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People who think otherwise tend to be people who have never had to buy health insurance themselves, never mind buy it for their families. They have absolutely, positively no clue about premiums, deductibles, and the rigmarole of purchasing insurance.
I'm 44, female, non-smoker, not overweight, no major chronic diseases like diabetes or heart disease, and as any self-employed person can tell you, just for me, premiums are anywhere from $475 to $650 in New York. If I were to put a spouse and kids on the plan, that would be well over $1,000 a month. And let me tellya, they want to see your bank statements for your business if you're a sole proprietor and everything. You can't just apply and get insurance because you need it. And in New York, last I checked, short-term insurance isn't available. When I first moved up here, my choice was no insurance for the two months it took me to find a job, or a COBRA of $725 a month because my last employer in Virginia was self-insured for excellent coverage.
Now imagine being a 59-year-old 99er. Or someone who is underemployed (30 hours a week, not enough to qualify for company benefits) or who works for an employer small enough to avoid having to provide insurance, and who only makes about $35K a year. And has a family.
The new health law would force these folks to buy insurance.
At those ra
Yeah. Sure. Must be some Kool-Aid.
Without getting too far off topic, the new health care law would offer subsidies that would cover those in the exact circumstances you just described.
Without getting too far off topic, the new health care law would offer subsidies that would cover those in the exact circumstances you just described.
And the first time Mom or Dad split a cancer cell or Junior gets diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, we'll see how far those subsidies go.
Especially in New York. Insurance in this state is an unholy racket. Relevant to topic: Even so, we can thank unions for fighting for benefits. And I can't blame anyone for wanting to hold onto benefits once they have them.
Health reform as it stands today is nothing but a hand-out to insurance companies.
Maybe one day the U.S. will join the rest of the civilized world. Maybe.
And the first time Mom or Dad split a cancer cell or Junior gets diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, we'll see how far those subsidies go.
Especially in New York. Insurance in this state is an unholy racket.
Health reform as it stands today is nothing but a hand-out to insurance companies.
Maybe one day the U.S. will join the rest of the civilized world. Maybe.
The Insurance plans themselves will cover it. I'm in agreement that it needs to go further, but what was passed is quite a bit better than the old system.
Anyway to get back on topic, I don't see what Walker is doing with the collective bargaining happening in NY. Quite simply the Political dynamics are very different. The election that just happened in Wisconsin, could never happen here. Cuomo would not go for a bill like the one in Wisconsin, nor would the Assembly, and I highly doubt the State Senate would either.
Could cuts in benefits, paying more towards the Pensions pass? Yes, but that isn't what the uproar in Wisconsin is about, the Unions actually agreed to the cutbacks first proposed. The situation there is about the collective bargaining rights issue, and taking that away would get nowhere in NY.
And the first time Mom or Dad split a cancer cell or Junior gets diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, we'll see how far those subsidies go.
Especially in New York. Insurance in this state is an unholy racket. Relevant to topic: Even so, we can thank unions for fighting for benefits. And I can't blame anyone for wanting to hold onto benefits once they have them.
Health reform as it stands today is nothing but a hand-out to insurance companies.
Maybe one day the U.S. will join the rest of the civilized world. Maybe.
By "Civilized World" would you be meaning Western Europe? Yeah, because that's working out well.
And the benefits workers have today is an evolution of corporate social responsibility that was founded in the 1920's. A movement that peaked in the 1950s and 60s and has since been eroded by global competition. Unions did very little to drive the growth of corporate responsibility and they have done very little to stem back the tide going out.
As for the recent health reform, I think we can agree that we could have wrote that law in 3 lines and cut out all the other bull.
1. No more denial due to pre-existing conditions
2. Minors in college are covered to 26
3. Some type of benefit for more medical schools, because we are going to need more doctors with the population aging.
It seems that the issue surrounds the negotiation of work rules, pension, salary and automatic union deductions. I believe the teachers have already agreed to the 5.8% donation to pension, 12.6 % health.
There was a need to allow unions to negotiate working conditions in the distant past because of danger but I don't think that should be part of the process present day unless that is the case. Additionally I don't see why the employer should assist the union with automatic deductions not to mention having taxpayers (as opposed to the union) support union representative positions. If these positons are important to the union then let the members fund them and write a check every month.
People who think otherwise tend to be people who have never had to buy health insurance themselves, never mind buy it for their families. They have absolutely, positively no clue about premiums, deductibles, and the rigmarole of purchasing insurance.
I'm 44, female, non-smoker, not overweight, no major chronic diseases like diabetes or heart disease, and as any self-employed person can tell you, just for me, premiums are anywhere from $475 to $650 in New York. If I were to put a spouse and kids on the plan, that would be well over $1,000 a month. And let me tellya, they want to see your bank statements for your business if you're a sole proprietor and everything. You can't just apply and get insurance because you need it. And in New York, last I checked, short-term insurance isn't available. When I first moved up here, my choice was no insurance for the two months it took me to find a job, or a COBRA of $725 a month because my last employer in Virginia was self-insured for excellent coverage.
Now imagine being a 59-year-old 99er. Or someone who is underemployed (30 hours a week, not enough to qualify for company benefits) or who works for an employer small enough to avoid having to provide insurance, and who only makes about $35K a year. And has a family.
The new health law would force these folks to buy insurance.
At those rates.
Yeah. Sure. Must be some Kool-Aid.
Good post. I went through a lot of what Yizz mentions here, in the past -- and "racket" + "red-tape" is a good description. I can see her point that the system was/is still broken for purchasing health insurance on your own (long or short term). COBRA and other short-term emergency insurance options make you pay big, go without insurance or jump through hoops to acquire the necessary coverage. The biggest issue I think is how to make health care more affordable, without sacrificing quality? I don't think Obamacare will address that and I'm pretty sure all of our premiums will be rising when it kicks in. It seems that somehow this bill became geared toward higher profits for Big Pharma... Whatever happened to Republicans repealing it?
I don't think I'd be for free-healthcare-for-all though, as that does not work well in all cases. Michael Moore's Sicko resorted to puffery and only showed the good side of socialized medicine, while ignoring the bigger picture of how a lot of those drugs that appeared "free", were invented in the first place. Not to mention service and wait times would worsen (think DMV circa 1995) if something like this happened here. There has to be a middle-ground somewhere between that and what we have now.
On the WI governor, I think he's doing what needs to be done to balance the budget. I applaud him for this. He's looking out for the beaten-down taxpayers, you know, the ones that are paying the bills to run the state.
Good post. I went through a lot of what Yizz mentions here, in the past -- and "racket" + "red-tape" is a good description. I can see her point that the system was/is still broken for purchasing health insurance on your own (long or short term). COBRA and other short-term emergency insurance options make you pay big, go without insurance or jump through hoops to acquire the necessary coverage. The biggest issue I think is how to make health care more affordable, without sacrificing quality? I don't think Obamacare will address that and I'm pretty sure all of our premiums will be rising when it kicks in. It seems that somehow this bill became geared toward higher profits for Big Pharma... Whatever happened to Republicans repealing it?
I don't think I'd be for free-healthcare-for-all though, as that does not work well in all cases. Michael Moore's Sicko resorted to puffery and only showed the good side of socialized medicine, while ignoring the bigger picture of how a lot of those drugs that appeared "free", were invented in the first place. Not to mention service and wait times would worsen (think DMV circa 1995) if something like this happened here. There has to be a middle-ground somewhere between that and what we have now.
On the WI governor, I think he's doing what needs to be done to balance the budget. I applaud him for this. He's looking out for the beaten-down taxpayers, you know, the ones that are paying the bills to run the state.
As far as the WI Governor, the Unions have agreed to the exact concessions that Walker campaigned on. The Collective Bargaining issue is something entirely different and is what the protests are over.
As far as the WI Governor, the Unions have agreed to the exact concessions that Walker campaigned on. The Collective Bargaining issue is something entirely different and is what the protests are over.
Good, this will weaken their stronghold on the country, the unions are too big anyway. They need to end this collective bargaining crap where special interest union groups are essentially blackmailing politicians with unreasonable demands, otherwise they threaten to vote him/her out. These unions in NY are the worst.. We're going on 5 years of deflation/stagflation for the majority of us, yet the unions have been thriving and getting all their raises and other goodies on the backs of struggling taxpayers. The more states that follow Walker's lead, the better it is for the majority.
You can take the $1000 in union dues per employee and put that toward their salaries. The unions extracted too much from WI, and WI is now facing a $3.7 Billion deficit. Why is there such a huge deficit? Please don't blame the economy -because you'd be wrong. It's a structural problem. Every state needs to pay these workers total compensation that tracks the CPI.
This is like a business trying to operate in a down economy, yet their costs rise 8% or whatever % above CPI every single year. Hence, why every union heavy state is facing similar massive budget deficits.
Good, this will weaken their stronghold on the country, the unions are too big anyway. They need to end this collective bargaining crap where special interest union groups are essentially blackmailing politicians with unreasonable demands, otherwise they threaten to vote him/her out. These unions in NY are the worst.. We're going on 5 years of deflation/stagflation for the majority of us, yet the unions have been thriving and getting all their raises and other goodies on the backs of struggling taxpayers. The more states that follow Walker's lead, the better it is for the majority.
You can take the $1000 in union dues per employee and put that toward their salaries. The unions extracted too much from WI, and WI is now facing a $3.7 Billion deficit. Why is there such a huge deficit? Please don't blame the economy -because you'd be wrong. It's a structural problem. Every state needs to pay these workers total compensation that tracks the CPI.
This is like a business trying to operate in a down economy, yet their costs rise 8% or whatever % above CPI every single year. Hence, why every union heavy state is facing similar massive budget deficits.
There is a structural deficit in WI, but it has very little to do with the Unions. Walker made things even worse when he decided to give tax breaks to fat cat CEO's, which would limit revenues causing a larger deficit than otherwise would have been. Not to mention the selling off of public lands to no-bid contracts of connecting companies, and this whole mess with his buddies at Koch Industries.
Of course he never campaigned on unhinging the Collective Bargaining Unions, likely because he knew he wouldn't have been elected if he did. Concessions are needed, no question about it, and the fact the Unions agreed to the actual concessions Walker campaigned on and Walker won't accept it shows this really isn't about the Unions. This is all about going after those who are opposed to Walker. Its pretty much all political on Walker's side the released conversation with the guy Walker thought was Koch shows this.
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