"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...

Even those "millions" have access to health care. What they don't
have
is
health care insurance and many of them CHOOSE not to.

There's a difference between access to health care and (practical)
access
to
health care insurance, particularly for poor or middle income people.

Fact is, the majority of poor people work at
low wage jobs. They are on the battle lines of American commerce,
actually
delivering the services or building the widgets at $10 an hour, or often
less.
These jobs rarely include health insurance any more. When you're paying
$1000-1200 a month for a worker's wages, adding 30, 40, 50 percent
to that total to fund health insurance doesn't make economic sense.


Gould, we already know most of the prerecorded responses which will be
forthcoming from Dave, NOYB, etc. For instance, "Well...then 'they' can
better themselves and get higher paying jobs if they don't like the ones
they already have. I picked myself up by my bootstraps!"

Actually, I blame the insurance companies for making the insurance
unaffordable. Of course, thanks to the McCarron-Ferguson Act, they operate
under different rules than the rest of us...making them exempt from many
anti-trust laws.

The Bush Administration is tackling this issue from the right direction.
First, he's squeezing the trial lawyer's profits by pushing punitive damage
caps. Secondly, he's squeezing the insurance companies by pushing
Association Health Plans (AHP's), that allow organized "groups" to purchase
competitive group plans ACROSS STATE LINES. (No longer will the insurance
companies be able to "cherry pick" the most lucrative states to operate in).
Finally, he's lowering the cost of administering the health care. How? By
insuring more people are insured, hospitals and doctors won't be writing off
the non-insured patient expenses against the patients that actually pay
their bill.

I'd love to see Congress repeal the McCarron-Ferguson Act.