At a time when companies have to lay off workers just to stay afloat, the government’s adding further burden to businesses.
Senator Ed Kennedy has drafted a health care reform bill that would require businesses to pay for employee health insurance.
And while everyone’s caught up debating the pro and perils of this and that health care reform proposal, it doesn’t seem like anybody’s noticing the reality of the situation.
Placing the onus of health care on businesses is at its core a tax. That fact changes the context of the conversation – or it would, if anyone cared to call a spade a spade.
At the very least, it’s an increase in the minimum wage – a congressional add-on that multiplies exponentially the cost of providing employment.
As it is, businesses can’t afford to keep workers. How much more so under Kennedy’s proposal?
All of which is to say nothing of the naked inanity of the idea.
Tying health insurance to employment is like tying auto insurance to home ownership … it makes absolutely no sense to connect the two.
And yet the government is determined to intertwine one with the other because – and it really is just this simple – the government can’t possibly do all it wants to do. There’s just not enough money to fund all of the government’s people-pleasing goals.
So the government, broke and spent, has turned to businesses to pick up its slack.
The problem is that businesses themselves aren’t exactly flush right now, a circumstance that has more than a little to do with business-stifling governance.
Adding yet another corporate requirement can only exacerbate unemployment and prolong the recession.
But Congress, as usual, is interested in neither effect nor consequence. And why should it be?
After all, it’s sticking businesses with the tab …
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' June 6, 2009 at 11:03 am
The bill also limits the profits insurance companies can make. Classic Kennedy. What an asshole.
By BIN News Editorial Staff June 6, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Mandee continues to amaze (not) our staff with her shallow writing.
She seems to think she is an expert on everything from gay penguins and to health insurance and the economy.
Mandee, did you ever re-take the bar exam? Keep trying.
By Liberty for me June 6, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Is there such a thing as tumor fertilizer??..I will gladly buy some.
By liz June 7, 2009 at 6:19 am
Insurers run America, right into the ground, being greedy as all get out.
Let’s all drop insurance. If we all do it, no hospital, doctor, clinic, nursing home, laboratory,PT business, gets paid.
Let’s do it.
Let’s put the people closing America OUT OF BUSINESS>
then we can resume business as usual, with INSURANCE COMPANIES out of the mix.
Things used to be better without insurance than they are now with it.
By reprobate June 7, 2009 at 8:36 am
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
—–BIN News Editorial Staff: Please copy and paste this for your next 5 posts.
By Pat Hendrix June 7, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Getting a little ahead ourselves, Mande? The “government” has not introduced a bill, Ted Kennedy has. It is also completely different than proposal of the president.
By the way, what is your proposal for double digit inflation in the insurance industry? Complaining is not a solution.
By bill June 7, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I have studied this, and the intent of the gov’t in DC is to tax their way out of this problem, and several others.
I will reduce my staff by 25 percent by the end of the summer. There are multiple business models for each company. The one I prefer and willingly use emphasizes growth. My new one emphasizes profit to me.
I refuse to give my life’s work to Obama.