Mattress Answer Man Speaks

Some of the information in this article came from 2000 which is very important to the discussion today. The first thing you will notice is that for the next eight years this problem while still growing was ignored by the government. You will also notice that the very things the Republicans are telling us to do were shown not to work in the report they had compiled. These are the same group of politicians that are considered the party better at national defense. Before I go into the main purpose of this I would like to digress to a short article in the Air Force Times that shows a side of this discussion that has been ignored.

Today the Republicans offered their health plan. Waiting until the Labor Day break was over so there wouldn’t be the same uproar at their town hall meetings.(At least some of the Republicans had town hall meetings like Senator Grassley of Utah who allowed his to be televised while others took cover of with one sided statements and questions for the participants like representative Gerhart from Pa). They have been telling the American public that we shouldn’t rush this that we have to get it right. This study was presented in 2001 and has been going on since. Tonight the Republicans accused the Democrats of play politics while not looking at the future. After reading this whole report and some of its references  I would like to say they are right about not looking forward and playing politics but they have the wrong party.

I would like to also clear up a few things about their accusations. The post office and the railroads are not failures. For that matter neither is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack. In the private sector many businesses run at a loss while still earning money. Those losses are a result of fluctuations in the economy or even fluctuations by season. When these companies need money they either borrow it or the sell stock. The Government sponsored companies have to go to congress for money not the banks. These companies are not free to raise prices and in some cases they can’t change products or services without approval. Their wages for management are controlled and rarely do they get the best talent. These entities would be ok if the Republicans would try and make them work instead of under funding them while they are in power. Even worse is the fact that the Board of Directors (which is congress) haven’t done their job of overseeing for over eight years. These were also not set up as businesses having to show a profit or even break even. President Obama wanted the Government option to pay for itself therefore being set up very different from the others. The conservatives would have you believe that because these entities need an influx of money from time to time that they run different from other types of business. Let me pose this question. How much do you think Brown would charge to deliver your mail? Here is another If we cut off the subsidies to Amtrak Which helps the East Coast should we do the same for the farmers of the Midwest?

The first thing I believe the conservatives get wrong is the premise of choice when it pertains to insurance. The basic is that the well pay for the sick so that when the well become sick they are covered are covered by the ever changing group. In a sense you are saving for the future buy buying it when you are fit. The first problem is for profit health insurance because the pool of money is lessened buy the removal of profit. If you eliminate the profit motive you automatically can either reduce cost or expand coverage. They try and use auto insurance as an example. Most state require auto insurance as a prerequisite to being able to drive. Your choice then is to buy insurance or use other methods of transportation. Using this logic the choice becomes simple for anyone who is not rich, buy health insurance and live. Don’t buy the insurance and die.
The next misconception is that of choice under the present system. You get to choose your insurance if you own the company or are an officer of a company otherwise your choice is made by your employer. The (terrible) unions negotiated health benefits and forced other employers to offer insurance to compete. At one time in our history labor was the scarce resource in our country and benefits(non taxable income) were the drawing card. The excess of these benefits in the long run made our products less competitive in the world market. Corporations do not care about anything but profit  so they move their production to areas where they don’t have to offer benefits and can keep the money to themselves not sharing it with workers.
So protecting the free market someday will mean protecting no market but that is another topic. The fact is that companies will for the most part purchase what is best for them not necessarily what is best for you.
The next post will break down the republican program showing its strong points and weaknesses.