sought to capitalize on voter anger over big bank profits.
Democrats want to claim the issue ahead of congressional elections in November, when Republicans are expected to gain seats in Congress.

North Korea Propaganda

Healthcare reform fails to lower insurance costs without increasing the cost of doing business

Don’t be silent and let this bill move forward without making your voice heard. Do your part and tell your Senators they must lower costs without increasing the cost of doing business.

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FOX NEWS BOWS TO PRESSURE

Fox is already cowering before the President in response to his complaint that FOX News doesn’t show enough black and Hispanic people on their network.

FOX has just announced that they will now air  ”America’s Most Wanted” TWICE a week.

-mahalo to RK

Last Committee Vote Clears the Way for Senate Showdown

- from National Federation of Independent Business

Just two days ago the Senate Finance Committee voted to approve America’s Healthy Futures Act of 2009.

It’s not perfect, but of the bills that have won committee approvals in the House and the Senate, this is the only one that gives us a real chance at reaching the goals that we’ve worked so hard to achieve.

However, you need to know this is just one more step to a final bill, and tough debates lie ahead. We’ll be watching these debates carefully, as we’ll have to weigh the benefits of reform against potential new costs of doing business. Rest assured we won’t support a final health reform package if its long-term costs outweigh the benefits we’ve secured in the Finance Committee’s bill.

Those benefits include:

• Individual and small group market reforms that include protections against preexisting conditions, and rating reform that accounts for variations in age, geography, family composition and personal behavior.
• A health insurance exchange modeled on provisions under the SHOP legislation (S. 979) that will improve competition, allow small businesses and individuals a broader choice of plans and create a simpler and more efficient way to purchase insurance.
• Provisions that will allow national benefit plans to be purchased across state lines that will increase competition and give more options to consumers.

There’s no doubt that some members of Congress will make a strong push to ensure that both an employer mandate and a public option are part of the final bill, so we have our work cut out for us to prevent these bad ideas from becoming the law of the land.

Our message to you is also our message to Congress: We need reform efforts that provide more affordable and accessible healthcare options for you and your employees. And we will do everything we can to ensure that a final bill makes your needs a priority.

The Three C’s of Healthcare Reform

from NFIB.com

What Small Business Wants From Healthcare Reform

What Small Business Wants From Healthcare Reform

Small Business Matters in the Debate, And the Debate Matters to Small Business

• The cost of health insurance has been the No. 1 problem facing small businesses for more than 20 years.
• About half of the nation’s uninsured are people who are self-employed or work for a small business.
• Small businesses buy in the individual and small group markets – the two most broken and expensive markets.
• A June 2009 New York Times story noted “Policy analysts and others say, unless the insurance industry is willing to give some of the same ground to small businesses that they have ceded to individual policy holders, a big part of what is wrong with the nation’s health care system may not get fixed.”

Healthcare reform for small business must address the 3 C’s:

Cost, Choice and Competition

Cost: The cost of insurance for small business and their employees must come down. Small business pays more (than big business) for less.

• For too many small business owners, healthcare is one of their fastest growing and most unpredictable costs.
• Since 1999, health insurance costs for small firms have increased 113 percent.
• Employees in our nation’s smallest firms pay an average of 18 percent more in health insurance premiums for the same benefits the largest firms provide.
• Small business and the self-employed want equity in tax treatment – regardless of how or where insurance is purchased.

Choice: Owners and employees need more choices of insurance plans and options, and an easier way to “shop” for these plans.

• Today, among firms with 1-199 workers, 86 percent of those who offer coverage can only offer one plan.
• Small business desperately needs a more efficient marketplace in which to purchase health insurance.
• A well-functioning connector-exchange can be an answer to these needs. It is critical that exchanges guarantee all small business owners access to more choices of plans.

Competition: Lack of competition makes it easier for insurers and providers to raise prices. We need greater competition in the marketplace.

• A 2009 General Accounting Office report found that competition in the small group market has become further concentrated with less competition amongst carriers.
  • When combined, the five largest carriers in the small group market account for 75 percent or more of the market in 34 of the 39 states.
• Small employers benefit most from reforms that spur competition, such as those reflected by the SHOP Act (H.R. 3260), legislation targeted to small business that utilizes insurance market reforms, tax -based incentives and personal choice for health insurance – in a voluntary setting.