"NOYB" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
The last I checked hospitals HAVE to
service people (by law) no matter what their ability to pay.

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Yes, and those highly inflated "emergency room" costs eventually become
bad debt.

There's a healthcare practioner in town who shattered his arm, and needed
several surgeries to correct it. Medical bills stand at $30k.
Fortunately for the hospital, he can afford it and will pay his bill.

Why doesn't he carry insurance? Essentially, because he's a tightwad.
He's severely overweight, and didn't want to pay the astronomical premiums
that medically underwritten individual health plans were charging. But
he's counted among the "uninsured"!

There's a simple solution that would have helped this guy: Association
Health Plans (AHP's)...which are now before Congress with the name "Small
Business Health and Fairness Act". The SBHFA would have allowed him to
join a group plan negotiated by the American Dental Association on a
national level. His premiums would have been more reasonable, and he
would have been insured.

Bush favors the bill, and the House passed it on the first go-around in
March 2003. It then sat in a Senate review committee and never came out
of committee with a recommendation. It just died. It's alive again, and
will hopefully pass this time:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/app...506070327/1046

Senators from states that already have cheap insurance premiums, and
senators from states with a lot of insurance company headquarters (hint,
hint...ahem...Massachusetts) strongly oppose the bill. Unions oppose the
bill, because they already *have* legislation to give them these rights.
So do corporations and government employees.

All groups in opposition to the bill know that as small business premiums
go down, their premiums will likely go up. That's why they're so opposed
to it. However, I've read that 63% of people work for small businesses.
They should get the same advantages currently available to corporations,
government employees, and labor unions.

More on the plans:


Bush pushes plan to help small businesses with health insurance

by Janet Nester

In an effort to help small-business owners provide better health
insurance for their employees, President George W. Bush pushed for
"association health plans" Wednesday.




June 9, 2005 (AXcess News) Washington - In an effort to help
small-business owners provide better health insurance for their employees,
President George W. Bush pushed for "association health plans" Wednesday in
a speech to the Associated Builders and Contractors conference.

The plans would allow similar small businesses to unify across
state lines and sell health insurance through their trade associations to
small businesses.

In a speech that focused on Social Security reform, the economy,
foreign relations and energy plans, Bush won applause from several hundred
contractors when he said AHPs could help small businesses.

"It means that, if you're a small business in Texas and you're a
small business in New Jersey, that you can be in the same risk pool if you
share the same type of industry," Bush said. "Obviously, the more people in
the pool, the more you spread risk, the lower the cost. ... Congress ought
to allow small businesses to join together so they can buy insurance at the
same discount that big businesses get to do, for the sake of health care for
small businesses and their employees."




http://www.axcessnews.com/business_060905.shtml

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You want to know which senators have been "bought" by the insurance
companies and labor unions? Then watch who votes against this legislation!

" The AFL-CIO strongly opposes the legislation, arguing that it would
not make insurance more affordable, said JoAnn Volk, a legislative
representative with the group. "