Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Hidden Agenda Of Health Care Reform …. And Impacts On Small Business

OK, so there are 32 million newly "covered". Got it. No more rescissions for pre-existing conditions. Got it. "Kids" can stay on their parents plan until they're 27. By the way, when I was 27 I had a wife, two kids, a job, and a mortgage, and if anybody had called me a "kid" I think we'd have exchanged unpleasantries, but apparently the left thinks of us ALL as their kids, hence the nannyism. But I digress. . .

So, major new expenses for the insurance industry. What happens to prices when the cost of goods sold spikes? Anybody? Beuhler? Beuhler? Beuhler?

So for anybody who is economics 101 challenged, pinching the profit of insurance companies through these reforms will create a) higher prices and / or b) shortages of available insurance.

Now, for extra credit: What was President Obama's objective early on in this process? OK, it was "single payer", which means the government handles your health care. Does anybody think that by enacting a bill that will force insurance companies to either raise prices or allocate their product is an accident? Hell no. The left is hoping that when they create the "public option" with subsequent bills you are so disgusted with the actions your insurance company has taken to stay profitable and stay in business that you'll abandon them and flock to the warming bosom of ObamaCare. That is the objective. This is the nose under the camel's tent, it's intention is to drive a stake between Americans and the private sector, and to "grease the skids" for a government takeover because the insurance companies are "just to greedy" to work for no profits.

This is an historic change, but it's only the first of many that will transform America into a country those of us who love the constitution don't recognize.

Of course much of my focus was on the small business implications of the Health Care Reform Bill.

The tax breaks for small enterprises setting up coverage for their employees will be welcomed, but the mandate to do so will be not be. Most of my friends plan to pass the cost on to the customer (be it an agency in government contracting or a consumer in the commercial venues). Or …. Lay people off so they’ll have a staff size they can afford to pay healthcare for. A good number plan to just pay the fine … since it’s cheaper than paying for the health care of their employees. Not exactly what Obama, Reid, and Pelosi et al had in mind is it!

The program's flagship “claim” is that it will reduce the cost of health care by billions …. well we shall see.

Unfortunately what most don’t understand ….. is that there is no real "change" until 2014. Except for the higher taxes we will be paying now.

An albatross around the neck too is that this bill in unconstitutional. You cannot mandate that someone buys anything. But that is the nanny state that we are moving closer and closer to. They are telling us what we can eat, what we can drink, what we can drive, what we can buy. Freedom is what this country was founded on and Americans despise the notion of anybody forcing us to do anything.

So was this bill historic? Yes, but not in the way Washington, Adams or Jefferson would want. But they were all racist, slave trading bigots, right?